Human Resource Management: Domestic and International HRM at Unilever

Human Resource Management

Domestic and International Human Resources Management

Introduction

In an organisation, human resources practitioners are associated with different management processes within the organisation. They are the ones that are responsible for hiring and recruiting applicants, providing them with training and improving their skills, measuring employee performance, assessing the advantages of maintaining workers, ensuring healthy employee relationships and many other organisational workforce management processes. In this presentation the difference between the international and domestic human resource management of Unilever will be discussed. Unilever is a multinational consumer goods company whose headquarters is situated in London, United Kingdom.

Georg Schacht, Samuel van den Bergh, Lever Brothers and Antonius Johannes founded the company in September 1929. Unilever’s headquarters is situated in London, United Kingdom. Alan Jope was appointed as the new CEO of the company in 2019. Unilever was the leading brand to sell personal care and household products to customers (statista.com, 2020).

A major reason for MNC failure is that they don’t understand enough about the differences in managing HR in foreign environments (Dowling et al 2013). With reference to an MNC of your choice, critically discuss the key factors that underpin the differences between domestic and international HRM. You should include references to both theory and practice.

Domestic Human Resource Management: Domestic human resource management of Unilever is concerned with recruitment, allocation and efficient use of human capital in the parent country which is the United Kingdom.

The domestic human resource management of Unilever has to plan, recruit, allocate, prepare, encourage, and evaluate performance of employees in the parent country (Cooke et al., 2019).

The job of a domestic human resource management of Unilever includes hiring and retaining employees, negotiating terms for their salaries, and performing various management practices regarding workplace behaviour, productivity, compliance with employment laws, and so on.

The domestic human resource management of Unilever does not have to deal with cultural differences as majority of the employees belong to the same social community (Cooke et al., 2019).

Unilever’s domestic human resource management has very less work compared to its international human resource management. They do not have to deal with documentation related to taxation, currencies, and economic fluctuations (Caligiuri et al., 2020). Based on Hofstede’s culture model domestic human resource department has to consider all of the six indexes to reduce conflicts in the company premises.

International Human Resource Management: International human resource management professionals of Unilever are concerned with the recruitment, allocation and efficient use of human capital in all the countries where the company has its facilities established (Brewster et al., 2016).

This international human resource management professional of Unilever have a wide variety of tasks compared to domestic human resource management. Some of the extra work which IHRM of Unilever perform are documentation related to foreign taxes, foreign currencies management of currency fluctuations and the international orientation of workers, while from the viewpoint of HRM, those activities are meaningless (Almond, 2016).

International human resource management of Unilever wants HR’s to be more interested with the private lives of workers living abroad. When an employee working in a multinational organisation is promoted and relocated in a foreign country, it is the IRHM’s job to make sure that the employee who has been sent abroad has learned all the key elements of the working climate of the foreign country, pay plan, and other related tax and travel information.

As a foreign task provides diverse learning opportunities relative to a regional task that would be the matter of interest for domestic HRM, IHRM of Unilever intends to offer further worker visibility. IHRM often entails significant risk and expense (Cooke, 2018).

The international human resource management of Unilever has to contend with more outside variables. They are the ones who have to interact with politicians, foreign ministers and legislations.

The impact of globalisation on human resource management is extreme. The HRM will have to support the existing employees as employees travel oversees for new roles.

The IHRM of Unilever also has to manage expatriates and their problems associated with adapting to and working in unfamiliar environments, concerns about their development and career and re-entry in their parent company after an overseas assignment and concerns over how they should be remunerated.

The international human resource management policies of Unilever include branding of talent management/employee, control of foreign assignments and managing workforce globally.

In order to address all these issues, Hofstedes cultural Dimension theory can be followed by the HRM of the Uniliver.

According to Hofstede’s cultural dimension, the HRM of Uniliver needs to consider the uncertainty avoidance index to make foreign employees fit in the changing climate of the business.

Following the power distance index the HRM of the Uniliver can be able to observe the extent to which they should react against the inequality behaviour and power of the government in the foreign country to management its people properly in various business processes (Huang and Crotts, 2019).

