Key Challenges in Talent Management for Unilever's Marketing Sector

This project investigates the key challenges and obstacles in talent management, focusing on the marketing sector of Unilever. The project begins with an introduction to talent management and its importance, followed by the project's aims, objectives, and a detailed project management plan, including deliverables, timelines, resource allocation, and risk assessment. The work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are also provided. The research methodology, including research type, philosophy, approach, and design, is explained, along with data collection and analysis methods, incorporating both primary and secondary research. Primary data collection involves questionnaires, while secondary data includes literature reviews. The data analysis section presents findings from the research, including a literature overview, and provides a discussion of the challenges and solutions. The project concludes with recommendations for improving talent management within Unilever's marketing sector, followed by a personal performance review and a comprehensive list of references and appendices.

The key challenges and
obstacles facing different
business sectors in terms of
talent management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Project Aim and Objectives....................................................................................................3
P2 Project management Plan.......................................................................................................4
P3 Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt Chart.........................................................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P4 Project Research Methodology...............................................................................................6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P5 Data Analysis..........................................................................................................................9
P6 Conclusion and Recommendations......................................................................................14
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................15
P7 Personal performance review...............................................................................................15
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
Talent Management is basically a constant process which deals in developing the skills of
the employees, motivating them so that their performance can be improved which helps in
attracting and retaining high-quality employees. The main goals behind managing the talent in
the organisation is creating motivated workforce who will stay with the company for the long
time (Whysall, Owtram and Brittain, 2019). Unilever which is headquartered in London,
England is a multinational company deals in consumer goods such as food, cleaning agents,
coffee, personal care products, baby products, healthcare products, pet food and many more
(Unilever, 2021). The project will be based on the challenges which will be faced by the
marketing sector of Unilever in managing the talent of its employees and various
recommendations will be given which will help in meeting those challenges.
LO 1
P1 Project Aim and Objectives
Aim: To identify the key challenges and obstacles faced by the marketing sector of UK in terms
of talent management. A study on Unilever.
Objectives
 To evaluate the concept of talent management in the marketing sector of UK.
 To examine the major challenges faced by the marketing companies like Unilever in UK
in managing the talent at the organisation.
 To recommend various strategies which can help to improve the talent management at the
organisations in marketing sector of UK.
Research Questions
 What is the concept of talent management in the marketing sector of UK?
 What are the major challenges faced by the marketing companies like Unilever in
managing the talent at the organisation?
 What strategies can be recommended to the marketing organisations to improve the talent
management at their workplace?
3

P2 Project management Plan
It is a formal document which helps in defining the ways in which the project will be
carried out. It also helps in outlining the goals, scope, budget, deliverables and timeline of the
project which are much necessary to keep the project on track.
Deliverables: The project will be broken down into various deliverables such as talent
management strategies for the Unilever and the related companies in marketing sector of UK and
also deep insight about the challenges which are faced by these companies. This will help in
attracting and retaining the skilled and talented employees.
Time: The time required for the completion of this project will be 12 weeks approx. and in this
time all the tasks like deciding the objective, selecting the research methods, conducting primary
and secondary research, gaining the findings and conclusion and making recommendations
(Ørngreen and Levinsen, 2017). This help in meeting the scheduled deliverables and also
completing the project before the completion date.
Quality: The project will be able to meet the need of the customers, employees as well as the
stakeholders from the project deliverables. The activities and the processes carried out in the
project will help in achieving the quality of the deliverables.
Risk: There can be various risks during the project such as cost risks if the cost estimating
accuracy is poor, schedule risks as the activities may take longer time than expected which will
increase the costs and also performance risk if the project fails to produce the consistent results
(Snyder, 2019).
Communication: The communication between the team and the stakeholders will be handled
throughout the project effectively so that the decision making can be improved and effective.
Resources: This includes the budget and other resources which are as follows:
Particulars Cost (in £)
4

Resources 500
Travel 700
Online platforms 400
Licensing 500
Equipments and space 800
Workforce 1,000
Software 400
Contingent fund 1,000
Total 5,300
P3 Work Breakdown Structure and Gantt Chart
5

