Human Resource Management Report: Unilever Case Study Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Unilever. It begins with an overview of Unilever, a multinational consumer goods company, and then delves into the core functions of HRM, including recruitment, selection, and maintaining a safe environment, along with the key roles and responsibilities of HR functions. The report evaluates different HRM approaches, such as the 'best fit' and 'best practice' approaches, as well as hard and soft HRM, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. It examines the importance of employee relations and engagement, and how these factors influence HRM decision-making. The report also addresses flexible working practices and relevant employee legislations. Furthermore, it explores the application of various HRM practices within the organization, including workforce planning, flexible working options, training and development, and performance management. The report aims to provide insights into how Unilever manages its human resources to achieve its organizational goals and objectives.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Overview of Unilever..................................................................................................................1
Explanation and the assessment on the purpose of HRM functions and the key roles and
responsibilities of HR functions..................................................................................................1
Explain, analyse and critically evaluate the approaches along with its strengths and
weaknesses..................................................................................................................................4
Approaches and effectiveness of employee relation and employee engagement.......................6
Comment on adoption of flexible organisation, flexible working practices as well as employer
of your choice..............................................................................................................................7
Critically evaluate the importance of employee relations in respect of influencing HRM
decision making..........................................................................................................................7
Identify the key elements of employee legislations within which a company must work..........8
PART 2............................................................................................................................................8
Application of HRM practices in an organisation.......................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management considered as a procedure of designing, organising as well
as managing and controlling the acquisition, development, integration, maintenance as well as
separation of human resources in order to accomplish the organisational goals and objectives
along with the fulfilment of individual and societal objectives (John, 2016). This kind of
management helps in showing individual's work performance and organisational departments
that are liable for managing the available resources in an appropriate manner. In this report
Unilever is chosen which is a British Dutch transnational consumer goods company that co-
headquartered in London in UK and Rotterdam in Netherlands. This company deals in food and
beverages, beauty products, personal care products etc. Under this report discuss about the
meaning of HRM, its functions and purpose, hard and soft HRM approach, approaches along
with the strengths and weaknesses of human resource practices. Along with it Study about the
benefits of practices, employee relations and engagement that influence the manager decisions as
well as elements of employee legislations and application of HRM practices in work
performance.
MAIN BODY
PART 1
Overview of Unilever
Unilever deals in the consumer goods industry which was founded in Sep. 1929 and
headquartered in two countries UK and Netherlands. It is the one of the oldest multinational
company that presents in around 190 countries worldwide and it is also a Europe's seventh most
valuable company. As of 2018, Unilever employed approx 155000 people across the globe and it
deals in many products such as beauty and health care, food, personal care, home care, cleaning
products and so on.
Explanation and the assessment on the purpose of HRM functions and the key roles and
responsibilities of HR functions.
Definition of HRM:
As per the views of Decenzo and Robbins, human resource management refers to the
dimensions of personnel management. All business organizations are successful by people, take
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their services, create skills, encourages towards high level of performance as well as insure that
their commitments are execute and objectives of the company is accomplished in an appropriate
way.
Functions and activities of HRM: Recruiting the right people for right job: A human resource manager is liable for
performing the recruitment and selection procedures appropriately as they play a crucial
role in developing the workers of an organisation. The manager of Unilever advertises
job openings, source candidates, screening, interviewing as well as coordinate with
recruiting efforts with senior manager in order to make appropriate final selection of
candidate (Huemann, 2018). Maintaining a safe environment: It is considered as a most important factor as employer
have an obligation to facilitates safe and secure workplace to employees. As the HR
manager of Unilever supports friendly and safe working environment and manage their
issues properly.
 Employer employee relations: It is related to the HR discipline with a better relationship
among employer and employees (Namazie, 2016). The human resource manager of
Unilever measures job satisfaction, employee engagement as well as resolve working
premises conflicts to build a better relationship.
