Strategic Human Resource Management Analysis for Unilever PLC Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) practices, focusing on Unilever PLC as a case study. It begins with an introduction highlighting the crucial role of employees in business success and the importance of effective HRM. The report then delves into Task 1, explaining Guest's model of HRM, comparing it to Storey's definitions of HRM, personnel, and IR practices, and assessing the implications for line managers and employees in developing a strategic approach to HRM within Unilever. Task 2 explores the concept of flexibility, its various types, and its impact on the labor market. Task 3 examines forms of discrimination in the workplace, the practical implications of equal opportunity legislation, and a comparison of managing equal opportunity and diversity. Finally, Task 4 compares different methods of performance management, discusses approaches to managing employee welfare, analyzes the implications of health and safety legislation, and considers the impact of a topical issue on human resources practices. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and references.

MANAGING HUMAN
RESOURCE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Explanation of Guest's model of HRM.................................................................................3
1.2 Comparison of differences between Storey’s definitions of HRM, personnel and IR
practices.......................................................................................................................................4
1.3 Assessing implications for line managers and employees to develop a strategic approach
to HRM........................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Explanation of model of flexibility.......................................................................................5
2.2 Types of flexibility which may be developed by business...................................................6
2.4 Impact of changes in the labour market................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Forms of discrimination at workplace ..................................................................................8
3.2 Practical implication of equal opportunity legislation at organisation.................................8
3.3 Comparison of managing equal opportunity and diversity...................................................9
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Comparing different methods of performance management ...............................................9
4.2 The approaches used to managing employee welfare in your organization ......................10
4.3 Implications of health and safety legislation on human resources practices ......................11
4.4 Impact of one topical issue on human resources practices ................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In every business enterprise, employees play a very crucial role in surviving business
activities. They are responsible for achieving success and growth. It is the most important
responsibility of top management to manage human resource in a manner that they can be
motivated and encouraged for higher productivity (Maley, F. J., 2011). Managing human
resource is a process of controlling, directing, monitoring, and guiding of employees at
workplace for attaining organisational goals. The firm must aim to determining the best and
suitable techniques of improving and processing the overall practices of human resources. The
report discusses various measures and methods with respect of human resource management
within Unilever PLC which is well recognized FMCG corporation successfully operating in the
global market. Further, functioning of business with respect of employees in company is also
studied in present report.
TASK 1
1.1
Unilever PLC main objective is to render effective customer services and gaining best
outcomes. In order to attain excellent result by operation of business, corporation required to
identifying impressive methods and approaches for monitoring and enhancing overall
performance of workers at workplace (Stone, 2013). For attain this purpose, Unilever can adopt
the Guest model of HR management which is highly beneficial for business organisation. The
Illustration 1: Guest Model
(Source: Guest model of HRM. 2016)

mentioned model has gained in 1989 by David Guest which is dealing with six dimensions of
improving, analysing and managing HRM such as practices, strategy, outcomes, behaviour etc
(Guest model of HRM. 2016). As per this model, importance and structuring of HRM strategy is
addresses. The major objective of mentioned concept is to analysis HR functions and practices in
order to understand the objective of business enterprise.
Guest model can be linked to the strategic management of business unit. This approach
believes that worker’s performance can be improved by effective motivation and encouragement
so that organisation must focuses on personnel needs rather than the collective workforce.
Furthermore, another ways to improve HRM is to develop a flexible work environment so as
every individual can feel comfortable at workplace. With assistance of this concept, company
can focus on establishing innovative and creative thoughts for business improvement. Moreover,
with aids to Guest model Unilever can create better strategies and structure for development of
human resource management.
1.2
Objective of both the concepts such as Human resource management and personnel
management is to focus on employees and their good management. HRM is a branch that deals
with monitoring, planning, directing and controlling employees (Storey, 2014). It consists of
various types of management decision, activities and functions that are directly implement for
improving the skills and knowledge of human resource. On the other hand, personnel
management is a systematic process of an administrative record-keeping function at operational
level. It attempts to maintain fair terms and conditions of employment. Similar to this, in a year
1992, professor Storey presented a concept in which he has discussed the way of personnel
management changed in the human resource management. Storey defines a distinctive concept
with respect to HRM which are discussed as below-
 Hard HRM- As per this concept manager considers quantitative, measurable criteria,
control and performance management (Wright and McMahan, 2011). It emphasize on the
requirement to manage the people in manner that will obtain added value from them and
thus achieve competitive advantage.

