Strategic HRM at Unilever: Trends, Problems, and Workforce Planning

This report provides an analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Unilever, a UK-based multinational organization. It explores current trends such as globalization, workforce diversity, dynamic skill requirements, continuous improvement, and contingent workforce, along with problems like workforce engagement, talent attraction and retention, relationship management, and training and development strategies. The report details the process of long-term workforce planning using the OPM model, including setting strategic decisions, analyzing the workforce, developing action plans, implementing these plans, and monitoring progress. Furthermore, it discusses ethical practices during recruitment and selection, emphasizing the importance of avoiding misleading job advertisements, conducting fair interviews, treating candidates equally, and maintaining confidentiality. Finally, the report recommends steps for HRM to resolve organizational problems, including identifying issues, understanding interests, listing solutions, evaluating options, selecting appropriate solutions, documenting agreements, and agreeing on contingencies, monitoring, and evaluation.

Human resource
Management
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Table of content
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Explain the current trends and problems that are faced by the organisation along with the
impact upon the organisation......................................................................................................3
Explain the process of long term work force planning that is done by the Human resource
management of the organisation along with the theories and practices that have been
considered. .................................................................................................................................5
Explain the ethical practices that are required to be taken by the organisation during the
recruitment and selection process. .............................................................................................6
Recommend various steps that can be taken by the HRM of the organisation in order to
resolve the various problems of the organisation. ......................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Human resource management is referred as the concept wherein the various processes are
being followed by the organisation such as recruitment, selection, hiring, training and
development. The concept of Human resource management is popularly referred as HR in
common term. The responsibility of the human resource department in the organisation is
basically to create governing policies and further bring them in to execution. Further the policies
are monitored by the Human resource department of the organisation whether they are being
implemented in the organisation in an effective an efficient manner. They consider the
employees as the asset of their business (Peccei and Van De Voorde, 2019).
In order to complete the report, Unilever has been considered as the primary organisation
of the report. The report revolves around the concept of Human resource management of
Unilever. Unilever is a UK based multinational organisation. The headquarters of the
organisation has been established at London, England. The organisation tends to deal in various
food products and consumer goods. The organisation was founded in the year 1929.
Main Body
Explain the current trends and problems that are faced by the organisation along with the impact
upon the organisation.
The various trends that are being faced by Unilever in terms of Unilever have been discussed
below.
 Globalisation- The latest trends in the human resource can be referred as the
globalisation along with its implication upon the business. Globalisation has led to the
businesses expanding across the national boundaries of a territory. There has been a
significant increase in the multinational organisations across the globe. Hence the Human
resource department ensures a proper mix of employees at the organisation. The Human
resource tends to develop various mechanisms in order to facilitate ways that help in
managing the differences among the employees (Trullen, Bos‐Nehles and Valverde,
2020).
 Workforce diversity- Workforce diversity is also a trend in the Human resource
management at the organisation. The work force of an organisation comprises of various
employees that belong to the different gender, class, education, lifestyle, beliefs as well
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as background. Hence it is important for the Human resource management of the
organisation to focus upon all the employees who belong to diverse background. The
diversity in the organisation tend to flourish various benefits in terms of creativity as well
as decision making at the workplace (Macke and Genari, 2019).
 Dynamic skill requirements- The Human resource department of the organisation focus
upon the recruitment and development of the various skilled labours in order to increase
the competitiveness along with the productivity of the organisation. The deficiency in
part of the skills tend to result in the failure of the organisation. Hence the organisation
focuses upon the skill requirement.
 Continuous improvement- The human resource management is also facing a trend of
continuous improvement programs. The continuous improvement tends to focus upon the
well being and the productivity of the organisation in the long run. The continuous
improvement tends to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation that
depends upon the employees of the organisation.
 Contingent work force- Contingent workforce is also considered as a trend in the
Human resource management. The human resource management of the organisation
tends to hire various contingent workers in order to work for a shorter period of time. The
contingent workforce are basically the individuals that have a specialised knowledge and
they are hired by the organisations to fulfil the work flow.
