Business Focus Report: Analyzing HR Issues at Unilever PLC

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AI Summary
This business focus report examines the human resource challenges faced by Unilever PLC, a multinational company operating in the retail industry. The report identifies key issues such as cross-cultural misunderstandings, health and safety concerns exacerbated by the global pandemic, and employee retention problems. It analyzes the role of human resource management in addressing these issues, including training and development, employee compensation and benefits, and worker protection. The report benchmarks Unilever against Nestle, a competitor, and applies Maslow's hierarchy of needs to understand employee motivation and satisfaction. Potential solutions for Unilever are proposed, including cross-cultural training, the adoption of health and safety practices, and career development opportunities to improve employee retention and overall business performance. The report emphasizes the importance of proactive HR strategies in fostering a productive and engaged workforce.
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Business Focus Report
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Executive Summary
This project report summarised that business report are those which helps to identify solution of
various problem occur in organisation. It includes various problem occur in organisation related
to human resource. It includes problem related to retention health and safety, cross culture which
create negative impact on productivity of business. It also includes role of human resource
management in organisation to solve these issues which include adoption of training related to
cross culture, benefit and compensation. Organisation can use different human resource theories
to helps in satisfaction of different need of employees. It also helps in increasing motivation of
their employees.
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Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Contents...........................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Identification of contemporary issues and challenges occur in organisation..............................1
Company......................................................................................................................................2
Role of human resource management in solving these issues.....................................................2
PART 2............................................................................................................................................3
Company......................................................................................................................................3
Benchmark organisation with another organisation to identify possible solution.......................3
Potential solution of that issue.....................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Business focus report are those which include evaluation of issue in particular circumstance and
performance of business to solve these issues (Chaudhary, 2019). Business report is focused with
existing issues and predictive in nature. This report helps enterprise is solving issues occur I
business on basis of existing problem. They also use various human resource practices to solve
these issues and challenges. This project report includes study of Unilever Plc which working in
retail industry. This organisation is existed in UK and providing various consumer goods to their
customers. This project report includes identification of challenges and issues occur in of
organisation and function of human resource function. It also includes identification of various
solution with application of human resource theories.
MAIN BODY
PART 1
Identification of contemporary issues and challenges occur in organisation
Human resource issues are those issues which are related to human resource. Thee issues are
related to productive, engagement, retention, recruitment, selection, payroll of employees
(Cooke, Xiao and Chen, 2021). These issues create negative impact on productivity of business.
Unilever plc is one of multinational organisation which is facing different human resource issues.
These issues occur in their enterprise are as follows:
Problem related to cross culture: Cross culture refers to a concept which identify differences
between employees of different background, culture, nation (Direction, 2017). Unilever Plc is
one of internal organisation which are providing their services in different nations. Company hire
their employees from different countries as it helps them to reduce their cost and increase
efficiency. But this also result in problem of cross culture in firm as they have employee form
different countries. This cross-culture cause problem related to misunderstanding and confusion
at work place. It also creates negative impact on productivity of an enterprise as people are not
familiar with other culture which make them differentiated from those of other people working I
company.
Health and safety: Health and safety is an important issue occur in any organisation as it is duty
of company to ensure better health and safety of their employees as it will contribute in their
growth and success (Fish, Ma and Wood, 2018). But Unilever Plc is facing issues related to
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health and safety due to global pandemic. Global pandemic is one of difficult situation for both
business and their employee. As dues to spread of dieses, government of many countries has put
various restriction on business to protect their people. But it is difficult for company to follow all
norms related to health and safety as they have number of employees. This situation results in
issues related to health and safety of their employees.
Retention: Employee retention s ability of an enterprise to retain their employee for long period
of time (Han, Chae and Passmore, 2019). Organisation wants to retain their employees for more
time as it helps them in increasing thwart productivity and engagement of their employees.
