Unilever Plc: Training and Development's Impact on Profitability

This research proposal investigates the impact of training and development on organizational profitability, focusing on Unilever Plc. The study explores the significance of training, its effects on profitability, and the challenges Unilever faces in providing training to its staff. The research employs a deductive approach with a quantitative methodology, utilizing a descriptive research design to gather data through questionnaires from managers. The proposal outlines the research questions, objectives, conceptual framework, and ethical considerations, concluding with expected outcomes that highlight the positive impact of training and development on employee performance, customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, organizational profitability. The proposal also includes a comprehensive literature review and detailed methodology for data collection and analysis. The study aims to provide insights into how effective training programs can enhance skills, improve employee retention, and boost overall business success at Unilever.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background of research..........................................................................................................1
Rationale of research..............................................................................................................1
Problematize the issue............................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................2
Importance of training and development in context to the organisation................................2
Impact of training and development on organisational profitability......................................2
Different issues faced through Unilever Plc in providing the training to staff members at
workplace...............................................................................................................................2
RESEARCH QUESTIONS.............................................................................................................3
Research Aim.........................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives...............................................................................................................3
Research Questions................................................................................................................3
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK....................................................................................................4
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................4
Research philosophy...............................................................................................................4
Research Approaches.............................................................................................................4
Research Choice.....................................................................................................................5
Research Design.....................................................................................................................5
Data collection methods and analysis.....................................................................................5
Sampling.................................................................................................................................5
Ethical considerations.............................................................................................................6
OUTCOMES....................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

TITLE: The impact on training and development on an organisations profitability.
INTRODUCTION
Background of research
Training and development are concerned with the educational activities within an
organization that developed to increase the skills and knowledge of staff members while giving
information. Training is mainly related to enhance employee satisfaction and improve their
retention (Armstrong and Landers, 2018). Development is all about the growth of staff members
in all respects. Unilever plc is a British Multinational consumer products organization and it
includes the products like energy drinks, confections, soft drinks cheese, and other items. Its
main focus is on provide training so that their skills can be enhanced and they work effectively
for attaining objectives.
Rationale of research
The present investigation is concerned with the impact of training and development on an
organization's profitability. This investigation is mainly conducted in a personal and professional
context. In the personal context, understanding of the researcher regarding the training and
development related concepts in a better manner. On the other hand, in a professional context
researcher can know about the benefits and issues faced by employers by providing training and
development to staff members (Bell and et. al., 2017).
Problematize the issue
Training and development both are the important part of human resource function. Reducing
the organisational profitability is the main issues as employees are not able to focus on their
work due to lack skills. Through providing the training to employees, they can be motivated and
focus towards performing organisational activities which helps in enhance organisational
profitability.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Importance of training and development in context to the organisation
Moriarty (2021) stated that employee training and development refers to the process of
investing time, resources, and energy strategically to improving employee performance. Training
is important in the company because it teaching new skills to staff members to help them so that
their performance can be improved. On the other hand, development is all about the
improvement of the existing skills (Brahmana, Brahmana, and Ho, 2018). It makes the staff
members more effective and productive. Training and development are important for the
company as this takes the benefits of techniques, improvements, and changes.
Impact of training and development on organisational profitability
Based on Maimuna and Nda (2021), providing training and development helps enhance
the employee's skills and sustain them at the workplace for a longer period. Training consists of
the programs to learn the precise knowledge to improve performance level. The development
consists expansive growth plan of the employee for performing in a better manner in the future.
It leads to improvement in profitability and also positive attitudes towards the work (Rodriguez
and Walters, 2017).
Different issues faced through Unilever Plc in providing the training to staff members at
workplace
As per the viewpoint of Andriotis (2021), for an organization, the highest priority when
this comes to allocating the training resources is enhancing training program effectiveness. There
are some issues faced through Unilever Plc in providing the training given below:
Dispersed workforce- Steady rise in remote work and decentralized workforce has to be
led to new challenges in training and development. With geographically dispersed employees,
training can be hard and misunderstandings are common (Melby-Lervåg, Redick, and Hulme,
2016).
Lack of engagement- In this, engagement is necessary on three different levels for an
instance behavioural, cognitive, and emotional. Without these, passive learning lacks
commitment and poor knowledge retention can contribute to issues in training and development.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Research Aim
“To determine impact of the training and development on organisational profitability.” A
study on Unilever Plc.
Research Objectives
 To understand the importance of training and development in context to the organisation.
 To determine the impact of training and development on organisational profitability.
 To identify the different issues faced through Unilever Plc in providing the training to
staff members at workplace.
Research Questions
 What is the importance of training and development in context to the organisation?
 How training and development impact on the organisational profitability?
 What are the different issues faced through Unilever Plc in providing the training to staff
members at workplace?