Best fit approach vs Best practice:
Best fit approach Best practice
This focuses on the significance of ensuring
that human resource strategies are proper
according to the organisational circumstances
which includes culture, processes, external
environment etc. It results in taking a
competitive advantage (Delery, 2017).
It is considered as a method, activities, policies
and practices that are in used by the manager
of a company in order to accomplish the
positive changes in the employees behaviour
and company's performance such as standard
way of complying with legal requirements. It
leads to high level of motivation and employee
commitment.
Hard and soft HRM:
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Hard approach of HRM Soft approach of HRM
It is based on the performance management by
giving specific directions to employees
(Brewster, 2018). In this employee are treated
as a resources or tools like a machinery and it
is also called as a instrumental approach of
HRM.
It is related to the individual behaviours,
requirements, interest and commitments. In
this approach workers are treated as an asset of
company and it is also known as humanistic
approach.
Explain the strength and weaknesses of HRM approaches to its functions.
Recruitment: It refers as a procedure of hiring the most suitable candidate from a
large pool of candidates (Tung, 2016). In the context of Unilever, recruitment termed as a
positive approach for finding the most appropriate candidate and have broad scope for
recruiting the best one among all. There are two sources of recruitment that can be
considered as below along with strengths and weaknesses:
Basis Internal source External source
Meaning This is referred to the looking for
workers from inside the business to fill
the vacancy.
It means exploring those workers who
has not been related previously with
the Unilever.
Sources A company use former applicants,
actual employees, employee referrals
etc. for encouraging their present
workers (Williams, 2018).
For this, the company use
advertisements, e-recruitment, campus
hiring as well as employment
exchange.
Strengths It assists in encouraging their existing
employees in order to increase their
performance and loyalty as it considered
as a less costly and time saving
approach.
This will help in motivating as well as
promoting new talents along with the
innovative concepts and thoughts as it
provides a fair chance to all persons
for securing the organisational
positions.
Weaknesses It creates issues while introducing new When a company choose this source
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resources as they have different ideas
for their business operation which leads
in dissatisfaction as well as lack in
performance.
then present workers feel demotivated
as outsiders is on high position as well
as it is termed as a costly and time
consuming process (Rees, 2017).
Selection: It is referred to the selection of right candidate for a right job position at a
right time after analysing the individual skills and expertise and organisational requirements
(Stewart, 2019). Within the context of Unilever, selection process is considered as a negative
approach as in which some of unqualified applicants are rejected in order to choose best one.
Basis Personality test Interview
Meaning It is facilitating the intangible
informations about the applicants which
includes their values, personality and
work preferences as well.
It is termed as a formal discussion
between two or more individuals to
understand about the personal
information as well as background of
candidate.
Strengths It is helpful for choosing the appropriate
candidate for right job after minimising
the chances of wrong selection as it
facilitates a clear understanding towards
the applicants.
A structured format is used to
approach a large number of candidates
at a same time and also consider as a
flexible approach (Brewster, 2017).
Weaknesses It is termed as an expensive approach
and time consuming also as well as
sometimes, it may results inaccurate and
less reliable manner.
It is termed as a time consuming
approach and there is no proof is
present for the future assistance.
It has been seen that human resource practices are essential for the business organisation
as it helps in performing the organisational functions in an appropriate manner for
accomplishing the goals and objectives of Unilever. Within the context of Unilever, internal
source of recruitment is most appropriate as it is a less costly and time consuming method as
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well as the personality test as a selection method is more suitable for the company as it assist in
minimising the chances of wrong selection (Treweek, 2018).
Explain, analyse and critically evaluate the approaches along with its strengths and weaknesses.
Human resource is a important aspect for every businesses and many companies treated
their workers as an assets. Within the context of Unilever, some HR practices are discribed with
their benefits that are as follows:
 Workforce planning: It is required for managing the entire human resources of an
organisation effectively and efficiently that involves desired plan, strategies and
practices for getting appropriate solutions for identifying the gaps.
Benefits to employees Benefits to Unilever
HR line up with business practices with
strategic workers planning through providing
data protection, welfare programme, worker's
assistance, career development course of
actions and training and learning schemes as
well.
