Strategic human resource managementassignment discussing the human resource practices of Unilever
Question
Task: Choose any company with 100 or more employees and apply the Model of Strategic HR Management as a means of investigating and assessing the strategic HR practices of the firm. Provide 5–7 key recommendations for improving the strategic and theological soundness of the HR practices of the subject company in your strategic human resource management assignment.
Answer
Introduction
Human resources are one of the most essential departments for any organisation. Starting from recruitment of potential candidates in the organisation, training them to retain them for a definite period of time are the main responsibilities of the human resources departments. At the same time, it ensures the well-being of the workforce of the organisation by providing them various opportunities and benefits. At the same time, human resources also try to provide a healthy environment for the people working for the organisation. In this strategic human resource management assignment, Unilever is chosen as the reference organisation. Human resource practices will be discussed and a few recommendations will be added in this strategic human resource management assignment.
Section 1: Profile of Unilever discussed in the strategic human resource management assignment
Unilever is an organisation based in the United Kingdom and mostly produces consumer products. Currently, Unilever is the largest soap owners across the world. Unilever is now growing as a public limited organisation while trying to serve across the world.
Corporate strategy of the organisation discussed in the strategic human resource management assignment
The main strategy of Unilever as per the strategic human resource management assignment findings is to provide a sustainable place for its consumers while taking care of their basic needs. The organisation wants to provide best services to the consumers while focusing on the quality and quantity of the products. Their basic corporate strategy is to retain more consumers while producing bulk products with good quality and saving the environment at the same time.
Revenue base
As per the reports of 2021, Unilever has generated a revenue of around 52,44 billion USD. As per the strategic human resource management assignment data, in 2020, the amount of revenue was only 50,724 billion USD. The revenue of the organisation is constantly increasing day after day.
Financial performance
Operating income of this organisation in 2021 was around 8,702 billion USD. At the same time, net income of Unilever was 6,621 billion USD. As per the strategic human resource management assignment findings, total assets of the oragnisation are about 75,059 billion USD. The portion of equity of Unilever is around 19.746 billion USD as per the records of 2021.
Employee base
Currently, the organisation has 149,000 employees across the world according to the reports provided in 2022. Unilever is actually focusing more on recruiting female candidates in the organisation. In every 100 employees, there are 52 women and 48 men (Liu et al ., 2020). At the same time, Unilever chooses its 92 percent local candidates in their leader positions. As per the strategic human resource management assignment still there are thousands of openings for the young people who are willing to build a career with Unilever.
Ownership structure
The ownership structure of Unilever is public limited company. Being a public limited company, Unilever has allowed outsiders to invest in the shares of the organisation. At the same time, the owners do not have huge liabilities while investing their money for various organisational functions (Tursunbayeva, 2019). It is found in this strategic human resource management assignment that finance related opportunities are quite huge for Unilever as public is investing their money on its various ventures.
Product/service mix
The organisation mainly focuses on various consumer products. Mostly they have differentiated their products in a few items like beauty products, household products, food and refreshments and personal hygiene products. As per the strategic human resource management assignmentUnilever is considered the largest soap producers in the world. In the meanwhile, the organisation right now owns around 400 brands among them Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, Sunsilk, Lifebuoy, Magnum etc are quite famous across the world.
Competitive position
Unilever is one of the household names which is producing more consumers good. At the same time, there are a few multinational organisation trying to give a tough competition to Unilever (Kassymova et al., 2019). For example, we can use a few names like Johnson & Johnson, Mars, Colgate-palmolive etc. At the same time, Unilever is better than the others as it is trying to incorporate more research while producing goods for the consumers. As per the strategic human resource management assignment it often wants to meet the requirements of the consumers while Unilever has a very flexible cost structure.
Primary locations for operations
Unilever currently operates from 190 countries across the world. The primary location for operations is London, the United Kingdom. Currently the organisation has research facilities in various Asian countries like China, India and the United Kingdoms, the United States. As per the strategic human resource management assignment the organisation is trying to provide its products and services across the world.
Section 2: Analysis and assessment of HR practices in the strategic human resource management assignment
Paying special attention to human resources will genuinely help the organisation. As per the strategic human resource management assignment human resources is one of the most crucial departments of Unilever as it maintains the workforce. Unilever generally works with young potential candidates while motivating them to lead the others (Tolstyakova, &Batyrova, 2020). Unilever and its human resources try its best to provide more guidance to the employees. Without a responsible and talented workforce it is quite difficult for Unilever to manage this huge business empire across the world. It is found in this strategic human resource management assignment that it is quite essential to understand the importance of human resources practices and assess them for a better evaluation. A few aspects will be highlighted here while analysing this department in this report.
Staffing discussed in the strategic human resource management assignment
Staffing is an important human resources practice which actually provides the organisation with more workforce and an opportunity to reach the peak of success. While doing business in more than 100 countries, with more than 400 brands, there are more careeristic prospects in Unilever. Currently 149,000 people across the world are working with Unilever. As per the strategic human resource management assignment findings various departments like marketing, research and development, supply chain, consumer development recruit workforce frequently. The organisation accepts applications but goes through them very rigorously (Piwowar-Sulej, 2021). They take proper a few steps of interviews before recruiting anyone in the provided job roles.
