Unilever's HR Practices: Impact on Strategic Goals - Detailed Report

This report delves into the critical role of human resource (HR) practices within organizations, focusing on their contribution to strategic management and the achievement of organizational goals. Using Unilever as a case study, the report highlights the significance of various HR functions such as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal, and compensation and benefits. It emphasizes how effective HR practices enable organizations to set clear missions and goals, fill vacancies with talented employees, develop future leaders, conduct motivational programs, and ultimately overcome challenges to achieve desired outcomes at both local and international levels. The report concludes that a strong HR framework is essential for strategic alignment and sustainable growth, particularly for multinational corporations operating in competitive global markets.

Individual report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................3
Human resource practices...........................................................................................................3
Importance of human resource practices.....................................................................................4
Contribution of human resource practices in strategic management and achieving
organisational goals at local and international level...................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................7
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Every organisation knows the importance of human resource practices and that's why
they make a separate department which takes care of al functions of human resource. Human
resources practices include many functions related to the human resource such as surveys,
recruitment and selection, compensations and benefits, training and development, employee
retention, and health and safety (Saks and Gruman, 2017). It is very necessary for an
organisation that they need to understand the importance of human resource functions as it helps
in achievement of organisational goals and objective. In this context, Unilever is undertaken
which is the UK based organisation that run their business at international level. It is the
multinational company which deals in consumers goods. This report will be discussing the
importance of human resource by giving examples.
MAIN BODY
TASK
Human resource practices
Human resource practices includes all those activities which are necessary for a HR
manager to conduct in order to improve the performances of employees. Human resource
practices are including many important function that are necessary to perform, such as training
and development, recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, compensations and benefits,
etc. This is identifying by companies that day by day the importance of human resource practices
is increasing due to many factors that include competition, dynamic nature of business
environment, etc. That's why it becomes very necessary for all organisations to improve their
human resource practices (Banerjee, 2017). Unilever is the multinational organisation that needs
high quality and talented employees so that they can run their business every well in the
international market. Due to their international trade, the competition is more increasing as it
includes many other companies that comes from different nation. In the case of Unilever, it is
identifying that they have many competitors in the national as well as international market. In
now-a-days, it is also identified that employees turnover ratio is increasing due to dissatisfaction
of employees, better opportunities, etc. Due to this, challenges of Unilever's HR manager are
increasing at a fast speed. So that's why it is very important for Unilever that they should
understand the importance of human resource practices.

Importance of human resource practices
Setting of mission and goals
Human resource practices are necessary in order to set the missions and goals in which
Unilever is clearing out the goals in front of the employees. It helps them to perform their duties
as now they know the goals. With the help of clear guidelines of goals and objectives an
organisation can effectively achieve their desired result as every employees are performing
according to the goals (Schenk, 2017). It is necessary for Unilever that they should properly
communicate and convey their goals to the employees so that they can effectively integrate their
personal goal with organisational goals.
Filling the vacancies
With the help of recruitment and selection function of human resource practices, it is
identifying that Unilever's HR manager can fill the vacancies that are vacant. Unilever is the
large organisation and that's why they always need talented employees which can appoint only
by effective recruitment and selection function. This is an importance practice of HR manager
because for that purpose they need to analyse the organisation need so they can decide what
resources are needed by organisation.
Developing of talent and future leadership
Unilever is the company where they are focusing on development of talent and future
leadership. For that purpose, Unilever needs to perform an effective function of training and
development. It is identifying that in this function, company needs to provide an effective
training sessions so that employees can generate their skills and knowledge.
Conducting motivational programs
HR practices also conducting motivational programs for their employees so that they get
encourage and motivated towards achievement of organisational goals and objectives.
Motivational programs need to attend by every employees and this thing need to be make sure by
HR manager.
Achievement of organisational goals and objectives
HR practices also ensure that Unilever achieve their desired goals and objectives
effectively and efficiently (Sheikh, Islam and Rahman, 2019). They can do this by motivating
and providing training to the employees. They also need to perform a performance appraisal

function that comes under in HR practices as it assist in improving organisational goals and
objectives.
Overcome with the challenges
Day by day the challenges of organisation is increasing. Challenges related to human
resource need to be solved by Unilever so that they can take competitive advantage in the
market. With the help of effective HR practices, Unilever can effectively overcome with the
challenges.
Contribution of human resource practices in strategic management and achieving organisational
goals at local and international level
It is identified by organisation that human resource practices of Unilever plays a crucial
role in strategic management. Strategic management is the process where an organisation
manages their strategy that means they ensures that every employee is effectively embedded with
the strategy. In simple words, it also means that the strategy needs to be effectively implemented
in the business practices so that they can achieve their desired results (Vuong and Sid, 2020).
Unilever is currently making a strategy in which they are focusing on sustainability and for that
purpose, they need to integrate this objective with their national as well as international
employees. Then only they can achieve their desired objectives. This can be done with the help
of formulating strategy but more important is that strategy needs to be effectively implemented
in the organisation. But it is necessary that all functions that comes under HR practices need to
be perform in an effective manner. HR practices helps organisation to manage their strategy in an
effective manner. This can be done by improving their HR function so that they can recruit
talented employees that are ready to give their best in the organisation.
It is required by Unilever that their employees should perform their duties in an effective
way. For that purpose, it is identified by an organisation that multinational organisations has
national as well as international objectives and they have to be achieve these objectives if they
want to survive in the market. In the case of Unilever, it becomes more important for an
organisation that they should improve their HR functions as then only they can achieve their
objectives. They have no option to not achieve their objectives because now they have
reputation. It is very crucial for company that they should improve their HR practices such as
effective recruitment and selection method.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the discussion of human resource practices that all functions
that comes under HR practices are crucial for the success and growth of organisation. The reason
behind is all functions are giving their contribution towards achievement of goals and objectives.
It is also analysed that it gives a great contribution in strategic management that can be seen with
the example of MNC organisation.

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals:
Banerjee, M. R., 2017. A Study Of Linkages Between Human Resource Management Practices
And SMEs Performance In Vadodara District (Doctoral dissertation, Thesis of Doctor
Philosophy. Gujarat University Ahmedabad).
Saks, A. M. and Gruman, J. A., 2017. Human resource management and employee engagement.
In A research agenda for human resource management. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Schenk, H. W. E., 2017. The prevalence and focus of formalised Human Resource Management
Practices in a sample of SMEs in the Marketing and Retail sector of South Africa. The
Retail and Marketing Review, 13(2), pp.40-54.
Sheikh, W. A. H. I. D. U. L., Islam, M. S. and Rahman, F. A. R. H. A. N. A., 2019.
Implementing Green Human Resource Management: Cost-Effective Strategies and
Tools. Journal of Entrepreneurship Organization Management, 8, p.264.
Vuong, B. and Sid, S., 2020. The impact of human resource management practices on employee
engagement and moderating role of gender and marital status: An evidence from the
Vietnamese banking industry. Management Science Letters, 10(7), pp.1633-1648.