Analysis of HRM Functions and Their Impact on Unilever's Success

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................4
LO1........................................................................................................................................... 5
P1 EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE AND THE FUNCTIONS OF HRM, APPLICABLE TO WORKFORCE
PLANNING AND RESOURCING AN ORGANIZATION..............................................................5
M1 IDENTIFY AND EVALUATE HR FUNCTIONS TO FULFILL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES.............11
P2 EXPLAIN THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES OF
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION......................................................................................... 12
M2 EVALUATE THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES APPROACHES TO RECRUITMENT AND
SELECTION.......................................................................................................................... 13
LO2......................................................................................................................................... 14
P3 EXPLAIN THE BENEFIT OF DIFFERENT HRM PRACTICES WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION FOR
BOTH THE EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE..............................................................................14
P4 EFFECTIVENESS OF DIFFERENT HRM PRACTICES IN TERMS OF RAISING PROFIT AND
PRODUCTIVITY OF UNILEVER............................................................................................. 17
M3 EXPLORE DIFFERENT METHODS USED IN HRM PRACTICES..........................................19
LO3......................................................................................................................................... 20
P5 ANALYSE THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN RESPECT TO INFLUENCE HRM
DECISION-MAKING............................................................................................................. 20
P6 IDENTIFY THE KEY ELEMENTS OF EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION AND THE IMPACT IT HAS
UPON HRM DECISION-MAKING..........................................................................................22
M4 THE KEY ASPECTS OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS AND EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATIONS THAT
AFFECTS THE DECISION MAKING OF HR WITH THE APPLICATION OF UNILEVER................23
LO4......................................................................................................................................... 24
P7 ILLUSTRATE THE APPLICATION OF HRM PRACTICES IN A WORK RELATED CONTEXT,
USING SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.................................................................................................24
JOB DESCRIPTION............................................................................................................... 24

PERSON SPECIFICATION..................................................................................................... 25
INTERVIEW QUESTION FOR THE POSITION OF SALES MANAGER.......................................25
JOB OFFER.......................................................................................................................... 26
M5 PROVIDE A RATIONALE FOR THE APPLICATION OF SPECIFIC HRM...............................27
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................... 28
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................... 29

INTRODUCTION
Human resources are the function that deals with people and related activities with them.
Employees, customers, staff, internal and external shareholders are the human resources
that are connected to the business. They are responsible for performing operations in the
business with the objective of its growth and success (Noe et al., 2017). This assignment will
review the functions and purpose of human resource management and how they will help
in recruiting the workforce for the business in context to Unilever. Further, the efficiency of
the key elements of HRM will be analyzed in terms of increasing productivity and
profitability for the organization.
The company Unilever was founded by the merger of Lever Brothers and Margarine Unie on
2 September 1929 in the United Kingdom. It has the purpose of bringing hygiene and
cleanliness in the society and to create sustainable living commonplace. Unilever is a
transnational company works with around 155,000 employees by the year 2019. Its net
income is around €9.808 billion up to 2018. Unilever works on the Slogan of “Feel good, look
good and get more out of life” (Noe et al., 2017).

LO1
P1 EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE AND THE FUNCTIONS OF HRM, APPLICABLE TO
WORKFORCE PLANNING AND RESOURCING AN ORGANIZATION.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human resource management is a function deals with the recruiting and selecting
employees, providing training and development, deciding benefits and compensation,
developing performance and motivating employees. This is a strategic approach to
managing resources in order to gain competitive advantages (Noe et al., 2017).
 PURPOSE OF HRM
HRM aims at coordinating people within the organization in order to achieve business goals
and meeting employee satisfaction. Unilever considers its workforce as an important asset
and works for their efficiency and effectiveness (Noe et al., 2017). Unilever has its major
focus on human rights and its main purpose is to bring employee motivation for the
company’s success.
 FUNCTIONS OF HRM