The firm get advantages from worker retention
and assists in minimising delays as well as
disruptions. The manager of Unilever aids in
problem solving plan of actions and reduce
them effectively and efficiently.
 Flexible working option: As this kind of approach provides alternatives to
completing work through some non traditional working methods which includes
hours, location as well as structure (Zheng, 2015). In the context of Unilever, this
method helps in balancing between employees personal and professional life.
Benefits to employees Benefits to Unilever
It aids in facilitating flexibility while
completing the work along with satisfying
their families requirements. It gives motivation
to workers for increasing their performance.
It helps in developing employees morale for
raise the brand image and productivity as well
as create a friendly environment at working
premises.
 Recruitment and selection: The Unilever have systematic process of hiring and
choosing employees at a right job according to their skills and qualifications in
order to fulfil the company's requirements.
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Benefits to employees Benefits to Unilever
Employees are selected for a right job at a right
time and utilise their skills and knowledge
effectively and efficiently by exercising own
specialisations as well as interests.
Large pool of applicants are getting by the
company to relate with the well-qualified
persons which will assist in minimising the
workers turnover and gain retention.
 Development and training: The HRM of Unilever plans many programmes in order
to trained and developed their employees that includes on the job training,
coaching, orientation and so on for developing the company's productivity and
efficiency (Brewster, 2017).
Benefits to employees Benefits to Unilever
Workers are developed and skilled from the
training and development programmes as well
as learned several new things which enables
them they are best fit as per the job
requirements.
Company's are able to get skilled as well as
desired employees to execute the job tasks
which directly influence the company's
productivity and profitability in a positive way.
 Performance management: It is considered as an evaluation of staff's working
performance. Human resource department of Unilever is responsible for analysing
the individual's skills and capabilities and conduct some extra activities in order to
develop them.
Benefits to employees Benefits to Unilever
Workers analyse and judge themselves by
using performance management tool as well as
it will assists in increasing their overall
personality as well as performance.
This kind of practice is helpful for the firm to
analysing the actual performance and
compared it with standard sets in order to
minimise the gap by adopting changes in a
systematic way.
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Approaches and effectiveness of employee relation and employee engagement.
Employee relations: This is considered as a organisational efforts in order to develop
and maintain a positive and strong relationship among employer and workers. This will helps in
creating better employee relations and the company Unilever hope to support their workforce in
order to highly engaged and loyal about their commitments and targets. As better employee
relations results effectively which helps in improving the company's productivity and
profitability.
Employee engagement: It is defined as a most important aspects of managing the human
resources as in which employees engaged with the company's activities in order to drive their
performance effectively. A person who is highly engaged in the Unilever's and their works then
they are likely to be motivated as well as remain committed towards their work. The employees
of a company highly engaged then it will result in high organisational effectiveness as it assists
in increasing the retention, loyalty, safety, productivity as well as profitability (Employee
engagement, human resource management practices, 2015).
Comment on adoption of flexible organisation, flexible working practices as well as employer of
your choice.
These kind of strategies impacts on employees engagement as it will result in healthier
and profitable performance of Unilever company. Within the context of Unilever several
strategies are considered as follows: Flexible organization: It is associated with the ability to adopt and responds quickly
according to the changes in external environmental factors for the purpose of getting
competitive advantages as well as sustainable development. As it allows employer as
well as employees of Unilever to create arrangements regarding their own working
conditions that suits them mostly which helps in maintaining the balance between
personal and professional work life as well as increase company's efficiency and
productivity. Flexible working practices: It is related to the work arrangements in which workers are
provided greater scheduling freedom in order to fulfil obligations regarding their job
positions. As this will assist Unilever to track the employees actions as well as can adopts
for increasing the company's performance as well as efficiency.
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 Employer of choice: In this employer offers a fantastic working culture and environment
that attracts huge number of persons and retain them for a longer duration of time. This
kind of culture can adopts by the Unilever for the purpose of well-being of workers as
well as customers which helps in improving the company's productivity and profitability.