LO 2
P4 Project Research Methodology
Research type: There are two major types of research i.e., qualitative and quantitative. The
qualitative type of research deals with the words while the quantitative type of research deals
with the numbers and the statistics (Abutabenjeh and Jaradat, 2018). The researcher will make
use of both the research types in order to use the theoretical way of explanation along with the
numerical and figurative working based on the experiences and opinion of the individuals. This
will help in gaining both the theoretical as well as numerical information about the research
objective i.e. exploring the challenges faced while managing the talent at the organisations of
marketing sector.
Research Philosophy: This is classified into two major types i.e., Interpretivism and Positivism.
Interpretivism is mainly used when the qualitative type of research is done while the positivism
philosophy goes with the quantitative research type. Positivism helps in collecting the data in
value free manner, also helps in generating the objective results and helps in creating general
scientific laws. This can help in developing the numbers and equations (Dodds and Hess, 2020).
On the other hand, interpretivism philosophy helps in understanding the opinions and behaviours
6

of the people by assessing the actions, words and behaviours. The research will be based on both
types of philosophies because there is a need to analyse the experiences and opinions and also
there is a need to analyse the quantitative and numerical data. This can be done by using both
philosophies.
Research Approach: There are two major types of approaches i.e., inductive and deductive. In
the inductive approach, the researcher will make observations for collecting the data and then
develop a theory based on it while in the deductive approach, the researcher will begin from a
theory which is already made and then analyse the data and check whether the hypothesis is
supported or not (Basias and Pollalis, 2018). The researcher will make use of inductive
philosophy as there is no theory at the initial level to be tested. The conclusions and the theories
need to be made after making observations and collecting the data through various sources.
Figure 1: Inductive approach
Source: Inductive approach in research methodology, 2020
Research Design: There are various types of research design such as Experimental, Exploratory,
descriptive, correlational, diagnostic etc. The research will be based on the descriptive research
design as it is a theory based design method and helps to gather, analyse and present the
collected data (Ngozwana, 2018). This also helps the researcher in gaining deeper insights about
all the aspects of the topic which is challenges in the talent management regarding the marketing
sector in UK. The problem statement is very clear which is why descriptive design will prove to
be more efficient in gaining optimal outcomes.
Data collection: This deals in collecting the data through two major sources such as primary and
secondary. Primary data collection helps in collecting first hand or original data through surveys,
7

interviews, questionnaires etc. while the secondary data collection helps in collecting the second
hand data which is already collected by someone else from books, journals, articles, company
reports, internet research etc. The researcher will make use of both the primary and secondary
data sources for data collection (Attia and Edge, 2017). Primary data will be collected through
the questionnaire and the secondary data will be collected by analysing the various secondary
sources such as books, journals, company reports etc. and the data will be presented in the form
of literature review which will help in gaining in-depth insights about the topic.
Sampling: This deals in selecting a group from a whole population from whom the data will be
collected for primary research. This is also divided into two major types i.e., Probabilistic and
Non-probabilistic. The probabilistic sampling allows the researcher to set few criteria to choose
the respondents randomly while the non-probability sampling allows the researcher to choose the
respondents randomly in which no criteria is decided (Zangirolami-Raimundo, Echeimberg and
Leone, 2018). The researcher will use the simple random sampling of probabilistic type in which
30 employees of Human Resource department in Unilever are chosen at random and the criteria
chosen is that the respondents must belong to the HR department only as they are aware of the
talent management at the workplace and also knows about the challenges faced while managing
the talent in the organisation (Pandita and Ray, 2018).
Data analysis: Data can be analysed in two major ways which are thematic and SPSS. Thematic
analysis is used to analyse the qualitative data by making various themes while SPSS tools are
used to analyse the complex numerical data. The researcher will make use of thematic analysis in
order to analyse the data collected from primary as well as secondary sources (Dźwigoł and
Dźwigoł-Barosz, 2018). The data collected will be represented in the form of pictures, graphs
etc. which will make the information easier to understand and making interpretations from them.
This will help in gaining significant conclusions from the findings thereby achieving the
objectives of the research.
Ethical considerations: The researcher will follow all the ethics such as taking the consent from
the respondents through consent forms, declaration forms will be filled by the researcher and
8