Following the individualism and collectivism index of the theory the HRM of the Uniliver can be able to observe the degree to which the society of the foreign country where the business operates can be integrated in different groups and enhance different types of obligations for the business.

Masculinity VS Femininity index can provide the HRM of the company insight about the preferences of the society for achievement in the foreign countries there the business serves. IT can also provide the HRM the way they should train the employees to enhance good attitude towards sexuality equality in foreign countries where the business serves (Bissessar, 2018).

Indulgence vs. Restraint of Hofstede’s cultural dimension can provide the employees about the extent to which the employees in foreign countries can control their impulses and desires.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the report that that no matter whether the human resource is domestic or international, both are very crucial for Unilever’s management processes. The international human resource management of Unilever is concerned with the HR aspects on an international level where as the domestic human resource management of Unilever is concerned with the HR practices on regional level.

Human Resource Management

Introduction

Human Resource professionals in a company are concerned with various managing processes within the organisation. They are the ones who are responsible for recruiting and hiring candidates, providing them training and developing their skills, evaluating worker efficiency, determining the benefits that than retain employees, ensuring healthy relationship with employees and many other management process regarding the workforce of an organisation. In this report the various human resource management practices will be discussed in the context of Unilever. Unilever is a London based consumer goods company, which operates in more than 190 countries across the world.

Investigate the importance of HR practices to the business strategy of any MNC of your choice. Report format should include sub-headings and should be written in the third person.

In order for every social group to carry out its tasks effectively and to achieve its shared goals, the management of its most valuable asset – the citizens – is of the utmost importance. Until around the 1970s, the role of 'finding and managing staff' had been carried out by the Personnel Management, which was primarily an administrative process, interacting with the operation and supervision of subordinates.

The philosophy of management of human resources has evolved with a more pragmatic level of thought about the essence and role of human beings (a total of 24 hours a day) operating in organisations that are 'cultures' in their own right. Recent thought has changed from a control-based model to an enforcement model.

The soft edge of the above includes the development of an employee's dedication and the expectation that productivity and effectiveness will be pursued. The hard edge of the above involves eliminating the unnecessary layers of layered management of the organisation which when stripped of control functions, have little added value (Noe et al., 2017).

HRM is a tool and methodology implemented by organisations to control their human capital efficiently and aims to achieve corporate goals and objectives by inspiring the company's employees. Strategy formulation is the most proactive approach to taking the most appropriate decision to carry out operations in the most efficient manner.

Effective human resource management can be described as an organisational strategic management tool that enhances organisational efficiency by managing personnel in the most productive manner by taking knowledge related after evaluating various factors. Unilever, an FMCG company, headquartered in the UK, operates in various countries around the world and manages a large number of workers, rendering it one of the most profitable companies in the world.

Various aspects of the company's internal and external environment have been explained which are necessary to examine before any kind of decision is made and their effect on performance. Analysis and review of the methods, principles and models used in Unilever to handle their employees in the most productive manner (DeCenzo et al., 2016).

A thorough review of the efficacy of strategic HRM is carried out in this report and areas that are missing are defined and recommendations are made to strengthen them and improve the ratio of retention of staff in the company and the successful application of strategic management in the organisation.

As for all other MNCs, Unilever follows the partial strategies of both versions. It is addressed as follows:

Job Design Principal

a. Segregate their activities into various subdivisions.

b. It meets both clear job responsibility and combined preparation and execution on the basis of the need for their service.

c. The duties performed by the workers are both on a team basis and on an individual basis.

Management Organizations

a. Employees are allocated to various hierarchies. It's different in different countries.

b. Because there exists a strong hierarchy in Unilever, this MNC exercises top-down power and teamwork.

c. The status mark in Unilever is also noticeable. But there is no misunderstanding between employees of different cultures and countries.

Compensation

a. Staff members in various roles in the organization shall be rewarded for their work performance. Salary is charged on a monthly basis. Other incentives such as company shares, bonuses, and so on are also offered on special events such as religious holidays, business growth, and so on (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020).

