Incorporating Equality and Diversity in Unilever's Workplace: A Study

This report investigates how multinational companies, specifically Unilever Plc, incorporate equality and diversity in the workplace to enhance corporate productivity and competitiveness. The report begins with an introduction outlining the importance of equality and diversity in creating an inclusive and competent workforce. It then details the project's aims, objectives, and a project management plan, including cost analysis, scope definition, and timeframes. A work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are provided to illustrate project activities and timelines. The research methodology includes both qualitative and quantitative methods, with data collected through questionnaires administered to 50 Unilever employees. The analysis of the collected data focuses on employee demographics, the adoption of diversity strategies, and the impact of diversity on various aspects of the organization. The report also includes recommendations based on the data analysis and concludes with a reflection on the research's usefulness to the organization, emphasizing the importance of equality and diversity in meeting international requirements and improving overall performance. References are provided to support the research findings.

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Table of Contents
TITLE..............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 : Aims and Objectives of the project......................................................................................3
P2 : Project Management Plan....................................................................................................4
P3 : Work break down structure and Gantt chart for providing time frames..............................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
P4 : Small-scale research by qualitative and quantitative research methods..............................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
P5 : Analysis of research and data using appropriate tools and techniques..............................12
P6 : Recommendations on the basis of the data analysis and results of research.....................19
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................19
P7 : Reflection from the research and its usefulness to the organisation..................................19
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
.........................................................................................................................................................6

TITLE
How do multinational companies incorporate equality and diversity in the workplace for
improving corporate productivity and competitiveness? A study on Unilever Plc.
INTRODUCTION
Equality and diversity in the workplace is very important in order to provide equal
opportunity for the employees to develop their career in right direction. Having equality in
diverse work place attract and retain most of the working employees in the organisation and best
services can be provided to the respective customers. The organisation that is taken into
consideration is Unilever Plc. Which is a UK based multinational company that deals in
consumer goods such as hygiene, personal care, nutrition etc. This report is a research report
which aims to understand the requirement of equality and diversity in the process developing a
competent, driven and inclusive workforce. This report includes aims, objectives, project
management plan, various methods of conducting research etc.
TASK 1
P1 : Aims and Objectives of the project
Overview of the project : This project is about implementing equality and diversity in
the organisation. It is very important to implement equality and diversity in diverse work place as
it provides skills, knowledge to employees and career opportunity. It also makes them competent
to acquire and adapt the changes taking place globally (Ashtiani, 2017). This research will help
Unilever to improve their process so that they can meet up the international requirements.
Aim of the Project : The aim of the project is to incorporate equality and diversity in the
process developing a competent, driven and inclusive workforce. A study on Unilever Plc.
Objective of the project : The objectives that are to be achieved from the project are :
 To develop a basic understanding of equality and diversity which will help the
organisation to analyse their existing employee base.
 To understand the challenges faced by the organisation due to changes taking place in
work culture which affects the existing employees.
 To analyse the ways and strategies that can be followed by the organisation to improve
their workforce.
Questions : The questions to which this research project will provides answer are :

 How equality and diversity helps organization to analyse their existing employee base ?
 What are the challenges that organization can face due to changes in work culture and the
way it affects the existing employees?
 What are the strategies and ways that can be followed by the organisation for improving
their workforce?
P2 : Project Management Plan
Project management plan is a document that defines how a project is executed,
controlled and monitored. The other components of project plan could be initiating, planning and
closing. It is basically a summary of activities that has to done and plans that has to be
implemented during the course of project. Various attributes that are part of project management
plan are cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk and resources (Bell, Bryman and Harley,
2018).
The aspect of project management are discussed below from the point of view of
researcher and company both.
Basis For Organisation For Researcher
Cost To implement the strategies in the
organisation, the cost that this
organisation has to bear is £52000
which are related with the training of
the employees, research and
development, cost of changes that will
take place in HR practices and of the
investment that they have to make to
acquire new assets required as per
change.
The researcher also have to undertake
various activities such as appointing a
team for research and data collection
from various sources for which they
incur cost. The estimated cost that
will bear by the researcher will be
£6000.
Scope The scope of the project for the
organisation is wider as it will bring
change by implementing equality and
diversity in the organisation in order
to get efficient employee in their
The scope of the project for the
researcher is that it provides an
opportunity that will help in creating
an understanding of equality and
diversity in the workplace and also to

organisation by giving them career
growth opportunity. This will
improve the performance of the
organisation as the employees will
work more effectively and will make
their employees competent to cope
with the change.
identify different strategies that can be
adopted by other employers of
Unilever to improve their skills
(Boddy, 2016).
Time The time that will be taken by the
organisation to adopt the changes will
be 45 days as they have to implement
equality and diversity in their
procedures etc.
Researcher will take 2 months to
complete the research by breaking the
activities through Gantt chart and
work breakdown structure which will
help them to complete their project on
time.
Quality This research will improve skills and
knowledge of the employees by way
of more training and procuring better
staff. It will improve the quality of
their performance which will be
reflected in the organisation's
performance (Pieterse, 2019).
The researcher will conduct both
quantitative and qualitative research
which will help them to gather detail
information. Thus, it will help them to
utilise it further as well.
Communication The organisation will communicate
the change to the employees,
managers and the teams by interacting
with them directly through meeting
or by sending them the mails.
The researcher will communicate the
progress and will take details from the
clients using emails and by telephonic
conversation.