also there is no biasness in choosing the respondents (Mohajan, 2018). The authenticity of all the
secondary sources and the data will be maintained during the data collection.
LO 3
P5 Data Analysis
Secondary research (Literature Review)
Literature Overview helps the researcher to discuss about the information which is
already published related to the topic of the research. It is considered as the summary of the
information which was searched already by the other researchers. The researcher will make use
of various secondary sources such as books, journals, research papers, articles etc. to evaluate the
challenges faced by the marketing sectors of companies like Unilever in managing the talent at
their workplace.
According to Narayanan, Rajithakumar and Menon (2019), talent management is the most
important responsibility of the HR in the companies but this does not means that having an HR
department will manage the talent. It needs the development and effective implementation of
various strategies to manage the talent at the workplace which will help in retaining and
recruiting the highly talented and skilled employees. The authors also examined that the
employees are the biggest assets of the organisations therefore talent management helps in
maximizing the value of the employees.
As per the view of Collings, Mellahi and Cascio (2019), talent management benefits the
companies in many ways such as by improving the performance, allowing the company to stay
competitive, drives innovation, helps in forming productive teams, decreases turnover and also
motivate and encourage others to grow. The companies use various strategies to manage the
talent such as hiring only the top employees, hiring the promising specialists to develop them and
many more other innovative strategies. This helps the HR of the companies to manage the talent
of the employees and also enhance their skills and abilities.
On the contrary, the authors Crane and Hartwell (2019), argued that there are various challenges
which are faced by the HR department of the company. The major challenge which is faced is
the higher demands of total compensation. It becomes very difficult for the HR to keep the
employees satisfied along with keeping the costs low. The employee needs to decide about the
9

employees who needs to be in the company and who are not worth keeping. Also, the tightening
of the talent market is also a challenge for the HR to find new personnel. The HR also needs to
develop an unappealing culture in the company along with providing perks such as flexible
scheduling, meaningful job tasks, open and relaxed communication policy and many more which
attracts the younger and talented employees.
Building blocks to the above challenges, McDonnell and et.al., (2017), also added that the HR
managers also battle against the high employee turnover ratio as the company needs to pay
regarding the recruitment costs for finding suitable investment which becomes a challenge for
the company. Lack of leadership is another obstacle in managing the talent in the company.
Primary research (Questionnaire)
Theme 1: The Company Unilever supports the HR department in implementing the talent
management practices.
Does the company Unilever support the HR department to implement the
practices of talent management?
Respondents
Yes 22
No 8
Total 30
73%
27%
Yes
No
10

Interpretation: This can be interpreted from the above figure that majority i.e., 73% of the total
respondents were agreed with the fact that the company supports the implementation of talent
management practices. This was also mentioned in the literature review that the HR needs the
support of the company in order to manage the talent effectively (Claus, 2019).
Theme 2: Various strategies implemented by HR team in managing the talent at Unilever.
What strategies are implemented by Human Resource team to manage
the talent at Unilever?
Respondents
Providing training and development opportunities 8
Providing rewards and recognitions 4
Cultivating an honest career path 3
All the above 15
Total 30
27%
13%
10%
50%
Providing training and
development opportunities
Providing rewards and
recognitions
Cultivating an honest
career path
All the above
Interpretation: The above pictorial representation interprets that almost half of the respondents
who are the employees of the HR department of Unilever believes that they develop and
implement various strategies such as providing training and development opportunities,
cultivating an honest career path and also provides rewards and recognitions. This was also
highlighted in the literature review that the company needs to develop various strategies to
manage the talent effectively (Krishnan and Scullion, 2017).
11