The various problems that are being faced by Unilever in terms of Unilever have been discussed
below.
 Workforce engagement- There are various challenges that are faced by the organisation.
Various challenges include workforce engagement. The workforce engagement is
considered as a challenge as it is difficult for the functional department in the
organisation to enhance engagement at the work place. It is important for the organisation
to be more people centric and it is hence a challenge as well (Fenech, Baguant and
Ivanov, 2019).
 Talent attraction- Another challenge that is being faced by the organisation is that they
have top attract various talented employees towards the organisation. The organisation
tends to focus upon various intelligent as well as skilled employees who can be attracted
towards the organisation and can further have a huge contribution towards the
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productivity of the organisation. The Human resource department of the organisation
focus upon an effective planning in order to reach towards the target candidates for the
organisation.
 Talent retention- Another challenge for the organisation is to retain the talented
employees in the organisation. The organisation may opt for various employee retention
techniques in order to sustain the talent at the work place so that the effectiveness and
efficiency can be managed at the organisation (Cooke, Schuler and Varma, 2020).
 Relationship management- Relationship management is a challenge at the work place
and it depends upon the job satisfaction as well as productivity of the organisation. The
relationship management requires to open line of communication that act as a pre
requisite for the relationship management at the organisation.
 Training and development strategies- The training and development strategies of the
organisation act as a challenge for the organisation. It is a challenge for the organisation
to devote appropriate emphasis upon the organisation as well as resources so that the goal
of the organisation regarding the growth and productivity can be accomplished. Training
and development is considered as a challenge as they require a huge investment in the
organisation.
Explain the process of long term work force planning that is done by the Human resource
management of the organisation along with the theories and practices that have been
considered.
The work force planning is referred to a process that aims at analysing, predicting as well
as planning the demand and supply of the workforce while analysing the demand and supply so
that the gaps can be assessed and further talent management can be targetted. In order to
facilitate appropriate workforce planning, the organisation is required to ensure that the
organisation posses right people who have right skills at the right place and at the right time.
The OPM model can be used by Unilever to for long term workforce planning. There are
various stages for workforce planning that have been discussed below (Collins, 2021).
 Set strategic decisions- The first step in the workforce planning is to set strategic
decisions that help the organisation to accomplish the goals. Unilever can link the
strategic plan of the organisation along with annual performance along with the work
activities that are required to carry out various long term and short term plan.
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 Analysis of workforce and identification of skill gaps- The next step in the workforce
planning process is to analyse the workforce of the organisation and further identify the
skill gaps that are arising at the organisation which can be helpful in carrying out the
workforce analysis (Boon, Den Hartog and Lepak, 2019).
 Development of action plan- The next step in the workforce planning of OPM model is
to identify the various strategies in order to fill the gaps and further the organisation plans
to implement the strategies for further measurement of the assessment of the strategic
progress. The strategies involved in the development plan is recruitment, training,
structuring, succession planning as well as technological enhancement.
 Implementation of action plan- The fourth step in the workforce planning process is to
implement the action plan with he help of various human and fiscal resources that can
further facilitate the required communication, marketing as well as coordination in order
to execute the plan.
 Monitoring, Evaluation and Revision- The last step in the workforce planning process
that can be applied by the organisation is to monitor the progress in order to assess the
continuous improvement at the organisation.
Explain the ethical practices that are required to be taken by the organisation during the
recruitment and selection process.
The various ethical practices that are required by Unilever to consider for the purpose of ethical
recruiting have been discussed below.
 Misleading job advertisements- Unilever needs to ensure that it does not place
misleading job advertisements in the name of the organisation as it is considered as an
unethical practice (Anwar and Abdullah, 2021).
 Conduct Interview in correct manner- The organisation is required to ensure that it
conducts thorough interviews in order to properly match with the right jobs. Unilever can
provide guidance to the employees that will facilitate better understanding.