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Figure 1: Conceptual framework on training and development
METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is defined as the process for gathering and analyzing the data. In this,
research onion will be considering as it was developed by Saunders et. al in the year 2007.
Different layers included in the research onion mention below:
Research philosophy
The interpretivism and positivism research philosophies are of two different types.
Justification: In this, positivism research philosophy will be considering as it is related to
the quantitative method and provides specific information related to the impact of training and
development on an organization's profitability (Noe and Kodwani, 2018).
Research Approaches
The research approaches are categorized in the inductive and deductive approaches.
Justification: There will be a deductive research approach using because it is aimed
towards testing hypothesis and suited approach that working with the quantitative data. The
reason for using the deductive approach is that it helps in providing factful and relevant
information about the impact of training and development on an organization's profitability.
Research Choice
Qualitative and quantitative are the different research choices.

Justification: Quantitative research choice will be considering because it helps in
generating the knowledge and develop a better understanding of the impact of training and
development on an organization's profitability (Okechukwu, 2017).
Research Design
In this, descriptive research design will be considering as it is helpful in provide the
information about effectiveness of training and development on organisational productivity. The
main reason behind using this research design is that it determines people behaviour in natural
setting.
Data collection methods and analysis
Primary and secondary are two different methods of data collection.
Justification: For a collection of information, the primary method of data collection will
be considering as it provides fresh and new information related to the impact of training and
development on an organization's profitability. There will be a questionnaire developed to collect
information related to a specific area (Rahayu, Rasid, and Tannady, 2019). For analyses the
collected data, there has been thematic analysis method considered as in this tables, graphs and
interpretations are developed.
Sampling
There are probabilistic and non-probability two different kinds of sampling methods
Justification: In this, 30 managers will be selected by using a random sampling method.
The main reason behind using this method is that it provides an equal chance to the chosen
respondents. The chosen respondents are managers of the company as they have an
understanding of employee performance and organizational productivity.
Ethical considerations
It is necessary for an investigator to follow all the ethical considerations for an instance
confidentiality, informed consent, privacy, anonymity and others. The research area should not
harm the sentiments of the respondents. Researcher should assure not to leak the information of
the chosen participants.
OUTCOMES
From the above mention discussion, it has been analysed that training and development is
one of the main functions of human resources. It has been examined that training and

development develop a positive impact on the profitability of the company. Enhancing the
employee’s performance through training helps provide better satisfaction to customers. This
helps them to loyal towards the company and enhance organizational profitability.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Armstrong, M. B. and Landers, R. N., 2018. Gamification of employee training and
development. International Journal of Training and Development. 22(2). pp.162-169.
Bell, B. S. and et. al., 2017. 100 years of training and development research: What we know and
where we should go. Journal of Applied Psychology.102(3). p.305.
Brahmana, R. K., Brahmana, R. K. M. and Ho, T.C.F., 2018. Training and development policy,
corporate governance, and firm performance(Doctoral dissertation, Petra Christian
University).
Melby-Lervåg, M., Redick, T. S. and Hulme, C., 2016. Working memory training does not
improve performance on measures of intelligence or other measures of “far transfer”
evidence from a meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science.
11(4).pp.512-534.
Noe, R. A. and Kodwani, A. D., 2018. Employee training and development, 7e. McGraw-Hill
Education.
Okechukwu, W., 2017. INFLUENCE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, EMPLOYEE
PERFORMANCE ON JOB SATISFACTION AMONG THE STAFF. Journal of
Technology Management and Business. 4(1).
Rahayu, M., Rasid, F. and Tannady, H., 2019. The Effect of Career Training and Development
on Job Satisfaction and its Implications for the Organizational Commitment of Regional
Secretariat (SETDA) Employees of Jambi Provincial Government. International Review
of Management and Marketing. 9(1). p.79.
Rodriguez, J. and Walters, K., 2017. The importance of training and development in employee
performance and evaluation. World Wide Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and
Development. 3(10). pp.206-212.
Online
Andriotis, N., 2021. What are the most common training challenges and how do successful
managers overcome them? [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.efrontlearning.com/blog/2017/04/common-training-challenges-
solutions.html>.
Joriarty, J., 2021. The Importance of Training and Development for Employees (and Customers).
[Online]. Available through: <https://www.raven360.com/blog/importance-of-training-
and-development>.
Maimuna, M., 2021. THE IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ON
EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260219097_THE_IMPACT_OF_EMPLOYE
E_TRAINING_AND_DEVELOPMENT_ON_EMPLOYEE_PRODUCTIVITY>.

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