Human Resource Management Report: Unilever and HRM Practices

This report provides an in-depth analysis of human resource management (HRM) within the context of workforce planning, change management, organizational structure, and talent development, using Unilever as a case study. It explores the crucial role of HRM in facilitating organizational growth, expansion, and ensuring effective recruitment and selection processes. The report examines the effectiveness of recruitment and selection strategies, emphasizing compliance with the Equality Act. Furthermore, it delves into the impact of staff development and talent management on employee performance, supported by relevant models. The report also discusses the significance of effective HR systems in achieving organizational goals. The analysis highlights how Unilever leverages HRM practices to optimize its workforce, manage change, and maintain a competitive advantage in the consumer goods market. The report underscores the importance of a people-centric approach in driving organizational success and growth, with a focus on employee motivation and engagement. It also includes sections on the recruitment and selection process and the importance of the Equality Act 2010.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
Role of human resource management in context workforce planning, implementing change,
growth, expansion and organisational structure..........................................................................3
Effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process with consideration of purpose and
complies legislation requirement of Equality Act.......................................................................5
Impact of staff development and talent management on employee performance with the help
of best models.............................................................................................................................8
Effective HR systems ...............................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................12
REFERNCES:................................................................................................................................13
Books and Journals:..................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is the important management activity that focuses
understanding of human resource behaviours and their actions. Human resource is the key
element of success and growth of business because a organisation can run only be people and for
people. They are always make strategies and policies which suited to the organisation as well as
human resources (Esfahani and et. al., 2017). Human resource plays a crucial role in organisation
because it includes employing people, giving proper training program, nice salary and perks,
developing policies and strategies to retain them. It is identified that they are many factors that
affect human resource because they are living beings who feels everything. It is very tough for
HR manager to mange their emotions. Every individual has their personal goals that should be
integrate by HR manager with HRM practices towards organisational common goals. So they
should be take some initiatives in recruitment and selection strategies order to achieve
organisational objectives. In this context, Unilever is undertaken for showing the importance of
human resource management in the organisation. Unilever ranked in top 2000 Leading
Companies in survey of Forbes, where they earn one billion euros as revenue. It is the
multinational company that run their business in many countries. It is very important for
Unilever that they take corrective actions in order to achieve objectives.
MAIN BODY
Role of human resource management in context workforce planning, implementing change,
growth, expansion and organisational structure.
Human resource management is the process that recruits people who are suitable for
success of organisation. Unilever is the large organisation that run their business all over the
world. They need proper strategies and policies which helps in motivating and encouraging them
for accomplishment of goals (Fan and et. al., 2021). Unilever presents 190 countries, in which
they recruit 174000 people and gather 400 brands. It is the company which always focuses on
making their human resource efficient. They invented a device so that they can tracked
employees job satisfaction and motivation. It is very necessary for organisation that they tracked
which helps in creating more strategies and policies for more motivation. Motivation for
employees is very necessary as it assist in attainment of strategic goals. Human resource
management is very important that can be understand with the following points:

 It creates a perfect organisation culture that assist in motivating each and every
employees that they give their best in order to achieve goals. Organisational culture is
very important, it includes company standards, guidelines and procedure which allows
employees to work in the give culture (Wahyuni and Syamsir, 2020). Human resource
management makes confirm that culture match with human resource so that they can
achieve their goals and objectives.
 It really helpful in removing conflicts between human resource or employees. Every
person has different perceptions that create conflicts between employees. If organisation
face many conflicts then it reduce productivity of employees, that's why they can
practices HRM.
 It reduces employee turnover ratio which become the most important issue nowadays. It
is identified that organisations are facing a problem of continuous rising in employees
turnover ratio which is not good for their growth. It can be reduce and remove with the
help of HRM practices.
Apart from above benefits it plays a significant role in many aspects such as workforce
planning, implementing change, growth and expansion of company, organisational structure, etc.
all are very important factors that can explained in below points:
Workforce planning
Unilever is very large organisation that recruit many employees so that's why they need a
proper workforce planning (Sayadi and et. al., 2017). Workforce planning is the process in which
Unilever analyse the need of workforce in company and recruit right person with right
knowledge and skills. It is complex process for organisation because in this process HR manager
need to identify the need of workforce in organisation and then create vacancies for fulfilling
those positions. It becomes more complex for large organisation as they require higher number
of employees. HRM is very important in workforce planning as it helps in reducing the
complexity of of recruitment and selecting of person.
Implementing change
Unilever sometimes ago decide that they want to use only renewable resource, it is not
easy for organisation to implement the change. Change is the factors that easily not acceptable by
employees. Change is not a simple things because it affects on many things such operations and
functions of organisation. HRM helps organisation that employees accept the change effectively