Hiring new employees create problem for a business as it incurs cost on them related to
recruitment, selection, training and development and waste both time as well as efforts of
company. So, it is important for company to retain their employees but Unilever plc fails in is
situation. Their employees are leaving their organisation whch create negative impact on their
productivity.
Company
Unilever plc is one of international business providing their serves in different countries. It is
established by William Lever in year 1929. Company is providing consumer goods to their
customers and operating in retail industry (Lunsford, 2019). Organisation is providing food
product, health care product, personal care product and home product to their customers.
Business is providing their product and services in around 190 countries. Company is expanding
their market share by providing their services in various countries. Enterprise is increasing their
profit share by providing range of product to their customers. There is always huge demand in
this type of industry and they are fulfilling these demands of their customers by providing
consumer goods to them. As company is working at global level, they are hiring employees from
different background and culture. This create problem of cross culture in their business and also
create negative impact of productivity of their employees. They are also facing problem related
to health and safety due to global pandemic. Enterprise is also facing problem related to retention
of employees as employees are leaving organisation frequently.
Role of human resource management in solving these issues
Human resource management plays important role in success of any organisation as it helps them
in managing employees at work place. They maintain satisfaction of employee in an enterprise
and also understand their need. Human resource manager provides valuable solution to probe for
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their workers. They are responsible for hiring employees and retaining them in enterprise. Role
of human resource managers in Unilever plc in solving various issues are as follows:
Training and development: Human resource managers provide training and development
opportunity to their employee (Machado, 2016). It helps them in understanding and culture of
company. Managers of Unilever Plc provide training to their employee which increase their
efficiency. It also increases involvement of employees in company which helps hem to adjust in
working environment of company and also to overcome from problem of cross culture.
Employees compensation and benefit: Human resource managers are responsible for providing
employee compensation and benefit (Macke and Genari, 2019). Managers of Unilever Plc
provide various benefit to employees who are working with more efficiency which helps them to
solve problem of employee retention.
Workers protection: It is responsibility of human resource managers to ensure protection of
workers in company. This protection helps to reduce critical incident at work place, it also
reduces injury, accidents. Managers of Unilever plc ensure safety ad protection of workers at
work place. They adopt all safety measure which is important for safety of their employees.
PART 2
Company
Nestle is one of multinational organisation which is established in Switzerland. Organisation is
providing food as well as drink processing items to their customers. It is established by Henri
Nestle in the year 1866 in Switzerland. Company is providing coffee, tea, baby food, bottled
water, medical food dairy product and many more (Manoharachary, 2021). Company is
following all food and safety laws to ensure health and safety of their customers. Company is
facing various issues related to human resource as they are operating at international level and
has number of employees. To solve these issues, they are adopting various human resource
practices which helps them to successfully conduct their business. Human resource management
of company plays important role in overcome these issues and challenges occur in company.
Benchmark organisation with another organisation to identify possible solution
Nestle is adopting various human resource practices to overcome human resource issues occur in
their organisation. These theories include Maslow need theory which there is a lever of different
need. Maslow theory is given by Abraham Maslow in the year 1954 in order to satisfy need to
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human resource in firm. This model includes different level of need and increase motivation in a
person by satisfying these needs (Mayrhofer, Brewster and Farndale, 2018). These needs include
physiological need, safety need, belonging needs, esteem and self-actualisation needs.
Application of this theory in organization of Nestle are as follows:
Physiological needs: Physiological needs are those which include satisfaction of
necessary needs of a person that are essential for life (Zhao, 2018). Nestle company is
one of those company which ae satisfying essential need of their employees by providing
them basis wages.
Safety needs: Safety needs are those which are related to safety and security of a
person’s life and their surroundings. Nestle is providing safe working environment to
their organisation. They are ensuring heath and safety measure at work place and also
offering stable income to them which satisfy their safety needs at their business.
Belonging needs: Belonging needs are those which are related to their love and
belongingness. As employee’s are social in nature, they want some with whom they share
their feeling. Nestle organisation allow their employee to make informal groups at work
place which helps them to satisfy their belonging needs.
