Human Resource Management Practices at Unilever UK

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Human Resources Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................. 3
LO1 (P1, P2)...............................................................................................................4
LO2 (P3, P4)...............................................................................................................9
LO3 (P5, P6)............................................................................................................. 12
LO4 (P7)....................................................................................................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 20
Reference list............................................................................................................ 21
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Introduction
Human resource management is the effective approach of managing an entire
workforce unit of an organization towards achieving its business targets. This special
department looks after the hiring, monitoring, management, orientation, and firing of
employee. HR personnel set effective HRM practices for better performance of the
overall organization.
“Unilever, UK” is one of the most famous British-Dutch transactional consumers
goods companies across the UK premises. William Lever, James Darcy lever and
Samuel Van Den Bergh founded the company in 1929, more than 89 years ago.
The company serves their products to worldwide customers. More than 155,000
employees work in this organization. Last year, the company generated £50.998
billion revenue in their business (Unilever.co.uk/, 2019).
In this paper, different vital roles and functions of HR department along with their
significance in accomplishing the organizational targets will be displayed. Importance
of HRM practices in improving the performance of the employees and the
organization will be evaluated in this study. Additionally, this study will shed light on
role of HR in building strong employee relations in an organization. Lastly, multiple
elements that impact upon HR decision making will be determined in this paper.
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LO1 (P1, P2)
Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of
resourcing an organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business
objectives
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce
planning and resourcing an organisation.
The external business environment has been changing on a frequent basis and thus
the human capital has to stay updated in accordance to them in order to provide the
company with a competitive edge. It forms the basis on which the function of HR is
based on. The organization of Unilever, UK is one of the premier institutions in the
retail sector and is observant to some drastic changes, ranging from consumption
habits to market trends. Thus, the function of HR department at Unilever, UK is
served as one of the paramount importance to the cause of the company. The main
responsibility is to devise strategies and plans that would help the human capital to
evolve, with the possession of the appropriate set of skills and the incorporation of
innovative minds (De Bruecker et al., 2014). It involves the extensive training of
individuals and setting up meticulous recruitment policies. Thus, it reflects on the
facets of functionality that defines the HRM activities instantiated at Unilever, UK.
The purpose of the HR department is aimed at providing the company with
sustainable competitive development in terms of the human workforce. Unilever, UK
has been serving to the purpose with the implementation of the administrative
policies that orient the human capital in the proper direction and align them with the
organizational objective. The accomplishment of the mentioned purpose is realised
through undertakings of appropriate HR practices. The purpose of the HRM is mostly
the same for different organization because the companies are mostly reliant on the
activities of the human capital.
Workforce Planning
The advent of this HRM policy is one of the strategies that impart credibility to the
purpose of the organization. The Human Resource at Unilever has been observant
to undertake the activities to monitor the prevalent trends in the market info graphic.
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It has developed the particular set of customized Human Resource information
System that assesses the manner in which the recruitment procedures and protocols
are going to be implemented. The HR team is continuously in the lookout for the
practices that analyses the economical policies that arerelated to the possible
recruitment of the existing workforce (Momin and Mishra, 2015). Unilever has been
observant to the implementation of the workforce planning through the computational
models of the data analytics and mining to the forecast the probable changes that is
going to be prevalent within the skill set of the human capital. Unilever has been
vying their trade in a saturated market faction and facing stiff competition in the
terms of GSK. As the industry is labour intensive in nature the company has to
come good on developing the human capital in order to impart a sustainable
competitive advantage. The advents of Workforce Planning play a key role in
asserting sustainable competitive advantage. It uses the effective policies to
strategize the administration policies that the company could make use of while
reaping the benefits of the appropriate recruitment policies. The changes in the
Employment laws and the economic conditions have adversely impacted the
fortunes of the business. The Human Resource information system makes use of
these factors as the intangible parameters that assists in actuating the possible
forecast which could help the company to meticulously plan the departments that
need assertion in the near future so that the company could generate credible
amount of revenues. The association with such sophisticated model has thrown a
different light on the prevalent practices of strategic HR department (Noe et al.,
2014).
Resourcing in Organisation
The purpose of alleviating the human capital with the incorporation of valuable inputs
is one of the advents that assuages the function and purpose of the HRM
department at Unilever. The function of the HR department is to review the
operations within the organization and identify the operation that serves on the area
of further improvement (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The recorded information is
assessed and the strategic plan is developed that would help the department to be
assuaged with the incorporation of the appropriate individuals reflecting on the
adequate skill set that is missing from the functions of the operational department.
Unilever has been recently facing predicaments with the marketing activities and the
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HR department has analyzed the operation for it sib optimal production and has
recorded that the absences of the innovative minds has been the driving factor.