Theme 3: Various challenges faced by the company while implementing the talent
management practices.
What challenges are faced by the HR of Unilever in managing the talent
at the workplace?
Respondents
Encouraging the passion 3
Embracing the new interests 3
Offering impressive salaries 4
Giving engaging work 3
All the above 17
Total 30
10%
10%
13%
10%
57%
Encouraging the passion
Embracing the new
interests
Offering impressive
salaries
Giving engaging work
All the above
Interpretation: This can be interpreted from the above figure that the most of the respondents
which is more than half i.e., 57% of the total respondents believe that the HR faces various
challenges while managing the talent such as encouraging the passion, offering impressive
salaries, embracing the new interests etc. The literature review also shed light on such challenges
which are faced by the company.
Theme 4: Points to be considered while managing the talent at Unilever.
What considerations are kept in mind of the HR of Unilever while
managing the talent at the workplace?
Respondents
Fast and flexible selection process 4
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Managing the expectations of candidates 5
Using embedded technologies during talent acquisition 5
All the above 16
Total 30
13%
17%
17%
53%
Fast and flexible selection
process
Managing the expectations
of candidates
Using embedded
technologies during talent
acquisition
All the above
Interpretation: This can be analysed from the above pictorial representation that the company
needs to consider numerous points while managing the talent as 53% of the respondents were
agreed to it. These considerations include managing the candidates’ expectations, making use of
embedded technologies and making the selection process fast and flexible. This was also
examined from the views of the authors that HR needs to consider various things for effective
implementation of talent management strategies.
Findings
This could be found from the primary and secondary data collection that the HR of the
marketing companies like Unilever implements various strategies so that they can manage the
talent effectively but at the same time face various challenges which need to be met up. This will
help in recruiting and retaining the highly skilled, qualified and talented employees.
13

P6 Conclusion and Recommendations
From the above interpretations it can be concluded that increasing competition and rapidly
changing global trends are making it extreme challenging for the marketing sector to retain talent
for long term. The unappealing work culture and unsatisfactory leadership can act as key barrier
for retaining talent. Thus it is recommended that organisations must seek appropriate strategies
and models for building a productive and influencing work culture. A work environment in
which employees feel highly motivated and valued employee turnover are usually low with
improved productivity of the employees. It has been also analysed that in marketing sector due to
increased competition and challenging work demands employees often demand for high
compensations. It makes it difficult for the companies to protect and retain their talented and
groomed pool of resources from other market players. Further with the improving employment
rates companies also feel that it is challenging for them to recruit an appropriate talent which best
suits the company objective. Thus several recommendations must be followed by leading
companies in marketing filed.
It is recommended that companies must make a precise analysis of the employee work
and productivity. It will help them to give more attractive compensations which satisfy both
business objectives and needs of talented employees. Poor leadership and unattractive work
culture are also potential causes for poor employee retention (Taylor, 2018). Thus upper
management of the companies in the marketing field must ensure that their employees are
provided with a more flexible and productive work environment. The leaders must develop their
work culture in a way such that it not only adds value to the business but also allow marketers to
achieve great extent of professional development.
In the marketing sector it has been also analysed that a good proportion of the talented
candidates prefer to leave the company because they do not find any opportunity for self-
development. Thus organisations must ensure that they incorporate advance training and
development programs along with the latest technologies and marketing trends in their business
operations. This approach will not only attract new talented pool of individuals but also help in
improving employee retention rate (Gallardo-Gallardo, Thunnissen and Scullion, 2020). On
many occasions the conflicts between the marketing personnel’s and management authorities
leads to dissatisfaction and poor talent management. Thus it is very important that for good talent
management practices team building and professional code of conduct must be followed
14

effectively. When individuals are not able to seek greater support from their leaders and other
team members then it results in talent distraction and company is not able to withhold talent for
long term. Thus suitable motivation techniques and open communication among team members
and leaders must be encouraged for overcoming the obstacles related to talent management.
LO 4
P7 Personal performance review
This project has been a valuable aspect for encouraging my professional development. For
completing this research, I incorporated both primary and secondary research. It helped me in
developing various skills such as research ability, problem solving, information and
communication technology and decision making ability. This time I laid more emphasis on
primary research so that I can get more in depth analysis of the research subject. However, in
future when I will get an opportunity to conduct any research then I will try to use secondary
research or systematic reviews so that I can strengthen my theoretical concept and can make
myself aware of existing theories and beliefs.
I think that one of the reason due to which I was able to complete this project was the use
of appropriate project management techniques. From the beginning I used to follow the time
scale and project management process so that I can complete each of the project activity on time
and with desired quality standards. Project management is very important for executing any
research in systematic manner as it helps in avoiding the possibilities of project failure due to
errors or delay. While conducting research initially I felt very challenging to develop a
questionnaire for primary data collection. However, with critical thinking and use of secondary
research I prepared a questionnaire which can help to explore the real world concepts from
participants.
In addition to learning I also faced many challenges during research. At first I was not
sure to which sector I should choose. When I chose marketing then I felt that marketing sector is
quite dynamic and thus it can be difficult for the companies to retain talent within the industry.
Once aims and objectives were framed I was very confused about which research methodology I
should select. However, I felt that going for only secondary research will not allow me to explore
current trends and obstacles. Thus I selected both primary and secondary methods so that along
with the theoretical foundation I can also analyse what has been currently faced by marketers and
15