Critically evaluate the importance of employee relations in respect of influencing HRM decision
making.
Employee relation plays an important role in managing the workers of an organisation in
an effective as well as efficient manner and it also impacts on the decision making of human
resource management. If the relationship between employer and employees are better than a
company able to attain their objectives appropriately in a profitable manner (Banfield, 2018). As
better relations assist in reducing the conflicts and increasing employees morale because the
manager is able to take effective decisions towards their workforce and its working. Whereas, in
order to engage all employees in the decision-making process leads in communication
complexity as it requires a more communication to take consistent decisions.
Identify the key elements of employee legislations within which a company must work.
Employee Legislation: It involves the various measures for protecting the employment
of a person which is in used by the employers of a company (Analoui, 2018). Within the context
of Unilever, several key aspects of employment legislations like equal employment opportunities
for all the job seekers, good working condition, safety and welfare, wages as well as trade union
that must be complied by the Unilever’s HRM decision making. Some of these are as follows: Data protection Act: The Information Assurance Act 2018 is an Accumulated Empire
Protest of Assembly that informs data insurance laws in the UK. It is a national law that
complements the European Association's General Information Security Guideline and
updates the Information Assurance Act 1998. Data protection affects Unilever’s human
resource activities like recruitment and orientations to employee record-keeping as well
as performance monitoring. Equality Act, 2010: The Regularity Demonstration 2010 is a Protest of Parliament of the
Incorporated Kingdom with the main role of joining, stimulating and enhancing the many
earlier Acts as well as Guidelines which formed the premise of violent to isolation law in
Extraordinary England. This suggests managers requirement to take a gander at their
contemporary tactics and systems to confirm that they consensus to the Justice Protest.
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Impact of employee legislation on HRM decision making:
Human resource Managers are responsible for taking alternatives classifying with the
representatives of the business association. HR of Unilever is responsible for the use of the
above-mentioned acts in the company and assure that the employees obey with these laws.
Making of other management ability is similarly the job of human resource to make sure that
these enactments are being preserved by the aspects. HR foremost within the company promise
that every one of the choices taken by them are as per the presentations supported by regulation.
This assists with structure with a hierarchical culture that behaviours movements and
interactions according to the way that is specified by law.
PART 2
Application of HRM practices in an organisation.
Person Specification
Position: HR Executive
Functional unit: Human resource department
Reporting to: Administration Manager
Attributes Essential Desirable
Qualification & Experience The applicant must have
completed the graduation from
a well known authorised
university with at least 60%
marks. Candidate must have
experience of 6 months in HR
field.
The applicants having post
graduation in management
stream and having employed
experience from an authorised
industry would be more
preferable.
Skills or Knowledge The Candidate must require
fluent communication skills as
well as written skills so that
they can integrate with
customer effectively and
efficiently as well as can also
require good
The applicant has a managing
capability in multi tasks along
with higher expertise. They
also having good
communication as well as IT
skills that is essential to
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telecommunication. manage the all departments.
Questions from a business manager
Q 1) What do you understand about the role HR executive?
Q 2) How can you exercised creativity in an HR executive?
Q 3) What is the most exciting thing about HR comforts you?
Q 4) What philosophies you choose to increase our recruitment procedure?
Q 5) Which kind of strategies and vision you would take for the betterment of business?
JOB DESCRIPTION
Organisation: Unilever
Section: Human resource department
Designation: - HR Executive
Job Address: West street, London
Job summary
A business organisation needs people for the post of HR who can able to manage all the work
related to the HR department and even they must be capable to handle front office desk in some
of the circumstances.
Role: -
Managing employee histories.
Reintroducing company policies.
Updating information of employees internally.
Formulating and alteration the employment contracts.
Job Advertisement
Customer Service Manager needed
Customer Relationship department
Applications are asked for the HR executive. For this, applicants must have skills to deal with
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