Hence, the department has been made strategic changes to deliver on the
resourcing the organization and has preferred candidates with extensive knowledge
in the fields of consumer profiling that would impart innovation within the facets of
understanding the consumer behavior. Thus it reflects on the prospects of how it met
the gaps that were prevalent in the department and served on the purpose of
resourcing the organization appropriately. The functioning of the HRM department
includes the implementation of the different factors within the strategy and is done in
accordance to the presence of the adequate finances so they do not overspend on
the recruitment processes (Jackson, 2014). The function would further involvement
screening the possible candidates that reflect on the possession of the alleviated
knowledge in the domains of prevalent skills that are in line with the needs of the
existing human capital resource.
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to
recruitment and selection.
Recruitment is the process of recruiting the most eligible and qualified candidates
from a pool of applicants. HR personnel of an organization like “Unilever, UK” plays
the most vital role in recruitment and selection function. However, the recruitment
approach consists of two vital approaches; internal recruitment approach and
external recruitment approach.
Internal recruitment approach refers to selecting candidates from inside the
company in order to fulfil the vacant job designations in the company (Noe et al.,
2017). The human resource department rehires staffs who are working in Unilever,
UK for other positions. Internal method of recruitment hires employees those are
already familiar with the company and it diverse business operations. To employees,
this method is effective in providing them better career opportunity. However,
Unilever, UK uses both internal and external methods of recruitment approaches for
fulfil their vacant job roles with proper skill set and talents.
Advantages
 It reduces the cost of recruitment
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 The approach of recruitment takes less time to recruit candidates
Disadvantages
 It limits the number of potential candidates
 The skill set of the candidates selected by internal recruitment approach are
less effective compared to other approaches
External recruitment approach is another effective approach of hiring, recruiting
and fulfilling then vacant job positions in the company with the most suitable
candidates those have been selected from a pool of eligible applicants (Shammot,
2014). This approach of recruitment is effective enough for selecting most qualified
and suitable employees for the organization and assisting the company in
accelerating their business performance. Most of the successful companies like
Unilever, UK use external recruitment method for fulfilling their vacant job positions
and improving the overall business performance effectively.
Advantages
 Candidates those are recruited through external recruitment approach must
be more skilled and effective as well for accelerating the production, sales and
profitability of the organization
 In external recruitment, recruiter has several choices to select candidates.
Recruiter recruits the most effective as well as suitable candidate from a pool
of eligible applicants.
Disadvantages
 The main disadvantage of external recruitment is that it takes high amount of
capital and time to conduct and recruit suitable candidates
Selection is the process of selecting eligible and effective candidates for an
organization. In simple words, it is the process of putting the right candidate at the
right place of the organization (Gatewood et al., 2015). Most of the successful
companies like Unilever, UK use effective selection procedures such as panel
interview, skill test, personality test and others for selecting the most appropriate
candidates. Unilever, UK uses both panel interview and personality test in their
company that are detailed in below section.
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Panel interview in one of the most reliable selection methods, where candidates are
asked questions directly by more than one interviewer. This process of selection may
be lengthy, but effective enough to hire the best one (Ekwoaba et al., 2015).
Advantages
 Panel interview is reliable to hire candidates
 Panel interview focuses upon recruiting those candidates only who can create
value for the organization
Disadvantages
 It takes high time and cost to conduct
 Many times, candidates feel nervous during panel interview as they have to
face more than one interviewer at a time.
Personality test
In personality test, the personality of the candidates and requirements of the
organization is checked and after that most suitable candidates are get hired. In this
selection method, interpersonal skills of employees is measured (Vernon, 2014).
Advantages
 Personality test takes less time and cost to conduct
 Personality test is effective for assessing the interpersonal skills of candidates
Disadvantages
 Designing the personality questions is a challenge to organization
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LO2 (P3, P4)
P3 Explain the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for
both the employer and employee.
The HRM practices that are observant to the benefits to the employee and employer
are as follows:
Training
The aspect of training plays a major role in the imparting credibility to the purpose of
the company (Bailey, 2014). The particular HRM activities are prevalent within
Unilever and are extensively practiced to come good on alleviating the skills of the
workforce. The company has recently coming across the predicaments within the
employee engagement. Thus the HR department has instantiated on off job and on
job training to impart the trainees with the learning in the interpersonal skills. It will
benefit the employees as they will grow as individual and enhance their
communication skill. It in turn would also benefit the employer as the employee delve
in the prospects of assuaged communication skill it would increase employee
engagement. This in turn would help them actuate on effective teamwork and result
in the production of optimal production, which is the primary objective that the
employer wants to accomplish. Thus it reflects how the HR practices of training
benefits the employer and the employee of Unilever
Employee Reward Management program
The provisions of the performance appraisals play a key role in the operational
productivity of a department (Shields et al., 2014). The HR department of Unilever
has developed a customized performance appraisal system in the form of Employee
Reward Management program. The team organizes a seminar where the employees
are invited and rewarded for their contribution to the cause of the company. The
rewards are given in the form of monetary and non monetary methods in the forms of
health insurances and destinations ticket. It has been beneficial for the purpose of
the employees as the recent prevalence of economic recession has dented in the
rise of the wages as well as in their job satisfaction but with the provision of the
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monetary rewards, it has assuaged the motivation of the employees. As the
employees are motivated, they transcend on the optimal productivity and enhance
the performance of the organization. Thus, it increases the scopes for the employer
to reap greater financial revenues and reflects on how it benefits the employer.