 Soft HRM- As per this concept human resources are treated as a valuable assets for
business organisation and the decision of management must be takes with consideration
or by taking participation of them.
According to Storey, personnel management is based on implications of disciples, rules,
regulation for employees at workplace. It believes that employees can be effectively monitored
and controlled by adopting strict rules and disciplines in the company.
1.3
In every business organisation, employees and line manager gives their effective
contribution for gaining desired success. In the context of Unilever company’s line manager and
employees are liable to fulfil their responsibility to implement and develop a perfect strategic
approach to HRM. There are various role and responsibility of employees and line manager
which discusses below- Line Manger is a person in the management who is responsible to develop well and
sound relationship between top management and lower level management. He/she creates
the path where information are exchanged between them. For this line manger should
collect and analyse information and assess the component that are capable enough to
impact their functioning (Freeman, 2010). Further, he/she required to determine the
appropriate form of tools and techniques in order to develop operation functions and
practices.
 Employees are the key assets for growth and progress of Unilever. Company cannot
attain its determined success in the absence of human resources. Employees assists to
establish performance metric for regular innovation and improvement in the business.
Furthermore, personnel’s are responsible to identify and implement a strategic HRM
approaches for provide high quality outcomes (Guest, 2011). If corporation have well
skilled employees then their productivity will automatically high and wastage will low.
Only employees are liable to produce productivity and profitability of company so as
automatically corporation can develop effective brand image in the market.
TASK 2
2.1
In order to frequent improvement in the performance of employees as well as
organisation, flexibility is most helpful strategy. In the reference of Unilever, it has been

witnessed that cited venture required to direct their efforts on improving abilities and build
strong scope of flexibility. This term refers to various purposes such as working condition,
policies, practices, principles, strategies and norms of company (Ivanovic and Collin, 2015).
Flexibility in all mentioned terms can support to build a healthy environment at workplace.
Corporation can adopt mentioned concept for all these purposes and according to their
requirement. With assistance of flexibility, employees can feel comfortable with respect to their
working condition and business practices. Unilever manager can easily bring important changes
at workplace with help of flexibility model. Cited venture can use this concept for different
purpose. As per the survey it has been ascertained that organisation not only adopt this model to
sick personnel requirement further it can assist in retaining them for long term. It has been
ascertained that flexibility has a direct link with business culture and environment which
develops effective relationship between various departments in the management.
2.2
Organisation adopts flexibility in their business practices and functioning as per the
requirement. There are various kind of flexibility as per their business target. In respect of
Unilever there various types of flexibility can assist in progress and growth of business. Some of
this are mentioned below-
Functional flexibility is keeping the flow and direction of working. It focuses fluctuation in
increasing the numbers of people at time of necessity, occurrence in the shift timing, increasing
salaries level and delivering changes in the policies and regulation (Kakuma, and et.al, 2011).
Thus is also known as task flexibility under which organisation provides training and
development programs to their employees in order to achieve highest workforce productivity.
Numerical flexibility is related to quantitative measurement in the organisation. As per this
flexibility numbers of workers present and required are considered. Further, number of profit
margin, sales quantity are also included in mentioned concept (Koh and Sebelius, 2010). Uniliver
can adopt this type of feature in the business practices for handle the fluctuation in demand and
supply of services.
Location flexibility assists employees to work in different locations. As per this concept,
management provides the facility to employees for work from home or any other location which
is far from office (Pfeffer, 2010). In such kind of flexibility, they can be connected with office by