and efficiently so that they can achieve their objectives. They always looking forward to apply
some policies in order to accept changes in organisation.
Organisational structure
Human resource management plays a significant role in the organisation structure
because employees need to fit in structure that is made by top management of company.
Organisation structure can be many types that depends on the reaction of employees. For
example, if employees doesn't want too much restrictions then company never choose hierarchy
structure because this structure takes a proper hierarchy in which no one single person is allowed
to consult with any other person or department (Zhang and et. al., 2019). Organisation structure
has very important for human resource because it assign duties and responsibility to each and
every person. So every person need to agree with the allotment of duties that they are agree with
them.
Growth and expansion
Unilever want to become the leader of the consumer goods market in the world. That
means that they want to increase their business at global level. It can be done with the help of
growth and expansion of organisation operations in all over the world. It can be possible only
when all employees of organisation agree with the decision of expansion because it directly
affect them. So their permission is very important for the organisation's success and growth. It is
analysed that human resource management performs an action that helps to make them agree that
they accept decision of expansion (Uwizeye and et. al., 2018). It is identified in Unilever that
they run their business with a commitment that they run their business with people centric
approach. This approach tells that they want to recruit and retain their talented employees in the
organisation.
From the above discussion, it is analysed that human resource management plays a
crucial role in organisation. It is identified that there are some special elements which includes
structure of organisation, growth and expansion, change and workforce planning. All are very
important for organisation and influenced by human resource practices which automatically
include the role of HRM.

Effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process with consideration of purpose and
complies legislation requirement of Equality Act.
Human resource management perform recruitment and selection process in the
organisation. In this function they recruit a person who are suitable for organisation's success and
growth. It is very important functions because in this function all employees are recruited who
perform the duties and responsibilities in order to achieve organisation goals and objectives.
Recruitment and selection process should be effective so that HR manager appoint talented
employees that have high productivity and efficiency (Bisharat and et. al., 2017). It can be more
clear with the help of separate explanation of each process that are mentioned below:
Recruitment and selection process: It is the process in which Unilever invites
candidates for taking their interview rounds so that company can analyse their skills and
knowledge. It is important process in which company invites a pool of candidates according to
their requirement. Selection process helps in selecting employees after the recruitment process.
In selection process they get higher and give training by organization to the employees so that
they can build skills to perform better. They invite people with the help of internal and external
sources. Both sources play important role. Internal sources refers to invite the person through
reference given by existing employees. They give right name of the candidate because they know
the requirement of company. It is very important for organisation that they get their talented
employees because of this process (Chayomchai, 2020). With the help of external source of
recruitment organisation get talented employees. It helps in giving new ideas that may be more
creative from experienced one. It recruits fresh youth which has a great knowledge of new ideas.
Recruitment and selection process should be effective so that they can recruit talented and skilful
employees. Effective recruitment and selection process always look both sources of recruitment
such as internal and external. It encourages current employees that they invite other candidates to
come in their organisation for the purpose of job. There are many benefits of effective
recruitment and selection process that can understand with the following points: Skilful employees: In this new era every organization want that they give innovative
products to their customers so that organisation can satisfy the needs and wants of
customers. It helps in increasing sales and profitability of the company so that's why they
need skilful employees. Unilever always focusing on effective recruitment and selection
process so that they get skilful employees.

 Competitive advantage: It helps in taking competitive advantage with the help of talented
employees. Skilful employees are able to perform with high productivity. Recruitment
process higher competitive employees that give tough competition to other organisations.
They give their best with the help of effective and creative ideas. It is very necessary for
organisation because day to day competition get rises at a fast speed. So that's why
recruitment helps in giving tough competition to the other organisation. Increase productivity and performance: It is the other benefit that taken by Unilever
with the help of effective recruitment process, they get higher productive employees. In
the effective recruitment and selection process employees get training that increase their
capabilities and productivity (Bag and et. al., 2021). Their increase productivity and
efficiency becomes very helpful for Unilever as they give best performance to the
organisation so that they can achieve their goals and objectives. Their performance and
productivity is the reason of success and growth of organisation so that's why Unilever
provide training programs to achieve organisational objectives.
 Deal with change: It is identified that organisation face many complexity due to
continuous change in business environment. That's why business environment is known
as dynamic environment. There are many factors that affect on organisation's success and
growth that arise due to changes. These changes creates problems and issues for Unilever
and that's why they need those employees that are more comfortable with acceptance of
change.
All above benefits shows that effective recruitment and selection process is very
necessary for organisation. It is analysed that apart from this discussion there is some important
subject matter that should be discussed. It is identified from the report of Unilever that they
perform recruitment and selection process in such a way that they complies with legislative
requirements that comes under Equality Act.
Equality Act, 2010
It is the act of UK that protects people from the discrimination that done by organisation
in the work place. It should be followed in each and every company so that they complies with
the all requirements of Act. It is the Act that replaced many previous anti-discrimination law. It
is the law that helps in making the law easy to implement which protects employees right in the
organisation. This law is properly followed by Unilever that can be clearly show from their