 Managerial functions of Unilever
Planning
Unilever plans for sustainable living and growth from the environmental footprints. Each
brand at Unilever is responsible for sustainable growth and at the same times increases its
social impact (Cascio, 2015).
Organizing
Unilever is now organizing its global functionalities using a transnational strategy. It has
around 400 brands in 14 categories involving beauty and food products. Unilever operates
within 170 countries with approx. 163,000 employees.
Staffing
Unilever follows the process of Staffing for recruiting eligible candidates for the job and
creates a training and development program for them (Noe et al., 2017). It has its global
workforce in Europe, Asia, Africa, America and the Middle East.
Direction
The direction is the process that initiates action. Unilever provides information to managers
by using Information Technology for their decision making (Tsourvakas and Yfantidou,
2018).
Controlling
Unilever uses SAP software for controlling its business. This is used by the process and
business leaders globally and helps to support and develop a business strategy (Cascio,
2015).
 Operating functions of Unilever
Procurement
It is the process of acquiring works from the external source. Unilever works with IBM to
support procurement for Europe’s NPI (Noe et al., 2017).

Development
As part of the development plan, Unilever thinks that employee is the reason behind the
company's success and growth (Pierce, 2017). Unilever introduces campaigns internationally
to motivate its employee.
Compensation
Unilever paid compensation according to the job performance of an employee. It focuses on
HR development and therefore develops Compensation plan to motivate employee (Pierce,
2017).
Maintenance
This function of HRM at Unilever works to maintain loyalty and commitment of employee
with the organization (Cascio, 2015).
Motivation
Reward strategy is the best way to motive the employee and remove any dissatisfaction to
them.
Integration
Unilever works in grouping the activities which encourage co-operation and integration.
HRM introduces Integrated Marketing Communication that brings promotional tools
together to work with harmony.
 Workforce planning of Unilever
In order to select an effective workforce for the organization, the functions of HRM helps
Unilever to discover the sources of manpower. Planning helps Unilever to determine the
best procedure for recruitment (Cascio, 2015). It decides the hiring needs and job
requirements and sources of recruitment. Unilever offers compensation based on the skills
and experience of the employee and introduces the benefit schemes such as medical
benefit and financial benefit. Staffing helps Unilever to select the best-qualified candidate
and ensures the best utilization of human resources (Noe et al., 2017).

Define business objectives
The very first step in workforce planning is defining business objectives. It is necessary to
define an organization’s long term goal, it makes clear the skills and qualities required in an
employee to fulfil that objective. As Unilever works for improving the well-being and
livelihood of people, it will look for the workforce having effective skills and roles to achieve
overall business objectives (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Evaluate the current workforce
The second step of workforce planning is evaluating the current workforce by determining
the strength and weaknesses of the team and how they work to achieve the current needs
of an organization (Rana, 2019). After evaluating the current workforce, Unilever will look
for acquiring talent in the current market and identify cost required for assessing external
talent in accordance with its needs.
Establish future requirements and identify any gaps
Next, make a complete review of business future plans and requirements and gather
information about workload changes and identify competencies to achieve business goals
(Rana, 2019). Next, compare the differences between demand & supply assessments to
identify the gaps.

Establish a plan to address the gap
To address gaps in current and future employee needs, Unilever creates talent &
development program to improve existing employee and hire staff externally to
complement current employees. After the gaps have been addressed, the next step is to
integrate the new talent in the current team.
The company Unilever carries out its workforce planning by first providing ideas and data.
After then, it identifies the vision for future planning. It majorly focuses on staff issues such
as rewards, employee relationship, performance management and motivation plans (Rana,
2019).

M1 IDENTIFY AND EVALUATE HR FUNCTIONS TO FULFILL BUSINESS
OBJECTIVES
The HR department of Unilever works with the purpose of achieving business objectives by
using HR functions. The human resource functions are concerned with the HRM practices
that help in meeting the goals of Unilever. The HR of Unilever has the ability to manage its
employee and build a positive relationship with them (Gustafsson and Hailey, 2016). The HR
at Unilever supports an important asset of the business that is employees and develops the
world’s best talent by attracting, developing and retaining the right talent. It will create a
performance culture of Unilever to respect the values of the organization.HR expert’s team
of Unilever works on the policies and helps in developing an individual's talent. They have a
link with external experts that make Unilever aware of industry best practices (Gustafsson
and Hailey, 2016). The important function of performance management must be followed
by the HR of Unilever to identify the performance of the employee. HR of Unilever creates
training programs for the improvement of the employee so that they can contribute more
to the success of an organization.