Employee Voice

a. Unilever follows a Unionized approach to ensure the highest benefits for workers, such as control damage, negotiating.

Labour Relations Management

a. Combined problem-solving and preparation strategy is practised in Unilever to promote employees' intention to participate the business.

Philosophy of Management

Management is responsible for the success of the stakeholders. Top-level management negotiate the judgment with other executives and associated officials.

Strategic International HRM

Major companies like Unilever use multinational HRM to handle their human capital across the globe. Strategy formulation of international HRM is a modern strategy that should be embraced by Unilever to efficiently handle its workers globally through the incorporation of corporate strategies, goals and objectives.

It also allows the placement of employer branding on the international market to draw new workers to the organisation. This helps to ensure a cohesive approach to the management of workers in global corporations such as Unilever and leads to the growth of organisational efficiency (Bratton and Gold, 2017).

The challenges to this strategy are the cultural diversity, the laws of countries that result in difficulties in managing the human capital of a multinational corporation on a standardised basis. There is a variety of views, values, experiences, needs and working habits among workers in various countries, and they need leadership in which these aspects are addressed and acceptable for them as in a positive working climate. Unilever will follow this strategy by understanding these obstacles and planning to remove them and produce positive results.

The main HR actions conducted by Unilever to achieve its organisational objective are defined as follows:

Organization Structuring

It refers to the development of an organisation that accommodates all the tasks necessary to bring them together in such a way that promotes cooperation and coordination. HR is very beneficial to Unilever in achieving its objectives. As mentioned above, Unilever executives across the globe are armed with a clear array of capabilities and a shared heritage that enables them to efficiently resolve the business challenges they face (Mondy and Martocchio, 2016). The complete structure of Unilever produced by its HRM department is very successful and efficient to meet its goals. In order to select and choose the best choice for structuring, HR professionals adopt various structural approaches.

Work Concept and Function Requirements

It refers to the decision on the content of the work-their roles and obligations and the relationships that exist among staff members as well as other employees in the company. The work carried out by the HRM department is very straight forward in order to achieve the goals and objectives. On the other hand, the function description of each worker is structured in this way.

Organizational Development

It relates to the stimulation, preparation and execution of initiatives designed to increase the productivity with which the organisation works and adapts to change. The industry is constantly evolving. Like other firms, Unilever needs to deal with this transition in order to stay on top of the market and compete with its rivals. The composition of the HRM department is so organised that it defines the best way to achieve its objectives (Armstrong, 2019).

Employee Satisfaction

Employee relations practitioners assists an organisation to maintain great levels of success, productivity and morale within the working environment, by developing opportunities to improve the partnership between employees and employers. HR employee relation practitioners perform suggestion polls, collect data, and gain feedback from workers concerning employee satisfaction and ways in which the company can maintain positive working relationships.

Maintaining Compliance

The human resource management group has to make sure if the company is complying with the employment laws of the government. HR professional complete documentation needed to make sure whether the employees working in Unilever are eligible for working in the United Kingdom. They also track the various organisational laws that accept state or federal government contractsby keeping candidate progress records and documented discriminatory plans of action (Brewster et al., 2016).

Minimizing Liability Issues

Experts in human resource labour relations mitigate the visibility and accountability of the company linked to claims of discriminatory hiring practises. HR professional need to recognise, examine and address problems in the working environment of Unilever, which could get out of control and embarrass the organisation.

Analysing Benefits

The company’s expenses can be minimised by addressing issues such as recruiting a substitute employee. HR professional are a crucial part of any organisation since they are the ones who have the requisite skills and experience to settle employee group compensation agreements, within the scope of the organisation and compatible with financial circumstances. These professional are also aware of the employee benefit plans, which can attract more candidates and retain the current employees working in Unilever.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the given report that the human resource team of an organisation plays a very important role to formulate a business strategy that will help a company to grow its productivity and profitability. Human resource professional manage a company in such a way that the issues regarding employment, behaviour and federal laws are controlled and it doesn’t bring any harm to the organisation.