use of internet. This flexibility is beneficial for both organisation and employees because through
this arrangement company can reduce its office cost.
2.3
As per the above discussion it has been witnessed that flexibility is very helpful for both
organisation and employees in order to gain effective outcomes. In the reference of Unilever,
flexibility can assistance in enhancing working speed of employees as well as their quality of
performance. There are various perspectives of flexibility in employees and corporation point of
view are discussed below- Employee’s point of view- Flexibility in working condition, and working hours can be
very supportive for employees because through this they can enhance their comfort level
as well as capability of working (Dent and Whitehead, 2013). Furthermore, they can
highly motivate for effective productivity in the business unit. In addition to this they can
inspired to take initiatives for complete high level performance with assist of flexibility.
 Organisational point of view- In the reference of Unilever, gain regular innovation and
render quality services to its customers is the major aim of it. Through flexibility
company can enhance its market share and gain better customer satisfaction. Adaptability
of this concept in corporation practices evaluate the capability of company to address the
needs of potential customers.
2.4
From the above discussion it has been ascertained that adoption of flexibility is very
beneficial for Unilever Corporation. Following are some aspect which is mostly influenced by
adopting flexibility in the labour market-
 Unilever influenced by flexibility when their HR team has recruited candidates as per
their demographics variation such as location, occupation, age, qualification, gender etc.
It can be said that adoption of flexibility can be highly affect employee selection and
recruitment in the organisation (Swayne, Duncan and Ginter, 2012).
 Flexibility in working practices and working environment can great impact on the salary
and wages of employees.
 Employees statics is affect by flexibility due to the fluctuation occurred in the structure of
working and workers quantity in each department.

 Flexibility in working hours, work from home and other can increase the employee’s
satisfaction and their interest with respect of overall organisational development.
TASK 3
3.1  Equality act, 2010: This act provides legal benefit to employees so that no one can
discriminate them on basis of caste, religion, gender, disability, rich, poor, etc. Every
employee of organisation will have equal rights as all other employees working there in. Sex discrimination act, 1975: The following act was made to remove discrimination in
organisation on the basis of gender and marital status of any men or women (Hutchinson
and Purcell, 2010). This will help to promote every male and female to have equal
opportunity at the workplace. Disability discrimination act, 2005: According to this act, person with any kind of
disability will not be treated differently and will be given equal rights and benefits which
all other workers are having. Equal pay act, 1970: The act provides right to every person to have equal pay for same
job designation (5 Priorities HR Can’t Ignore in 2015. 2015). At some places, it is
mentality of persons that men should have more wages than a women, so this law acts as
a legal cover against such kind of differences.
 Race relation act, 1976: The act declares it illegal to discriminate any person on the basis
of caste, colour, nationality or ethnicity. As in any organisation, employees come from
different regions and culture so any discrimination on such basis is completely illegal.
3.2
In Unilever, legislation of equal opportunity is taken very seriously and as a guiding
principle for organisation. It believes that fairness at workplace is the foundation of growth and
development of any business no matter wherever it is located (Maley, 2011). Manager of
mentioned company has taken measures to promote welfare for employees by providing human
rights, genuine compensations, and other health and safety benefits. Also, company has target to
promote these fair and equal opportunity in its global branches where they operate. Company

believes in fairness with every employee as it is directly related to employee’s satisfaction and
continuity of business with success.
With this approach, above mentioned organisation has taken step in 2015 by publishing
its first report on human rights. After that, it is continuously striving to increase awareness on
human rights for more welfare of its employees (Lewis and et.al, 2010). Further, manager of
cited firm also keep in touch with all other branches to make sure that its policies and guidelines
are implemented effectively there as well.
Besides all these, aforesaid organisation believe that equality approach will be successful
only if there will be proper government support. As there is increase in migrant manpower and
forced labour globally, Unilever is continuously trying being committed to its policy of fairness
and do more efforts in this measure.
3.3
Managing equal opportunity and Diversity at the same time is a difficult process as both
have different phase and perspective. To understand this, difference in both approach have to be
studied as discussed below:
Equal Opportunity approach Diversity Approach
This approach is oriented towards social
justice, fairness, equal rights etc. based on laws
and acts.
This approach accepts harnessing differences
in individuals on the basis of sex, age,
personality ethnicity etc.
Goal of this approach is to rectify errors made,
and making a balanced approach (Macfarlane
and et.al, 2011).
It treats every worker as an individual with
various needs and handling those needs should
also be different for every individual.
The following approach is affected by external
forces like government, society, human rights
etc.
On the contrary, it is affected by internal
factors of work culture and organisational
structures.
This concept is useful for changing prevailing
customs and practices.
This concept is useful for changing current
work environment.