related organisations. The analysis part of the project was also interesting for me as it gave me a
lot of new insight which I was not aware earlier. Thus overall this project can be seen as very
informative and helpful for me to develop myself.
Completion of this project also gave me insight of different research methodologies. Like I
did not have good knowledge about various types of data collection and analysis methods,
research philosophies and approaches. When I conducted the research I learned that different
methodological approaches can have different deliverables and thus they must be chosen
specifically as per research aim and objectives. The entire research project was followed by
project management concepts. Thus it helped me to carefully monitor each and every phase of
my research. Project management tool used for the research gave me several benefits such as
cost and quality control, time management and risk minimisation related to project. In future I
will not only try to adopt different methodology for data collection but I will also try to learn
statistical analysis. The quantitative research studies using statistical tools are highly effective in
providing accurate or validated analysis of huge volume of organisational data.
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REFERENCES
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research methodology. Open Review of Educational Research. 4(1). pp.33-45.
Basias, N. and Pollalis, Y., 2018. Quantitative and qualitative research in business & technology:
Justifying a suitable research methodology. Review of Integrative Business and
Economics Research. 7. pp.91-105.
Claus, L., 2019. HR disruption—Time already to reinvent talent management. BRQ Business
Research Quarterly. 22(3). pp.207-215.
Collings, D.G., Mellahi, K. and Cascio, W.F., 2019. Global talent management and performance
in multinational enterprises: A multilevel perspective. Journal of management. 45(2).
pp.540-566.
Crane, B. and Hartwell, C.J., 2019. Global talent management: A life cycle view of the
interaction between human and social capital. Journal of World Business. 54(2). pp.82-
92.
Dodds, S. and Hess, A.C., 2020. Adapting research methodology during COVID-19: lessons for
transformative service research. Journal of Service Management.
Dźwigoł, H. and Dźwigoł-Barosz, M., 2018. Scientific research methodology in management
sciences. Financial and credit activity: problems of theory and practice. 2(25). pp.424-
437.
Gallardo-Gallardo, E., Thunnissen, M. and Scullion, H., 2020. Talent management: Context
matters.
Krishnan, T.N. and Scullion, H., 2017. Talent management and dynamic view of talent in small
and medium enterprises. Human Resource Management Review. 27(3). pp.431-441.
McDonnell, A. and et.al., 2017. Talent management: a systematic review and future
prospects. European Journal of International Management. 11(1). pp.86-128.
Mohajan, H.K., 2018. Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related
subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People. 7(1). pp.23-48.
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Narayanan, A., Rajithakumar, S. and Menon, M., 2019. Talent management and employee
retention: An integrative research framework. Human Resource Development
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Ngozwana, N., 2018. Ethical Dilemmas in Qualitative Research Methodology: Researcher's
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Taylor, S., 2018. Resourcing and talent management. Kogan Page Publishers.
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Online
Inductive approach in research methodology, 2020. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_principles-of-sociological-inquiry-qualitative-and-
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APPENDIX
Questionnaire
1. Does the company Unilever support the HR department to implement the practices of
talent management?
a. Yes
b. No
2. What strategies are implemented by Human Resource team to manage the talent at
Unilever?
a. Providing training and development opportunities
b. Providing rewards and recognitions
c. Cultivating an honest career path
d. All the above.
3. What challenges are faced by the HR of Unilever in managing the talent at the
workplace?
a. Encouraging the passion
b. Embracing the new interests
c. Offering impressive salaries
d. Giving engaging work
e. All the above
4. What considerations are kept in mind of the HR of Unilever while managing the talent at
the workplace?
a. Fast and flexible selection process
b. Managing the expectations of candidates
c. Using embedded technologies during talent acquisition
d. All the above
5. What strategies can be recommended to face the challenges and to improve the talent
management at Unilever?
19

20