Career Development and Management

Introduction

Career development and management is a process focuses on integrating individual performance with the help of various careers development facilities provided by an organisation. Organisations provide opportunities to the individuals working in the company to develop their skills so that they can promote these individuals to a position, which is fancied, by the individual. Human resource professional have a very important role when it comes to doing effective research on the various career opportunities and match them with the personality trait of the employee.

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Investigate how career development and career management works within the organisation selected for the individual report section. Include any personal work experience if applicable. Discuss tools such as career management practices and performance management with relevant theories/models.

Career development and management are very important aspects as it focuses on increasing worker productivity within an organisation. Some of the various needs of career development and management in an organisation is discussed below,

Making talent available

Career development is a common among organisation as it helps employees to prepare and train themselves. If an organisation defines goals and priorities over a long period of time, it is important to define personnel needs over the medium and long time period. Career growth would help companies place the best employees in the correct position (Vondracek et al., 2019).

Attracting and retaining talents

Every company has a shortage of talented individual at a certain stage in a company. Competition is also very tough to secure such position in a company. Talented individuals often tend to function in organisations that take charge of their desired aspirations and demonstrate great devotion to organisations where career development and management is considered. Career development is important for both the organisation as well as the employees, individuals tend to choose organisations that provide hurdles, transparency and development opportunities.

Mitigating employee frustration

The ambitious standard of careers is also rising alongside level of education and awareness. Employees get frustrated when these thresholds aren’t met by the due to any kind of economic instability. As companies eliminate expenses, employee job strategies, career opportunities, and succession planning begin to fall, leading to dissatisfaction getting worse. To minimise frustration career development and management is very important (Bocciardi et al., 2017).

Enhancing cultural diversity

A company a dynamic mix hires employees from various cultures, beliefs, nationality and nationalities, which represents rapidly evolving globalisation circumstances. A diverse career development and management programmes provides access many workers.

Improving organisation’s morale

When a company shows to their employees that they care about their long term success and career development, it is very likely that employees will respond in a positive manner to the company. Career growth helps companies achieve an impressive reputation and morale.

The four most important steps of career development are, identifying career needs, developing career opportunities, integration of employees needs with career opportunities and regular monitoring.

Identifying Career Needs

Many companies conduct seminars and presentation where they conduct personality research, simulation tests and in-depth assessments to help the employees decides their path of success. These seminars and interviews gives an employee a basic idea of and assist them in making decisions based on their career and the steps that need to be taken in order to achieve their career goals and objectives. The human resource professionals are also involved in carrying effective career research and helping employees to make decisions on their career (Savickas, 2019).

Developing Career Opportunities

Via Job reviews, career opportunities are detected. It is the responsibility of company director to determine career choice for the organisation’s staff. They must communicate with workers about the various positions that are available in the corporate hierarchy and figure out employee’s choices about where they would like to position themselves in the company’s future. The company must provide their employees with details about job vacancies, and they skills they would have to acquire in order to be eligible for the vacant post (Burnette et al., 2020).

Integration of Employee Needs with Career Opportunities

To make sure that the best people are required to fulfil the organisational workforce requisites, it is important to match the demands and desires of the workers with job opportunities. Thus, focus is put on preparation, HR advices, training, and scheduled rotation in roles with various responsibilities.

This stage has two techniques,

a) Management by objectives

This technique involves development of goals and objectives by the employees and their development process. It is the manager’s duty to evaluate the personal objectives of employees and align them with company objectives.

b) Career counselling.

The boss addresses the qualities and shortcomings of the worker during counselling. Counselling allows workers to recognise their growth areas so that employees can face their job's potential challenges.

Regular Monitoring

Regular monitoring is very important to the progress of every employee’s career development goals to ensure that help is given to improve their skills. If there is a difference, action to reassign work when appropriate must be implemented to make sure that career advancement plans are fulfilled. The company can reinvent employment or make changes in job in circumstances where career prospects are not available due to the impact of development and market factors (Li et al., 2017).