Risk The risk associated with the project
for the organisation is of extra cost,
time and efforts in case the changes
does not improve to the level as
expected.
The risk that researcher faces is of
inaccuracy of the information
provided by the sample selected for
conducting the research.
Resources The resources that is required by the
organisation in implementing the
research are their human resource,
time, funds etc. Also they have to
adopt new technology to meet up with
the international requirements
(Bresler and Stake, 2017).
Researchers will require access to
internet to gather the information.
Also they require time and funds but
the most important resource for them
is information.
P3 : Work break down structure and Gantt chart for providing time frames
Work Breakdown structure is a tool that helps in diving the project into smaller
manageable tasks. It make the process simple to execute and manage by the supervisors. This
methodology can be used to divide any type of product. WBS makes project accurately
assignable to the project teams, helps in identifying the points where control is necessary
(Bryman, 2017). The researcher will prepare this structure to break his activities so that he can
manage the activities easily and thus project can be completed on time.

Gantt Chart is a tool that shows the activities to be performed in the specified time
provided against the activity. This helps in tracking the activities and keep the management
updated about the completion of the project. Gantt chart can be prepared for event scheduling,
production scheduling etc. through Microsoft Excel or by using specialised software. Researcher
will prepare Gantt chart so that he can plan sequence of the activities and time frames in which a
particular activity has to be done to avoid delays (Papke-Shields and Boyer-Wright, 2017).

TASK 2
P4 : Small-scale research by qualitative and quantitative research methods
Research Methods are the strategies and techniques that helps in collecting the data for
analysis. The research methods are classified into two parts :
Qualitative research is the method of collecting data directly from the participants
which are non-numerical. They are asked open-ended questions. This will help the researcher to
understand the reason about what and why researcher thinks so (Crane, 2019). Various
Qualitative methods are one-to-one interviews, ethnographic research where people are observed
in natural environment, case study research etc.
Quantitative research are those methods which deals with numerical data and facts &
figures where measurement can be done in absolute numbers (Palinkas, 2015). Various methods

of conducting quantitative research are surveys or questionnaire, observation, experiments,
document screening etc.
The data can be collected from two sources : Primary and Secondary. Primary data is
the fresh data collected by the investigators for specific purpose from the samples selected out of
the population which comes under the investigation, whereas secondary data is that data which
has already been collected by someone but other investigators also uses it as per their needs
(Fletcher, 2017). It can be gathered from publications, newsletter etc. For the present research,
primary data is been used as researcher used the method of interview and analysed the customers'
behaviour with the help of questionnaires.
The research method used for this project is Quantitative methods where data is collected using
questionnaires.
Sample for research is the selected smaller group that is taken out of the total population
under research which represent the entire population. The sample selected for this research are
50 employees from Unilever Plc.
The Questionnaire that is used in the research is :
Questionnaire
Q1) Since how many years you have been working in this organisation ?
 0-5 years
 5-10 years
 10-15 years
 More than 15 years
Q2) Is Unilever Plc have an diversity strategy?
 Yes
 No
Q3) On what the organization diversity focus?
 Internal
 External
 Both
Q4) Do you think training program is vital for maintaining diverse culture and equality.
 Strongly Agree

 Agree
 Disagree
 Strongly Disagree
Q5) Do the organization have sufficient budget for supporting its equality and diversity
strategy?
 Yes
 No
Q6) Does Unilever Plc measures the effectiveness of its diversity and equality strategy?
 Yes
 No
Q7) What advantages will Unilever Plc will get if company is able to manage diversity and
equality in workplace ?
 Able to sustain globally
 Improves efficiency and profitability
 Capable of meeting international requirements
 All of the above
Q8) Are employees of the organization are been treated equally without any discrimination?
 Strongly agree
 Agree
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
Q9) Has the company's performance enhanced due to diverse work culture?
 Yes
 No
Q10) Recommend some measures that can be taken by Unilever Plc to overcome the issues
faced in meeting international requirement..........

TASK 3
P5 : Analysis of research and data using appropriate tools and techniques
Theme 1: Number of years for employees has been working
Q1) Since how many years you have been working in this organisation Frequency
 0-5 years 12
 5-10 years 10
 10-15 years 18
 More than 15 years 10
12
10
18
10
0-5 years
5-10 years
10-15 years
More than 15 years
Interpretation : Out of 50 employees who were part of sample in the organisation, majority of
respondents have replied that they have been working in organisation for more between 10 to 15
years. Also, out of 50 participants 10 have replied that they have been working in the company
for more than 15 years.
Theme 2 : Adoption of diversity strategy

Q2) Is Unilever Plc adopting diversity strategy in the organization? Frequency
 Yes 45
 No 5
45
5
Yes
No
Interpretation : Out of 50 people 45 agree that the Unilever Plc adopts the diversity strategy
which states that it is helpful for the growth of the company. Whereas out of 50 peoples 5
peoples disagree that it is not adopted by the company so it is interpreted that majority of
respondent says that the diversity strategy is adopted by the company.
Theme 3 : Focus of Diversity
Q3) On what the organization diversity focus? Frequency
 Internal 10
 External 10
 Both 30