human rights report. In this report they shows the activities that perform so that they can protect
the rights of individual who work for their organisation (Arredondo-Soto and et. al., 2019). This
acts helps employees from direct and indirect discrimination which include harassment. Unilever
build their business on the foundation of human rights. They always consider equality in the
process of recruitment and selection process. It can be better understand with the help of
following points: Equal opportunities: It is identified in Unilever that they give equal opportunities to
male and female while recruiting and selecting employees. It is necessary for
organisation because in many organisation it is analysed that they are doing wrong with
female. They are not giving equal opportunity to female candidates. But Unilever always
focusing on maximizing opportunities to female and male person equally. Transparency in salary and perks: Unilever focuses on transparency that present in the
organisation so that their employees feel confident and happy. It is very necessary for
employees that where they work they should know all operations and functions done in
organisation. Transparency helps in reduction of inequality in organisation. For this
purpose Unilever provide equal pay to the employees without any bias.
 Training programmes: Unilever provide equal opportunity to employees while they are
giving training program. With the help of training they need a proper guidance of trainer
and sometimes it is analysed that trainer give advices to their favourite one's.
It is analysed that Unilever try to improve their recruitment and selecting process with the
use of equality. But apart from this, it is recommended that Unilever should develop some more
opportunities for employees so that they can improve their productivity (Nejati, Rabiei and
Jabbour, 2017). They can be improve with the help of performance appraisal program. It is also
recommended that they need to check employees' performance on weekly basis that they are
giving their best or not. Recruitment and selection process should be checked that organisation
complies all rules and regulations in both process.
Impact of staff development and talent management on employee performance with the help of
best models.
The success of an organisation depends on the performance of employees. The better the
employees perform in an organisation the more are changes of profitability of the company. It is
important for an organisation to focus of employee's performance so that they can achieve their

goals and objectives. To enhance the performance of employees it is vital to take care of their
training and development. As it helps the enhance the skills of employee. Along with managing
them properly and providing them work that they are capable of also impacts the performance of
employees positively. Below mentioned is the impact of talent Management and staff
development on performance of employee's:
Staff Development: Staff development means providing training and development to
employees so that they are able to perform effectively in the organisation. Training helps the
employees to develop their skills and enhance the knowledge. Training and development helps to
improvise the performance of employees while they develop new skills. As it is said the human
resource is considered as asset for an organisation. The organisation make efforts so that hey
performance of employees is up to date (Pavlov and et. al., 2017). If there is use of new
technology then it is important to provide them training and development so that they can
understand and gain knowledge of the concept. It will help the employees to know about the use
of technology and they will be able to help organisation to achieve the goals and objectives
effectively. It can be said that by focusing on the employees and analysing there skills. The
management can identify their strengths as well as weakness. Unilever must provide training to
employees so that they are able to overcome their weakness and by providing them training and
development. This will improvise the performance of employees so that they can work as per the
norms organisation. By developing the staff and providing them training this will directly impact
the performance of employees. Also the performance of employees will impact the profitability
of the organisation. So, Unilever provides regular training and development to staff that leads of
staff development and enhancing the performance of employees that is directly related to
profitability of company.
Talent Management: It is a continuous process that helps that helps to attract and retain
talented employees in the organisation. It involves a practice of developing skills and motivating
the employees that helps to enhance the performance of employees. Talent management is a
wider concept that is directly related to the employee's of the organisation. As the focus is on the
employees there is requirement to motivate the employees. It is evaluated that motivating the
employees helps to enhance the performance of employees. The processs starts with recruiting
and hiring the talented staff and providing them work as per their capabilities, providing them
training and development so that they are able to enhance the skills and then motivating and

directing them so that they are able achieve their goals and objectives effectively. Unilever
makes efforts to enhance to manage the talented staff in the organisation and taking measures to
retain them. It is important to motivate the employees as that directly improves the performance
of employees so that they are able to work effectively (Bauer and et. al., 2018). Unilever values
the work of employees and reward the for their good performance that helps retain the
employees as well as improve their performance. All the employees that perform effectively for
the organisation help the organisation to achieve the goals and objectives on time. Talent
Management is an effective way that enhances and boost the performance of employees.
It can be evaluated that it is vital for an organisation to focus on the employees and
enhance their performance so that it helps the organisation to achieve goals and objectives.
360 degree Performance Appraisal
The model is used to evaluate the performance of employees and to give feedback to
employees so that they can enhance their performance. This model helps employees to evaluate
form a career path for them (Nwachukwu and Chladková, 2017). The feedback helps to know the
weak points of the employees and also the strong once. The areas that require training and
development are identified through feedback. As the name suggests it is overall evaluation of
employee's performance. The four components under 360 degree appraisal:
Self-appraisal: It is a techniques that helps to evaluate self strengths and weakness. A
person can evaluate own self better than other and will be able to take measures.
Superior’s appraisal: The superior are the one that are at above level. It is important to
take feedback from the superiors as they are the one who know about the performance of
employees and can suggest the employees how they can improvise their performance.
Subordinates appraisals: All the employees that work at same level knows about the
employees. The now about the way of communication, maintain relations etc. They can also
suggest ways in which the individual can manage the performance and improve it (Strohmeier,
2020).
Peer Appraisals: This is another important component of 360 degree appraisals. They
help to give feedback to employee and suggest them measures that will help them.
360 degree model is helpful for evaluating and analysing the performance of employees
and that also has various benefits for the employees of the organisation. The benefits that of the
model on Unilever are mentioned below:

 The feedback of colleagues help to understand the things better and has impact on the
performance of employees (Gaudenz and et. al., 2019). The employees work effectively
and that improves the overall performance of the organisation.
 The feedback is taken as motivation by the employees and that helps them to work
effectively and achieve the goals and objectives of the organisation.
 As the employees get mix suggestions they are able to improve there performance and
that is directly related to organisational performance.
Effective HR systems
It is identified that every organization perform actions towards accomplishment of their
vision. It can be achieved with the help of formulating strategies and policies that can be
executed same. It is done by HR department of the organisation. So that's why Unilever always
looking forward to create a good HR system in which they formulate effective strategy for
employees. It is analysed that it helps in recruitment of bets employees that assist in achievement
of goals and objectives (Alzyoud, 2018). The HR is the separate department in Unilever that
perform all important activities such as recruitment, selection, training, performance evaluation,
monitor and controlling. All mentioned functions are very important to be effective because they
are the reason of success and growth of organisation.
Unilever try to make their HR systems effective so that all these functions can be
effectively performed by organisation. In their HR system they make sure that it always based on
accomplishment of goals and objectives or organisation. They simply focuses on establishment
of positive environment in Unilever where all employees perform their work with full efficiency
that just not accomplish organisational goals but also achieve person goal. Due to this factor their
employees are living for a long term period. It is necessary for organisation that they should
perform functions in such a way that assist in accomplishment of organisational as well as
individual goals. Effective HR systems helps in many things as they recruit best employees,
assigned roles and responsibility according to their skills and knowledge. It also assist in
performance appraisal to the right employees. It is crucial because of that reason employees are
not feel discrimination (Hagemann and Kirschke, 2017). Effective HR systems make sure that all
rules and regulations are properly followed by organisation so that they are always stood at
positive point. There are some points that should be kept in mind when organisation think about

their effective HR systems. Below are some points that assist in making of more effective HR
systems that helps in achievement of goals and objectives: Sickness: It is one of the most important part of the HR of Unilever. In this point HR
should be make rules and regulations regarding for the sickness of their employees. It is
very obvious that employees plays an important role in the organisation and that's why it
is the duty of organisation that they should take care about employees' sick leave (Sarker
and et. al., 2018). So that employees feel very happy because organisation make policies
for the help of employees. This factors gives a motivation to the employees that they are
important for organisation. It also assist in increasing their profitability and productivity. Grievance: It is one of the important responsibility of Unilever that they should readdress
employees' all grievances. Employees face many problems and issues in the organisation
that should be readdress by organisation so that they can take steps in order to solve their
problems. They can solve their problem with the launch of grievances readdress forum
that helps employees to solve their issues. It helps in increment in their performance.
 Performance Management: It is another thing that every organisation need to perform so
that Unilever can analyse the performance of employees. It is very necessary for
organisation that they should know the performance of their employees so that they can
take necessary such as performance appraisal. It helps in giving reward to employees
according to their performance. Performance management is very essential for the growth
of employees and their high productivity (Sumah and Baatiema, 2019). They get motivate
with the help of performance appraisal and organisation get productivity.
It is analysed from the above discussion that every employees is very important for
success and growth of organisation and that's why organisation should take their HR system
effective. It record each and every employees detail information that help organisation for
evaluate their performances.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above discussion of human resource management that
organisation should have their effective HR department so that they get high performance and
productivity. Human resource development plays a crucial role in the organisation as it is the
only department that manage all activities of their employees. Human resource is the key
element of success and growth of organisation so that's why company should take necessary

steps for development of employees. Firstly it is the duty of HR manager that they recruit and
select the employees that become their key factors which helps is achievement of success and
growth. It is very crucial that recruitment and selection process should be effective and complies
all rules and regulation. Company wants that they earn higher profits but it can be possible only
when then their employees have skills and knowledge to perform. It can be developed with the
help of training and development session. For this purpose they have effective HR system.
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