TASK 4
4.1
Performance management system is a tool by which manager and top authorities take
initiatives to review, monitor and direct employees work so as they can achieve effective
outcomes and their overall contribution in business can improved. It is a process which measures
and observe personnel's capability and talent in order to enhance overall corporation growth and
progress. With context of Unilever, HR manager takes relative measures in order to determine
the major areas where improvement is required. Furthermore, HR manger can adopt various
tools in order to measures employees’ performance. These tools are as follows-
Performance Appraisal 360 degree feedback
 In this method, HR manager,
supervisors or leader observe
employees performance and gives rates
and grades with considered their
effectiveness and efficiency (Currie,
Finn and Martin, 2010).
 It is a systematic evaluation of each
personnel efficiency. Further by this
method, management can able to know
strength and weakness of them.
 The major objective of this tool is to
maintain the record of employee’s
performance in order to determine
compensation package, salary,
incentives, bonus and promotion.
 In this method employees performance
can observe by their subordinates, co-
workers band other people who are
around them.
 The rates and grades gives as per their
efficiency. It is a type of feedback
process under which particular
individual can judge by sound people.
 Further through this measure,
employees can take opportunity to
receive feedback from other. This will
assist him/her to take necessary
changes in their work processing.

4.2
For rendering effective facility and arrangement to employees at the workplace, Unilever
Corporation can adopt various approaches which assists in increasing job satisfaction as well as
overall organisational performance. The approaches is related to their health and welfare which
aids in implementing various changes in corporation. There are various approaches which
Unilever can be adopt for improve employee welfare:
 Healthy Environment- In order to manage employees in high workload situation it is the
best way to create healthy environment at workplace (Hutchinson and Purcell, 2010).
There should be a sound relationship between all members in team so that they can share
their conflicts and issues related to working practices. Further, they can take support with
each other in work load situation.
 Healthcare policies- Health care policies and practices will assist in maintaining
employee’s health up to a certain level. Unilever Corporation required to held
responsibility in order to measure and control the working activities ODF employees as
per the regulation of health (Freeman, R. E., 2010).
 Welfare programs- In context of health care and welfare program, Unilever can reduce
employees stress and depression by render health training, yoga and meditation
programs, and other recreation activities.
4.3
Every business organisation has bounded o implement suitable health and safety policies
for their employees at workplace so that they get proper working environment and experience. In
order to improve workplace incidents, occupational health and safety government has developed
some health and safety legislation. HR manger are liable to adopt such policies with respect of
their employee’s aspects. Some of the act which can be considered by Unilever are discussed
down below- Health and safety act, 1974: As per this act, organisation is responsible to bear penalties
if any sort of fraudulent activities undertaken by business venture. Simply this act
provides safety and security to employees at their workplace (Macfarlane and et.al.,
2011).

 Working time regulations act, 1988: If employees are working for more the normal
working hour’s then compensation needs to be given in form of bonus and incentives.
This act states that employees working hour should be flexible so that they can manage
their personal and professional life.
4.4
Health and safety legislation is very beneficial to acquired new employees in the company
and develop an effective brand image in the market. In addition to this corporation should adopt
such practices and schedule so as employees can equally manage their professional and personal
life. Work life is a great extent affect the employee’s performance, there must be appropriate
balance in work life (Lewis and et.al, 2010). Apart from that corporation must be given workload
according to employee’s tolerable limit. If company gives them excessive workload then
employee’s performance can decrease and quality will be also get down. Hence, Unilever must
make sure that work load must be according to tolerable limit of employees.
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been as certificated that employees are very
important part in business organisation and their role in management activities are very
considerable. Unilever has adopted various health and safety legislation for improving working
condition at workplace. In order to render effective working condition and practices cited venture
has picked various flexibility dimensions. This report states that corporation should not
discriminate any of individual on the basis of any invalid grounds as it is reflect company's
overall productivity.

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