P4 Evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices in terms of raising
organisational profit and productivity.
The HRM practices that are incremental to the benefits of organizational productivity
and profit are mentioned below:
Training
The aspect of on job training is critical to impart sustainability to the operations. The
organization of Unilever has been observant to the use of on job training to the
operations and marketing department on an extensive scale. The training in the
digital technology has helped the employees to make better promotional campaigns
for the company. Thus it has resulted in the optimal productivity from the marketing
operations. The training has also helped the individuals of the marketing team in
order to identify the cheap promotional platform. Thus it has cut down on the
operational cost of the marketing campaign and the residual financial residual
resources have added up as the organizational profit for the company of Unilever.
Employee Reward Management
The Employee Reward Management is one of the key drivers behind the motivation
of the employees. As the employees stay engaged and are reflecting on higher
levels of job satisfaction, it forms the basis on which the productivity of the individual
is increased (Shahzadi, et al., 204). The HR department at Unilever is prevalent with the
programs on a regular basis as they continuously improve the organizational
productivity with the rise of the optimal production of individual employee. The
rewards in the form of money motivate them to strive for further improvement with
their contribution. As they impart more assertion the employees innovate the
business process to deliver on a competitive advantage and generate credible
amount of profit.
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LO3 (P5, P6)
Analyse internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management
decision-making, including employment legislation
P5 Analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing
HRM decision- making.
The term Employee relation refers to the efforts of an organization for managing
relationship between employees and employer (Terera and Ngirande, 2014). Every
business organization including like “Unilever, UK” are aimed at building strong
employee relation across the organizations that will result in higher productivity,
sales and profitability of the organization. It is undeniable that happy and motivated
employees are more productive compared to unhappy or discouraged employees.
Happy employees are able to accelerate the production and sales rate of the
organization. Successful business organizations like “Unilever, UK” know how to
manage relationships for building lasting staff satisfaction. The most important asset
of all business ventures is employees and without employees, none of the
businesses can conduct operations as well. Employer of an organization like
“Unilever, UK” require managing relationships in the workplace for avoiding
problems, keeping the business functioning smoothly and ensuring staffs are
performing at the best level (Hassan, 2016). Successful companies like “Unilever,
UK” with a good employee relation program offer fair as well as consistent treatment
to exhaustive workface unit so that employees shall be committed to the activities
and loyal to organization as well. Strong employee relations of an organization is the
clear indication of the success of the company.
Apart from this, strong employee relation impact over decision-making process as
well. Due to strong employee relation, organizational productivity and sales
increases automatically. It allows better business decision-making. Additionally, it
focuses upon several important things like supporting work life balance, pay and
benefits and safe working conditions (Al-Emadi et al., 2015). Employees are likely to
work in free work environment. Strong employee-employer relation allows treating
employees as a part of business so that employee feel better connection with the
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company and contribute in better manner those results in higher growth of
organization. Alternatively, it influences better decision-making within the firm.
P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has
upon HRM decision- making.
It is undeniable that UK parliament has multiple legislations and regulation in order to
safeguard their employees from any kind of unethical business practices and
improving their life leading style. However, these key employment legislations are
effective enough to impact and influence business as well as HR decision-making.
The Equality Act 2010
In 2010, the UK parliament implemented the Equality Act to safeguard their workers
from any kind of discrimination irrespective of sex, gender, colour, race and others.
Additionally, as per this act, favouritism or partiality is strictly restricted within the
company premises. The key aim of implementing this act was reducing the
inequalities among employees and betterment of their life leading style. According to
this act, human resource department cannot exclude any person having such
discrimination characteristics from employment (Bryson, 2017). Department is
responsible for providing equal salaries and compensation to the employees so that
they feel better connection with the company and contribute in better manner that
alternatively influences better business decision-making.
Data Protection Act 2018
Protecting the data and personal information regarding the employees is necessity
and unauthorised persons must not use this data and information. This act if the
updated version of Data Protection Act 1998. Additionally, this act allows human
resource department handling the exhaustive data of employees including same,
date of birth, address, qualification and other important information and others. If an
employer or any person is found with this kind of unethical activities must be
punished as per the norms and regulations of this Data Protection Act 2018 (Carey,
2018). HR personal of an organization is responsible for protecting the data and
information of the employees and ensuring that the organization is running smoothly.
Due to this act, employees feel better connection with the firm and start better
perfuming business operations.
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