 Treating candidates in an equal manner- It is a mandatory requirement for the
organisation to treat all the employees and candidates in an equal manner. Unilever must
make sure that it does not create discrimination among the employees at the work place
during the recruitment and selection process.
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 Maintain confidentiality- The organisation must make sure that it is able to maintain
confidentiality at the work place regarding the personal information of the employees as
well as the applicants of the work place. The information of the candidates must not be
used without the consent of the employees at the work place (Amrutha and Geetha,
2020).
Recommend various steps that can be taken by the HRM of the organisation in order to resolve
the various problems of the organisation.
In order to resolve various problems at the organisation, the organisation can follow the steps
that have been discussed underneath.
 Identification of the issues- The HRM of Unilever will be required to identify the issues
that are being faced in the organisation. It is important and the preliminary step in order
to resolve the issues as the organisation.
 Understanding interests- The next step in order to resolve the issue is to understand the
interest of the person. It comprises of the needs that are required to be satisfied by
providing a solution in aspect of the interest of the individual.
 Listing of solutions- The next step in order to resolve the problem is to list the various
solutions or the outcomes that can be utilised by the organisation regarding the issues.
Various positive and negative points of the problem are identified.
 Evaluation of the options- Various solutions of the issues are evaluated by Unilever
based upon the satisfaction they provide at the workplace.
 Selection of the option- The next that is required to be selected by the organisation is to
select the appropriate option after proper evaluation of the solutions.
 Documentation- It is important for Unilever to document the agreements rather than
relying upon the memory.
 Agree upon contingencies, monitoring as well as evaluation- The last step is to agree
upon the contingencies as well as to monitor and evaluate the solutions as the
circumstances can change. It is very important for the organisation to properly monitor
the implementation of the solutions (Ahammad, Glaister and Gomes, 2020).
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Conclusion
It can be concluded from the report that Human resource management plays a significant
role in the organisation. Human resource management is referred as the concept wherein the
various processes are being followed by the organisation such as recruitment, selection, hiring,
training and development. The report has highlighted the concept of the HRM along with the
trends and problems that are faced by the organisation. The report comprises of various steps
that are required for workforce planning along with the process of resolving problems at the
workplace. The report has highlighted the ethical practices that are required to be carried out in
the recruitment and selection process of the organisation.
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References
Books and journals
Ahammad, M.F., Glaister, K.W. and Gomes, E., 2020. Strategic agility and human resource
management. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1), p.100700.
Amrutha, V.N. and Geetha, S.N., 2020. A systematic review on green human resource
management: Implications for social sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 247,
p.119131.
Anwar, G. and Abdullah, N.N., 2021. The impact of Human resource management practice on
Organizational performance. International journal of Engineering, Business and
Management (IJEBM), 5.
Boon, C., Den Hartog, D.N. and Lepak, D.P., 2019. A systematic review of human resource
management systems and their measurement. Journal of management, 45(6), pp.2498-
2537.
Collins, C.J., 2021. Expanding the resource based view model of strategic human resource
management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(2),
pp.331-358.
Cooke, F.L., Schuler, R. and Varma, A., 2020. Human resource management research and
practice in Asia: Past, present and future. Human Resource Management Review, 30(4),
p.100778.
Fenech, R., Baguant, P. and Ivanov, D., 2019. The changing role of human resource management
in an era of digital transformation. Journal of Management Information and Decision
Sciences, 22(2), pp.1-10.
Macke, J. and Genari, D., 2019. Systematic literature review on sustainable human resource
management. Journal of cleaner production, 208, pp.806-815.
Peccei, R. and Van De Voorde, K., 2019. Human resource management–well‐being–performance
research revisited: Past, present, and future. Human Resource Management
Journal, 29(4), pp.539-563.
Trullen, J., Bos‐Nehles, A. and Valverde, M., 2020. From intended to actual and beyond: A
cross‐disciplinary view of (human resource management) implementation. International
journal of management reviews, 22(2), pp.150-176.
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