Unilever's HR Strategies: Design, Development, and Contribution

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Unilever Plc's human resources practices and their contribution to organizational success. It assesses the importance of organizational design theory in relation to organizational structure and strategy, examining Unilever's tall organizational framework and its impact on communication and decision-making. The report also analyzes various approaches and techniques used by Unilever for attracting, maintaining, developing, and rewarding human resources, including fostering a positive work environment, recognizing employee contributions, promoting engagement, and developing skills. Furthermore, it explores emerging HR developments, such as the hybrid work model and the role of technology, and their potential impact on Unilever's HR practices, highlighting the importance of employee cultivation and satisfaction.

HR & Contribution to
Organisational Success

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
P1. Assessment of the importance of organisational design theory in relation to organisational
structure and fulfilling organisation strategy with examples .....................................................2
P2. Analyze of various approaches and techniques used by an organisation for attracting,
maintaining, developing a well as rewarding human resources in order to create a skilled and
dedicated workforce....................................................................................................................5
P3. Conducting research and use of contemporary knowledge to support the emerging HR
developments ..............................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource refers to a set of people or the department at the organisation who are
responsible for searching, screening, recruiting and provide training to all the applicable
candidates. It is the method which is there to assure the employee's availability at the enterprise
which is crucial for the increment of the productivity. A great management of the human
resource at the organisation will assist in applying the values which will lead the organisation to
achieve their goal. This paper is including the analysis of the Unilever Plc which is the one of the
largest United Kingdom retailing organisation. They are one of the organisation which offers
various types of products. This paper is including the key theories of the organisation in the
regard of the structure and the strategy of the business. Further, it will also includes the emergent
trends in the development of human resources in regards of the business.
MAIN BODY
P1. Assessment of the importance of organisational design theory in relation to organisational
structure and fulfilling organisation strategy with examples
Introduction of the organisation: The Unilever Plc is one of the largest organisation which has
been operating at a worldwide which includes various products for the customer's in regard to
full fill their needs. They are the company which offers various kinds of products to their
customer's such as products related to home care, products for personal care as well as beauty
care. It is the company which is known as the top manufacture for the soaps around the globe.
They are the United Kingdom based company and their headquarter is in the London. They have
been doing their business in 190 nations all around the globe. This organisation is consisting
various well known and largest brands which are Dove, Axe, Hellmann’s Ben & Jerry’s, Knorr,
Heartbrand, Magnum, Sunsilk, Rexona etc. It was founded by the William Level in the year of
1929 in United Kingdom. They are the one of the largest organisation which has consist 149000
employee's at their organisation (Brewster, and Haak-Saheem, 2020). They have implemented an
effective strategies of Human Resource and policies which will assist them in retaining and
attracting and experience workers at their organisation. They are also offering the well timed
training and development programmes to their workers which will aid the organisation in
improving their performance. As the one of the largest organisation, the Unilever also concern

about the environment an they are implementing practices which is sustainable and from that
they are executing their corporate social responsibilities (Field, 2020).
Organisational design theory: It is the theory which describe as a structure which is focusing
on the manners in which a organisation creates their framework in order to doing various
activities. There are various kinds of organisational designs at the marketplace and all those
design of organisation will create advantages as well as disadvantages to the people. There have
been few instances, where they didn't do any formal meeting at the organisation in regard of
making decisions on the organisational design theory. In respect to design the organisation, it is
crucial for them create a strong fundamental. It is crucial for business in regard to develop the
structure of organisation which will reflect the several roles term and the level of hierarchy
(Holbeche, 2018).
Organisation structure: It can be explained as a system which will outline the several activities
which are inclined towards the attainments of the organisational goal and their objective. All
these activities are interlinked with the roles and the rules as well as the responsibilities. This is
the framework which provide assistance in findings manners in which the organisation
information will flow to the various stages. There are various kinds of structures for the
organisation such as tall and flat structure of organisation. Unilever is the largest organisation
who have operating at a global level. Hence, they have been implemented a tall organisational
framework. It is the organisational structure which consists the taller hierarchy and also only
have single command chain (Maurya, and Agarwal, 2018). This structure convey little controls
to the workers and the prime power will be centralised in the hands of the organisation
management.
The managers of the organisation will face various advantage and disadvantage by implementing
this organisational structure. Few of the advantages and disadvantages have been mentioned
below in regard of the organisation.
Advantage:

 It will provided assistance to the firm in respect to decrease the organisational control in
few hands. It will make easy for the organisation to take decision and will avoid the
confusions among the people.
 This is the structure that describe the roles and the responsibilities in a clearer manner. It
is crucial for the organisation to make it clear to the individuals about their roles and
responsibilities.
Disadvantage:
 it has been consisting several disadvantages to the structure of organisation as there are
long line of the communication which makes it complex for individual to understand
things. It will lead to the miscommunication because of that the delays happens in course
of completion of work.
It is an organisational structure, in which the individuals are barely motivated as there are
numbers of managers. The subordinates must abide the command which came from the
managers of the organisation.
P2. Analyze of various approaches and techniques used by an organisation for attracting,
maintaining, developing a well as rewarding human resources in order to create a skilled
and dedicated workforce
Skilled and dedicated employee's will be refereed as those individuals who holds the
qualifications that are required for the role at the organisation and also the skills of the
employee's are continuously improved. It is one of the important factors for the business
organisation in regard to better the experience of the customer's. It is necessary for the enterprise
to recruit the skilled and talented employee's. The Unilever have several well skilled and diverse
workforce at their organisation, there entire focus is on work and they didn't engage in the works
that are unproductive (Nankervis, and et al., 2019). They are more concerned about finding out
the solutions for the problems and focuses on accelerating the profitability of the organisation
and the growth.
There are various formulations which will be adopted by the managers of the Unilever
Plc for the intent of attract, develop, reward and maintain the skilled and talented individuals at

their organisation. Unilever is the believer that organisational success is dependent on the efforts
of their workers (Pagán-Castaño, Maseda-Moreno, and Santos-Rojo, 2020). This a huge and
respected organisation and increased rate of turnover will negatively impact the goodwill of the
organisation. For avoiding those instances, the Unilever Plc is follow various kinds of
approaches at their organisation. These approaches can be the purposes of development, for
retaining, maintaining talented and diverse employees in the business are elaborated below:
Development a positive working environment: This is one of the approaches which can be
establish a cooperation, accountability, equity, supporter of risk takers etc. at the establishment.
It is necessary for the Unilever Plc businesses as it assure the cooperation amid the worker which
is essential for improving their satisfaction. It will interlinked the worker with the enterprise
because of that which worker didn't leave the organization. That's not exclusive aid the Unilever
Plc in retaining there existing workers but also assist in attracting new workforce. The
environment of working is the second primary consideration of the workers after remuneration at
the time of joining an company (Roberts, 2019).
Recognise, reinforce and reward: It is the other approach which has been required by the
enterprise in regard to retaining the employee in the business for various reasons. The reward and
recognition assist in satisfying not only the fundamental as well as esteem needs. It is considered
as a one of the most effective approaches at the business enterprise that aid them in getting the
success at the marketplace. Unilever Plc is the establishment which offers reward and
recognition to their hard-working workers who has done their assign task with full dedication
and also contributing in getting the goals and the objectives of the organisation. It is among
those organisation who gave recognition and reward to their best performing employee's which is
essential in motivating the workers at the enterprise (Stone, Cox, and Gavin, 2020). Further, it
will promote the equality and diversity in the organisation, that is essential for increasing the
trust of the workers against the organisation.
Involve and engage: it is the HR approach which has been implemented by an organisation that
is important in respect to enhance the satisfaction of the workers at the establishment. It is
necessary to provide a sense of responsibleness to the worker which makes them more dedicated
towards their business. The Unilever managers also considers their workers opinion in the
decision-making process which will aid the mangers in getting a new ideas that will enhance the