Esteem Need: Self esteem is of those needs which are related to recognition, status,
respect of a person (Nguyen and Hadikusumo, 2017). In this type of need a person wants
prestige, dignity in their life. Nestle is one of those organisations which are providing
promotion and increment for effective work of their employees. They also dedicate
success of company to their employees which helps to satisfy their need of self-esteem.
Self-actualisation needs: Self actualisation is one of those needs which include
realisation of full potential of one ability. Nestle company is one of those organisations
which are realising full potential of their employee which helps them to satisfy their
needs. It also provides them benefit of work experience of their employees.
Potential solution of that issue
To solve problem, occur in organisation Unilever plc can also follow various human resource
theories and model like Nestlé organisation. These models help them in overcome various issues
occur related to human resource in their business. It increases their productivity and employee
engagement (Pariona‐Cabrera, Cavanagh and Bartram, 2020). It also results in increasing profit
of company and improve performance of their employees. It increases trust of employees of
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organisation and also build strong relating with them. To solve these issues human resource
managers of Unilever plc can adopt various issues which are as follows:
Training of Cross culture: To overcome of issues related to cross culture, organisation of
Unilever plc can adopt various strategies. These helps them to maintain stability at work place
and also increase productivity of company (Rai-Roche, 2019). Managers of Unilever plc provide
various training and development to their employees related to cross culture which helps them to
reduce differences at work place. This training is important for organisation which are operating
at international level as they are hiring their employees form different countries. This training
helps them to reduce confusion and misunderstanding at work place. It also assists in building
friendly environment which contribute to increase in product and engagement of every
employees.
Adoption of health and safety practices: Organisation can also adopt health and safety
practices which helps to reduce accidents and injuries at work place. Adopting of safety measure
helps company to avoid these types of situation (Salas‐Vallina, Alegre and López‐Cabrales,
2020). Due to increase in global pandemic, government impose various regulation on business
which affect their operation. To stop spread in dieses, it is important for business to adapt various
guideline. Unilever plc are adopting all necessary measures to ensure health and safety of their
employees. They are adopting social distancing between employee and wearing mas as it helps
them in avoiding spread in dieses.
Career development opportunity: Career development opportunity is one of strategy which
can be adopted by organisation of Unilever plc as it helps them in retaining employees for long
period of time in business (Soltis, Brass and Lepak, 2018). They can provide increment to
employees which are efficient and contribute in growth and success of company. This helps them
to satisfy needs of those employees and also increase their loyalty towards firm. It is important to
increase productivity and engagement of employees.
CONCLUSION
From above mentioned project report, it can be concluded that business report is one of those
reports which helps an organisation to overcome from challenges and issues occur in business. It
provides solution based on past experience that provide realistic solution to company.
Organisation face various challenges in their day to day operation related to finance, marketing,
information technology which create negative impact on productivity of business. Organisation
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also face problem related to human resources which reduce their productivity. Human resource
management refers to management of human resource at work place. It is duty of human
resource managers to understand needs of their employees and provide solution to their problem.
They are responsible for recruitment and selection of employees, providing them payroll,
ensuring training and development to enhance their skills. But there is various problem occur in
organisation which are related to human resource. These problems are related to cross culture,
retention, health and safety, employee engagement. These problems create negative impact on
business and its operation. To solve these problem, human resource manager of company plays
important role. They perform various role to solve these problems. These solutions including
training and development. Training and development are one strategy which helps to improve
productivity and skills of employees. It also helps in making working environment of
organisation familiar. Managers adopt human resource theories to solve these issues occur in
organisation as these model helps to satisfy needs of their employees. These models provide
solution to manager which helps them to overcome issues and challenges occur in company.
There are various theories including Maslow theory, ERG theory, hygiene facto theory. All these
helps managers in increasing satisfaction level for their workers and employees working in
business.