Training and development
In order to train the workforce it is quite important for any organisation to arrange some training session. As per the strategic human resource management assignment often the human resources provides more training for the future development purposes of the recruited employee. It is quite impactful for the employees as well. In Unilever, graduate and internship opportunities are provided to the employees so that they can groom themselves for a better future (Tambe, Cappelli, &Yakubovich, 2019). At the same time, Unilever Future Leaders Program which can be applied by any entry level employee for a better shot in future. Summer placements and apprenticeships are provided by the organisation. Unilever arranges for a few mentors who can guide the employees for their development purposes.
Performance management
In order to manage the performances of employees, often the human resources use a few tactics. For example, they put the employees in some group projects and motivate everyone to have a healthy competition. In the end, the winner is given some incentives. Incentives like some bonus payments, free passes for entertainment, or a vacation often work wonders while managing performances of the employees (Sedyastuti et al., 2021, April). It is found in this strategic human resource management assignment that Unilever also uses these human resources practices while providing them some more incentives. To motivate the employees the human resources often arrange for some events at the workplace and ask everyone to participate.
Compensations
At the same time, a few compensation policies are there in every workplace. This approach only helps the employees but also helps the organisations while retaining the workforce. Every employee is given a wage of 10 to 33 USD approximately for an hour in Unilever. Along with these, they are given proper health insurance and emergency health services. They can ask for paternity and maternity leaves from the organisation and both are paid to some extent. In the meanwhile, education assistance will be provided by Unilever as per the new policy (Snell, & Morris, 2018). The organisationconsidered in the strategic human resource management assignmentis providing accommodations for the people who are disabled. In order to protect the diverse workforce from various racial issues, human resources of the organisation has proper policies. These also can be included as a part of compensation for any kind of harassment.
Labour relations
Human resources of Unilever and other organisations believe in keeping a healthy relation with the employees. For this reason they try their best to maintain a healthy workplace where the employees can work in harmony (Gerhart, & Feng, 2021). As per the strategic human resource management assignment there are various anti-racial and anti-sexual harrasment related policies which actually help the human resources. In unilever they never entertain any kind of complaints for a long time, they investigate and take proper action without scaring the victim. Human resources also try to arrange meetings and seminars to put a stop to these harassments in the organisations.
Section 3: Recommendations for improvement
Often the organisations may have some drawbacks while utilisng the practices of human resources. In order to receive maximum advantage, a few recommendations may help the organisations. These recommendations mentioned in the strategic human resource management assignmentwill not only improve the operations of humna resources but also will help the organisational functions as well. It will promote more productivity across the organisation. Like every other organisation, Unilever often face some issues with the human resources department and in order to avoid such, a few recommendations are added in this report as well.
Asking for feedback:
In order to enhance the efficiency of the organisation, the human resources department can ask for anonymous feedback from the employees. A dropbox may be kept in a corner and on a monthly basis the employees will be asked to drop their feedback there (Berhil, Benlahmar, &Labani, 2020). Otherwise a simple questionnaire will be provided online once in a while and ask for their opinions as well. This practice mentioned in the strategic human resource management assignmentwill be totally anonymous so that the employees can drop their suggestions accordingly.
Engaging employees
It is quite important to engage the employees as much as possible to meet the objectives of the organisations. Often the work can be too much hectic (Darsana, Il &Sudjana, 2022). In order to avoid such problems mentioned in the strategic human resource management assignment, employees may ask to join in various events. For example, team lunch or team dinner, ethnic day at workplace, casuals at workplace etc small scale events can be done to make them more engaged and involved in the business. At the same time, they may ask to join some teams to help them or to lead them, this will be a good human resources practice as well.
Communicating in a very effective way
It is quite a necessary step and recommendation for any human resources team to communicate with employees properly. It is very much required to convey the messages of the management team to the employees so that they can be aware of their responsibilities. Communication from the human resources will also ensure that the employees are giving their 100 percent to meet the organisational objectives (Collings et al., 2021). As per the strategic human resource management assignment the goals and visions should be made very clear from the day 1 by the human resources team only. It will create a good bond between the employees and the organisation while the message will be clear enough from both sides.
Helping the employees
Human resources is the only department which links the employees with the employers. It is quite essential to have great negotiation skills while working in the human resources department. Human resources should work on these skills while trying to provide security to the employees (Darmawan et al., 2020). As per the strategic human resource management assignment communication skill often helps to negotiate with the employee and make him understand about certain thing. At the same time, this skill can be used to make them feel valued and secured in this organisation. Human resources should help them as well when they come with a complaint as well.
Providing proper information
In order to help the employees, the human resources need to provide accurate information about various things. It is their duty to convey various messages and information to the employees (Belizón, & Kieran, 2022). It is helpful for the employees as they do not get to know about all the schemes, policies of the organisation. It is recommended in the strategic human resource management assignment in order to make everything available to the employees, human resources should take the charge. They should obtain all the related information and pass it on to th employees who are in dire need of these information.
Conclusion
Human resources practices are very important for any organisation. As per the strategic human resource management assignment in order to run a business sucessfully, it is quite important to hire the best potential candidates across the country. Often these practices help one organisation to maintain the overall workforce. Maintaining the workforce actually helps the organisation to boost the productivity. Thus the overall profitability of the organisation increases significantly. More potential candidates may want to apply here if the awareness is created by the human resources. This strategic human resource management assignmenthas tried its best to focus on human resources and its importance in organisation.
References
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