Report on Human Resource Management of Unilever: Analysis and Review

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Unilever's human resource management (HRM) practices. It begins with a company profile, highlighting Unilever's position as a multinational consumer goods retailer. The report then delves into Unilever's performance review processes, discussing how line managers are involved, the frequency of reviews, and the use of self-appraisal. It also examines the recruitment and selection process, including job advertisements, application screening, and the use of social media. The report further explores the theoretical underpinnings of Unilever's HRM, including Goal Theory and Expectancy Theory. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the importance of integrated processes and effective decision-making in recruiting the right candidates. The report references relevant academic sources to support its analysis.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human resource management of Unilever
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Table of contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Company profile.........................................................................................................................2
Performance review...................................................................................................................3
Recruitment and selection..........................................................................................................4
Theoretical considerations.........................................................................................................4
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The human resources in an organization are the employees, who are the assets for the
company’s productivity. Management of the employees relate to the provision of safe and
congenial workplace environment, from which they can learn the basic managerial skills.
Audits, evaluations and reviews of the performance exposed is effective for deducing
relevant conclusions regarding the standards and quality of the working conditions (Bratton
and Gold 2017). This assignment attempts to shed light on the human resource management
practices of Tesco, with the main emphasis on the performance reviews, recruitment and
selection process. Application of the theories is effective in terms of delving deeper into the
causal effect relationship in terms of mapping the impact of the policies on the productivity
of the organization.
Company profile
Unilever has achieved accolades and glory by emerging as one of the reputed
multinational groceries and merchandise retailer. It is a public sector company, operating
under the consumer goods industry. The headquarters of the company is in England,
however, the location of operations are spread worldwide. The organization has enough in
store for influencing the purchasing decision and power of the clients and customers
(Unilever.com 2020). As a matter of specification, the organization caters to the products of
beauty and personal care, food and refreshments and cleaning products. According to the
annual report of 2019, the annual revenue has been estimated as 51.980 million pounds. The
operating income was accounted as 2206 million pounds. The net income was recorded to be
8708 million pounds. The major drive behind this is the skilled efforts of 155000 employees
(Unilever.com 2020).

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Performance review
Performance management systems are an agent, assisting the staffs of Unilever to
measure the extent to which the performance align with the identified goals and objectives.
Inclusive practices are undertaken for the broadening the scope and arena of the decision
making process. Synthesis of the practices and procedures is one of an important activity,
which helps in mapping the position of the company in the competitive ambience of the
market. Strategic planning is adopted for addressing the gaps in the duties and
responsibilities. As a matter of specification, DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst (2016)
highlights that line managers are involved in the performance review process, which is done
through the consideration of time and convenience. Here, time is an essential factor for
conducting the reviews according to the plans and requirements.
The first review is conducted three months after the appointment. After this, the
performance review is done on an annual basis. In case of the review process, the employees
are involved in a self-appraisal exercise, which provides an insight into the approach towards
the exposed performance. The reviewer is intimated at least three days before the meeting,
which acts assistance in preparing the relevant documents. The managers collaborate for
preparing their own assessment, which results in the formulation of the strategies and plans
for successfully reviewing the performance of the staffs (Sparrow, Brewster and Chung
2016). Discussion sessions are held by Unileverwhere the goals and performance are linked
for making estimations regarding the future business processes, which needs to be adopted
for fulfilling the goals and objectives.
. According to Morgeson, Brannick and Levine (2019), this performance review is
perceived to be an ineffective administrative exercise, as collaborative attempts are needed
for conducting strategic planning, which is not always possible and leads to conflicts, due to
differentiation of opinion. In the review process, the Unilevermanagers raise the aspect of

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appraising the staffs for boosting their morale and confidence. The aim behind this is luring
the employees towards the services for extracting maximum labour. Performance appraisal
systems are also used in terms of managing the performance with the consideration of all of
the parameters like performance, extra initiative, productivity, behaviour and others (Berman
et al. 2019).
The performance management review of Unilever is also conducted through the
means of scientific management approach proposed by Frederick Taylor. Here, the main aim
is on the labour productivity and its impact on the enhancement of the standards and quality
of the processes.
Recruitment and selection
The recruitment and selection process of Unileverrevolves around defining the job
requirements through advertisements. Selecting the means of social media marketing is
effective for increasing the trafficking of the audience towards the brand image. As a matter
of specification, the process starts off with collecting the applications, shortlisting the
candidates, screening and offering employment to the desirable candidates. The final stage is
that of the feedbacks, which helps in ensuring whether the candidates have been provided
with the appropriate measures and equipment. Competency modelling is used for mapping
the judgmental capabilities of the staffs to influence the behaviour of others. According
to Bailey et al. (2018), the briefing sessions consists of providing strategic insights into the
organizational design, resourcing and talent planning. The recruited employees of Unilever
are provided with induction training, where the staffs are briefed about the policy benefits,
performance rewards, employee engagement and others. Social media marketing is the main
agent, which differentiates the traditional and contemporary approach towards recruiting the
staffs. Websites are also used for disseminating essential information about the job
requirements and design. Functional specialism is used for improvising the standards and

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quality of the recruitment and selection policies, which attracts the candidates to the brand
image (Morgeson, Brannick and Levine 2019)
Theoretical considerations
Theories like Goal Theory of Locke and Lotham and Expectancy theory by Vroom
are relevant in the process of reviewing the performance of the staffs of Unilever. According
to the Goal setting theory proposed by Locke and Lotham, the performance can be reviewed
against realistic and achievable objectives. The five principles of this theory are clarity,
challenge, commitment, feedback and task complexity. Stewart and Brown (2019) are of
the view that in the workplace like that of Unilever, the goals can be segmented into content
and intensity. Content is considered to be the outcome of the operations and the intensity is
the agent, which helps in accomplishing the tasks. According to the propositions of Locke
and Lotham, the process of accomplishing the goals is to be perceived as a process towards
enhancing the scope and arena of the capabilities and not just an outcome. In this context,
employee engagement is the aspect, which constitutes towards empowering the staffs towards
their professional development. As argued by Morgeson, Brannick and Levine (2019),
Vroom’s expectancy theory is the result of the process undertaken for accomplishing the
identified and specified goals. Applying Maslow’s X and Y theory to Unilever, it can be
stated that labour productivity is valued upon providing motivation, which drives their
performance towards empowerment.
Conclusion
The review process is conducted through the consideration of the integrated process,
where appraisal of the staffs by the managers is the initial process. The reports of the
appraisal is archived for tracking the records. Performance management systems are used
by Unilever for estimating the outcomes of the performance for enhancing the standards and

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quality of the performance. Supervision of the board panel and the managers helps in
undertaking effective decisions for recruiting the right candidates.

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References
Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic human resource
management. Oxford University Press.
Berman, E.M., Bowman, J.S., West, J.P. and Van Wart, M.R., 2019. Human resource
management in public service: Paradoxes, processes, and problems. CQ Press.
Bernardin, H.J., Russell, J.E. and Bernardin, H.J., 2007. Human resource management: An
experiential approach. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
DeCenzo, D.A., Robbins, S.P. and Verhulst, S.L., 2016. Fundamentals of human resource
management. John Wiley & Sons.
Morgeson, F.P., Brannick, M.T. and Levine, E.L., 2019. Job and work analysis: Methods,
research, and applications for human resource management. Sage Publications.
Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Stewart, G.L. and Brown, K.G., 2019. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.
Unilever.com 2020. About us. Available at: https://www.unilever.com/ [Accessed on 12th
March 2020]