RECOMMENDATION
From above mention project report, it can be recommended that Unilever plc can adopt various
strategies which helps them in solving problem related to human resource. Human resource plays
important role in development of organisation as they contributed their efforts to carry out
operation of company. They perform actual task of any business and without them it is
impossible of any organisation to complete their work. But there are various issues occur in firm
and to overcome these problems they adopt various strategies which including training and
development of cross culture. Organisation of Unilever plc is conducting their operation at
international level, so they are facing problem related to cross culture. Company is hiring their
employees for different parts of world which create problem related to cross culture in their
business. They can also provide extra benefit to their employees which increase their loyalty
level in business. Company can provide incentives to employees which work efficiently as it
helps them to retain their employees for long period of time. They can also adopt various health
and safety measure which helps them to avoid spread of dieses at work place. It also Helps them
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to reduce accident, injury of employees at work place. These measure helps them to increase
productivity of their employees. They can use various human resource model in their
organisation as it helps them to better meet expectation of their employees. These models help to
satisfy needs of their employees and solving problem occur in enterprise. Unilever plc can adopt
Maslow’s theory which helps business to complete their work and also to satisfy different needs
to their employees. It also increases motivation of their employees and increase their engagement
in enterprise. They can satisfy their basic needs, social needs, esteem needs, belonging needs and
self-actualisation. These increase image of business in employees and also enhance impale of
company in market.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chaudhary, R., 2019. Green human resource management and job pursuit intention: examining
the underlying processes. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 26(4), pp.929-937.
Cooke, F.L., Xiao, M. and Chen, Y., 2021. Still in search of strategic human resource
management? A review and suggestions for future research with China as an
example. Human Resource Management.
Direction, S., 2017. The Yin-Yang of business focus: How to balance competitive advantage and
CSR for win/win results.
Fish, A., Ma, X.S. and Wood, J., 2018. Renewing Strategic Business Focus Through Shared
Value: A Eupsychian and Ideation Approach. In Visual Ethics. Emerald Publishing
Limited.
Han, S.H., Chae, C. and Passmore, D.L., 2019. Social network analysis and social capital in
human resource development research: A practical introduction to R use. Human
Resource Development Quarterly, 30(2), pp.219-243.
Lunsford, D.L., 2019. An Output Model for Human Resource Development
Analytics. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 32(1), pp.13-35.
Machado, C.F., 2016. Human resource management: an operational perspective. In MBA (pp. 77-
103). Springer, Cham.
Macke, J. and Genari, D., 2019. Systematic literature review on sustainable human resource
management. Journal of cleaner production, 208, pp.806-815.
Manoharachary, C., 2021. Human resource development in plant pathology. Indian
Phytopathology, pp.1-9.
Mayrhofer, W., Brewster, C. and Farndale, E., 2018. Future avenues for comparative human
resource management. In Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource
Management. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Nguyen, H.T. and Hadikusumo, B., 2017. Impacts of human resource development on
engineering, procurement, and construction project success. Built Environment Project
and Asset Management.
Pariona‐Cabrera, P., Cavanagh, J. and Bartram, T., 2020. Workplace violence against nurses in
health care and the role of human resource management: A systematic review of the
literature. Journal of advanced nursing, 76(7), pp.1581-1593.
Rai-Roche, S., 2019. In focus: GOC's business standards and first equality
report. Optician, 2019(2), pp.210306-1.
Salas‐Vallina, A., Alegre, J. and López‐Cabrales, Á., 2020. The challenge of increasing
employees' well‐being and performance: How human resource management practices and
engaging leadership work together toward reaching this goal. Human Resource
Management.
Soltis, S.M., Brass, D.J. and Lepak, D.P., 2018. Social resource management: Integrating social
network theory and human resource management. Academy of Management
Annals, 12(2), pp.537-573.
Zhao, Y., 2018. Managing Chinese millennial employees and their impact on human resource
management transformation: an empirical study. Asia Pacific Business Review, 24(4),
pp.472-489.
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