Unilever Case Study: Employee Relations Impact on Business Strategy

This report examines Unilever's approach to managing employee relations, highlighting its partnership with CIPD to develop comprehensive programs for employee advancement. It emphasizes Unilever's focus on employee well-being through health protection, health promotion, and creating a supportive work environment. The report details Unilever's initiatives for addressing occupational ill-health, engaging and developing employees, and adapting to the changing workplace dynamics by fostering a mindset of ownership and linking rewards to sustainability performance. Furthermore, it showcases Unilever's commitment to inclusion and gender diversity, including achieving a significant representation of women in management roles, demonstrating its dedication to fairness and equality in the workplace. The study references various Unilever resources and academic articles to support its analysis of the company's employee relations strategies.

Managing Employee Relations
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About Unilever and Its Employer Relations
• Unilever Plc is the largest suppliers of the fast moving consumer
goods (FMCG) across the world (unilever.com.au 2018).
• It operates globally and has subsidiaries in close to 100 countries.
Unilever is an Anglo Dutch that owns over 400 brands.
• Employee relations at Unilever refer to the efforts of the company in
managing the relationship between the employers and the
employees.
• Organizations with good employee relation program ensure
consistent and fair treatment to all the employees such that they
remain not only loyal to the company but also the jobs.

Collaboration of Unilever and CIPD
• Unilever partnered with Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development(CIPD) to not only deliver but also create
an exceptional internal accredited program for the
advancement of the employee relations (unilever.com
2018)
• CIPD was approached by Unilever for developing a
universal program aimed at the senior members of the
employment relations
• Both Unilever and CIPD designed a complex programme
but it remained ambitious in encompassing international
practice and theory due to the global nature.

Help Employees in Being Their Best
• This involves providing them with tools for maintaining, promoting and
enhancing the health for maximizing ftness and also improves the
capacity of working effectively and safely.
• The global strategy relating to Medical and Occupational Health have
two key elements that includes health protection and health promotion
• Health promotion results in the promotion and enhancement of the
employee health thereby maximizing their fitness by improving the
capacity of working effectively whereas employee protection refers to
the protection of the employees from the day to day hazards related to
work (unilever.com 2018).

Taking holistic view of Employee Well
-being
• Well being referred to unleashing of the energy amongst the people for
driving sustainable performance.
• Development of a framework for determining the employee well-being
and identification of the mental, emotional, physical state of the
employees. The framework also acted as a guide in tackling risks related to
health.
• The strategy for well being involves the creation of the working
environment that not only supported the personal lives but also helped in
meeting business needs (unilever.com 2018). One way of doing it was
through the agile working that allowed the employees in performing their
jobs from anywhere and at anytime as long as there are business needs

Programmes Undertaken by Unilever for Addressing Occupational Ill Health
• Prevention of occupational diseases and work
related illness
• Taking care of the ergonomics within the workplace
• Protection from the noise
• Taking care of the environmental health
• Delivery of the occupational health of the factory
workers through Manufacturing Excellence
Programme

Engaging and Developing People
• Unilever tried to create an organization and culture
where the employee’s remains empowered in acting like
the business owners and the entrepreneurs.
• Helped in the development of the newer ways and the
newer skills of working for close to 1,61,000 employees
• Helped in the development of the leadership qualities
within culture that attaches value to diversity in every
form.
• Retained the best talent necessary for accelerating the
long term creation of value.

Coping with Changing Workplace
• Job for lifetime is no longer a norm and once employed the employees
requires constant learning for reinventing themselves with the
expectation of increased amount of flexibility at workplace (D'Arcy,
Herath and Shoss 2014).
• The growth of the robotics and the artificial intelligence disrupted
work. Anxiety at work is on rise with a change in its composition.
Millennial will comprise of 60 percent of the workforce.
• Unilever followed a more human, more impactful and simpler
workforce. It therefore reduced complexity and understood the
people as the individuals and personalise interventions for building
right teams and leaders.

Developing the Mindset of Owners
• Unilever implemented C4G, a change program for encouraging and
equipping people in adopting the mindset of the owner by allowing
them to control through a simplified reward and organizational
structure
• The C4G program acted as platform that empowered people in
deploying a zero based approach towards budgeting for allocating
resources.
• This helped in driving partnerships with third parties, simplification
and smarter policies and adopting a culture of continuous learning.
Besides, learning and building capability acts critical within hyper
connected world

Unilever Linked Rewards to Lasting Sustainability Performance
• Incentives simplified for including a fixed payment
• Bonus as the percentage of the fixed pay and linkage
of the longer term management co-investment plan
(MCIP) to the sustainability and financial performance
• Implementation of a shared purchase scheme for the
non management employees thereby involving
everyone in holding a stake in the long term success
of Unilever.

Inclusion and Gender Diversity
• Unilever promoted an inclusive culture that promoted the gender balance and
respected contribution of the employees irrespective of age, race, gender, diversity
and sexual orientation (unilever.com 2018).
• Unilever ensured fair consideration of all the applications for employment and also
gave everyone an access to the development, training and the career opportunities.
• Unilever also ran various programmes aimed at retaining, attracting and the
development of the female talent. This involved development of the candidates for
the future roles
• The company also made sure that the overall reward and the pay structure should
remain neutral irrespective of the gender.
• Unilever possessed long standing commitment towards fairness and gender equality
within the workplace in terms of the equal pay for the equal work that finally helps
in achieving a gender balance.

Scenario of Unilever By End of 2017
• 47 percent of the total management represented the women.
The figure were up from close to 46 percent in the year 2016
• Amongst the topmost 93 executives, 22 percent represented
women
• The percentage of statutory directors of corporate entities
increased to 510 males and 192 females.
• Out of 67 percent of the total workforce, 33 percent
represented females by the end of the year 2017

References
• D'Arcy, J., Herath, T. and Shoss, M.K., 2014. Understanding employee responses to stressful
information security requirements: A coping perspective. Journal of Management Information
Systems, 31(2), pp.285-318.
• unilever.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.unilever.com/Images/slp_labour-rights-
in-unilevers-supply-chain-january-2013_tcm244-419292_en.pdf [Accessed 6 Nov. 2018].
• unilever.com 2018. [online] Available at:
https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/enhancing-livelihoods/fairness-in-the-
workplace/improving-employee-health-nutrition-and-well-being/ [Accessed 6 Nov. 2018].
• unilever.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/our-
strategy/embedding-sustainability/developing-and-engaging-our-people/ [Accessed 6 Nov.
2018].
• unilever.com 2018. [online] Available at:
https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/enhancing-livelihoods/opportunities-for-
women/advancing-diversity-and-inclusion/ [Accessed 6 Nov. 2018].
• unilever.com.au 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.unilever.com.au/ [Accessed 6 Nov.
2018].

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