It is very essential for all workers to acknowledge their career development obligations, since it is only then that different career development behaviour prove successful. Some of the important career development actions involve,

a. Suitable work output if career development is needed.

b. Visibility of expertise, experience, accomplishments and success.

c. Withdrawal from the current position if potential job prospects are sought somewhere else.

d. Shift in job roles in the same company if greater job prospects are confirmed.

Professions based on career development and career management have developed various theories. Some of these theories are discussed below,

Frank Parsons’ trait and factor theory

Three acts are involved in Trait and Factor Theory. Firstly, Unilever should explore the personality characteristics of an employee whose career is being planned. Secondly, the job characteristics should be accessed. Lastly, the personality characteristics of the employee should be tested with the job characteristics of the company (Patton and McMahon, 2014).

Frank parson’s theory is applied in various aptitude tests, such as:

a. Interest-Kuder Career Search

b. Aptitude-Differential Aptitude Tests

c. General Aptitude Test Battery

Holland theory of vocational types

This theory of career development and management focuses on the personality types of individuals. This theory was formulised by John L. Holland by focusing on the point that job selection is dependent on the personality types of individuals. According to John L. Holland Job satisfaction is of and individual is associated with correlation of personality characteristics of and individual and the company’s working culture and environment (Sheldon et al., 2020).

This theory describes six different personality types. These six personality types are discussed below,

Realistic: The people who fall under this category are the one who are interested in solving the problem by taking actions instead of discussing it with their colleges. These people are more inclined to work which requires practical skills and strength. Some of the job role which fall under this category include carpeting, cooking, and so on.

Investigative: The individuals who fall under this category are more likely to choose a job which requires a lot of thinking process. They are also called “thinkers”. Individuals in this category like to work with lot of information and accessing the information to provide a suitable solution for the company or client. Some of the job roles which come under investigative category are lawyers, writers, and so on.

Artistic: People having artistic characteristics like to call themselves creators. Individuals having artistic personality characteristic are imaginative, innovative and generally more psychologically conscious than other forms of Holland’s personality types. These individuals are autonomous but enjoy interacting with others. Some of the job roles which fall under this category are designing, writing, and so on.

Social: This characteristic trait involves helping other individuals to perform better in their job roles. Often referred to as "Helpers," people under this category like to instruct or assist others. These individuals enjoy communicating and establishing relationships with others. Some of the job roles which come under this category are teachers, human resource managers, counsellors, and so on.

Enterprising: Often known as "Persuaders," individuals love interacting with people and information. These type of individual value status and security. Some of the job roles which fall under this category are businessman, investors, and so on.

Conventional: People having conventional personality trait like to work with rules and regulations. These individuals value position and income. They do have a disdain for vague or unorganised jobs. This personality type is best for Cos, economist, managers, and so on.

Sonnenfield and Peiperl (1988) model of career systems

As the theory behind the model of Sonnenfield and Peiperl (1988) model of career systems suggests the employees of Uniliver can be able to gain new job assignment promotion within the company. In order to fulfil the promotional needs of the employees, the management of the Unilivere can consider two variables based on which they can give promotion to the employees. The variables are as follows:

• Source of promotion candidate and

• Selection criteria within the company

Figure 1: Sonnenfield and Peiperl (1988) model of career systems

(Source: researchgate.net, 2021)

Goal theory

Goal theory can be defined as an overall approach that of motivating people Requirements to estimate a particular goal as an instinct motivation can be emphasized by implementing this theory in the organisational culture of the Uniliver. In order to motivate the employees of the organisation implementing goal theory the management of the Uniliver should engage all the employees of the organisation in the goal setting process. Setting of a specific goal is necessary for the company to make the implementation of this theory successful. Along with setting organisational goals, goal for individual performances should also be aligned among the individuals. During implementing strategy to achieve the goal, continuous feedback on the performances of the employees should be provided by the management among the employees (Bardach et al., 2019). In order to motivate the employees more effectively towards their work, the management can also enhance rewards system for the desired performers.

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Conclusion

It can be concluded from the report that career development is a very important aspect for an employee. When an organisation is concerned with the career development process of the employees, it shows the employee that the company cares about their future and is taking necessary steps to develop employee skills so that they can achieve their goals and objectives.

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