spirit of the workers. It is essential for the businesses to retain there workers and enhance their
productivity.
Develop Skills and Potential: it is the another approach which is implemented by the Unilever
Plc for retaining their workers and will also draw new workers to the organisation. Skill
development is crucial part for an organisation as it let them improve the overall effectiveness
and the efficiency of the business. Further, it is crucial for the workers to insure the development
of skills in respect to their personal and professional development (Torrington, Hall, and Taylor,
2020). It let workers to grab future opportunities at the very same organisation or at other
establishment and that will motivate the workers to be with the Unilever Plc.
P3. Conducting research and use of contemporary knowledge to support the emerging HR
developments
Human resource development is referred as the employee's cultivation at the organisation.
It is conception which will provide various components to their employee's in regard to their
skills and knowledge which will provide assistance in growth of the organisation. It is the one of
the approaches which has a clearer aim in respect of acquiring the employee's growth via the
training and development. It let the workers in developing a clear view of the workers in regard
of developing advance careers as well as accompanying goals.
In last year several rising trends which have been occurs in the human resource
management which will assist the workers for the aim of broadening their prospective as well as
well pleased with the organisation. In the emergent of this HR approach, the technology plays a
vital role. It is crucial to take advantages which happens at the marketplace as the current and the
future techs will make the work easy and will enhance the manufacturing capacity of the
organisation. Unilever Plc will also choose this rising HR development at their organisation as it
will aid them in improving the level of satisfaction among the employee's and also gave the
flexibility to their human resource (Whiting. and Martin, 2020). It is useful for the business
houses as it is improving the motivation against the organisation.
The thought process against few of the HR development in regards of the Unilever Plc are
mentioning below:
Hybrid work model: it is the model of the human resource which has been implemented by the
businesses houses in regard making things on the rights track. This is one of the crucial

approaches which provide assistance to the various workers and further enhance the
productiveness of the establishment. This is the model which implement the worker centric
approach and offers the flexible-ness to worker. It permit both the workers such as remote or in-
office which are necessary in respect to enhance their contentment to the enterprise.
Transition from employee well-being to a healthy organisation: the psychological health and
the well beings of their workers are prime focus in the organisation. It is necessary for getting
successful for the enterprise is to take good care which is not restricted to the well being but also
the phycological health of their workers (Wilton, 2022). For that, the main focus of the
organisation is implement the health organisation approach which have been focused on both the
physical and mental health of the enterprise, the organisation managers offer flexible-ness and
future opportunities such as trainings.
Power skills to employees: it is one of the most key components for the enterprise which
enhance the demand of the virtual working environment. It requires higher technical skills in the
workers which is necessary in order to enhance the fecundity of the business organisation. Those
skill will assist in respect to the presentation, satisfaction of the customer's, balanced
environment for work, performance and the communication.
CONCLUSION
From the above paper, it can be summarise that the human resource at the organisation
plays a essential role in the business which assist them in getting the success. The theory of the
Organisation design is providing the assistance to the businesses in developing a powerful
structure for the organisation in which the role and the responsibilities of various members are
distinct. There are various trends of human resource that are being taken place for maintaining
the business productivity.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brewster, C. and Haak-Saheem, W., 2020. Comparative human resource management. In Human
Resource Management in an Emerging South Asian Economy (pp. 21-36). Routledge.
Field, L., 2020. Organisational learning: Basic concepts. In Understanding adult education and
training (pp. 159-173). Routledge.
Holbeche, L.S., 2018. Organisational effectiveness and agility. Journal of Organizational
Effectiveness: People and Performance.
Maurya, K.K. and Agarwal, M., 2018. Organisational talent management and perceived
employer branding. International Journal of Organizational Analysis.
Nankervis, A., Baird, M., Coffey, J. and Shields, J., 2019. Human resource management.
Cengage AU.
Pagán-Castaño, E., Maseda-Moreno, A. and Santos-Rojo, C., 2020. Wellbeing in work
environments. Journal of Business Research, 115, pp.469-474.
Roberts, V.Z., 2019. The organization of work: Contributions from open systems theory. In The
unconscious at work (pp. 37-48). Routledge.
Stone, R.J., Cox, A. and Gavin, M., 2020. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.
Torrington, D., Hall, L., Atkinson, C. and Taylor, S., 2020. Human resource management.
Pearson UK.
Whiting, F. and Martin, M., 2020. Human resource practice. Kogan Page Publishers.]
Wilton, N., 2022. An introduction to human resource management. An Introduction to Human
Resource Management, pp.1-100.