BUS7B31 A review of HRM decision making in organisations Assignment Sample

Introduction

Unilever is considered to be a multinational company that serves a variety of products which are spread all across the globe. Unilever plans to increase the size of the company shortly which may require a lot of talented executives guiding in the process. Unilever is a global brand that focuses on the development of the company with the help of a uniform HR strategy which may serve the whole of the company. In this essay, the HRM strategy utilized at all levels with the national and international factors will be discussed in detail.

Company Background

The company Unilever has a long history dating to the 19th century which was composed of a small family and with the help of partnerships and industry development and brand, innovation reached the heights in the present. The company’s mission is to add vitality to the lives and meet the everyday nutritional, hygienic and personal care needs of the consumers. The manufacturing activities of the company include detergents, with some raw materials such as palm, coconut, and soybean oil (Unilever. 2022). In 2021, 77% of group revenue has been generated with the help of 148,000 employees through which Unilever makes household brands utilized by 3.4 billion customers every day (Unilever. 2022).

a. Evaluation of approaches to HRM strategy concerning company strategy

Porter’s generic strategy

Porter’s Generic Strategy is used to determine whether a company such as Unilever’s profitability is above or below the average level in the industry. The above-average profitability is meant to have a long-term sustainable competitive advantage for the company so that the HRM of Unilever utilizes this strategy for better production and performance. There are two basic types of competitive advantages that a company may have such as differentiation or Low cost, the scope of activities about the competitive advantages leads towards the three generic strategies that may help Unilever to achieve the above-average performance in the long run. The three generic strategies are differentiation, cost leadership and focus additionally, the focus strategy has two variants, the differentiation variant and the focus variant (Rua et al., 2018).

Unilever utilises differentiation as the generic strategy as a source of the competitive advantage in the industry that allows the company to target the total market scope. The main aim of the generic strategy is to put a strong emphasis on bringing out the company’s characteristics by making the products stand out in the market. The company Unilever attracts the consumers through specially designed products, and through the generic strategy, there is an alignment in the vision and mission statement of the company (Hesse et al., 2022). The mission and vision of the company are to provide support to global sustainability and also to increase the vitality of the consumers’ lives. The main objective of the generic competitive strategy is to help Unilever grow through excessive efforts in the development of products. Product development is used as a secondary intensive strategy which is done by introducing new and innovative products to the market which may fulfil the consumer’s needs (Verhoef et al., 2021). In addition to that, Unilever may also grow by marketing the company’s current products as a new innovative solution to gain attraction in certain market segments. The HRM strategy in Unilever utilizes the Generic strategy to make the products eye-catching and also help in delivering the uniqueness of the product that may meet the needs of the consumers. The generic strategy of differentiation is to support the intensive strategy in creating a competitive advantage, based on the product that may be utilized to enter the market segment (Islami et al., 2020). The HRM strategy is to bring out the new products and make the products attractive to the consumers through media outlets to create or enter a new market segment in the industry.

The matching model 

Based on Porter’s Generic model the company’s HRM has to make sure the products are unique to the market as well as low cost is maintained so that the products may be utilised by every sector of the society. In addition to that Unilever uses strategies to keep the employee’s work satisfaction level high, and to retain the employees for the betterment of the company. The employees and staff are provided with special training so that the talents of each individual may reach the maximum level. Moreover, specialists may be appointed by HRM Unilever to upgrade the skills of the staff for the development of each sector in the company. The HRM is also responsible for identifying the most fitting talent for the company to reach the organizational goals.

Mintzberg 5 P’s of strategy

It may be difficult to identify the strategy that may be fit for a company such as Unilever, for that Mintzberg’s 5 P’s strategy is developed which includes Plan, Position, Pattern, Perspective, Ploy. Mintzberg’s 5 P’s strategy is used to understand the HRM strategies brought by Unilever to maintain the position in the market and help in the development of the future.

Unilever’s HRM strategy utilises the Plan strategy to identify the eligible candidates and also to designate the criterias by which the potential employees may be selected. The Plan strategy is utilised by the HRM of Unilever to make a structure to denote the company’s vision and mission to the potential candidates to match the requirements of the posts. In addition to that, HRM also plans to designate the best of the talents selected to the suitable posts offered for the smooth running of the organisation (Mallick, 2021). The competitors in the market may utilise to disrupt, discourage, dissuade Unilever in order to lower the market position. However, the HRM of Unilever utilises the Ploy strategy to understand the possible threats from the competitors in the market and utilise the newly selected candidates and the talents to neutralise any situation.

Past experiences or the business handling of the former members of Unilever may set an example for the future, the pattern strategy is used to study the past situations. HRM strategies to build new and innovative ways in order to attract talents from the market that may be useful for the development of the company in the future. Position is also one of the strategies that is used to understand the company Unilever’s market position, the possible opportunities and also the threats. The position strategy is used by the HRM to understand the environment of the company that may help in the development of a sustainable competitive advantage for the company (Emeagwal and Ogbonmwan, 2018). Lastly, Perspective strategy is built by the past experiences and the thinking process of the HRM in Unilever. HRM in Unilever uses the patterns of the past and combines the new operational goals of the company to build a company’s perspective which is later used in developing and selecting the existing skills in the company.

Mintzberg’s 5 P’s strategy may be utilised by Unilever and the HRM team to develop new strategies that may be realistic, practical and also co-relating to the present situations in the market. The strategy may also be used to identify the problems that may be undermining while implementing the strategy in the operations of the company.

b. Analysis of the way to respond to international and national factors at both strategic and operational levels

Operational level

HRM of the company plays a crucial role in managing the entire operation of the company as without effective HR decisions making process the entire operation of the company may be disrupted. Analysing the product life cycle model it needs to be opined that the business Unilever belongs to the early maturity stage. One of the main features of the early maturity stage is that in this stage the company requires more planning to recruit skilful employees. In the modern era, many companies implement Artificial Intelligence to improve the recruitment process (Geetha and Bhanu, 2018). Additionally, as the UK is technologically developed, for that reason it helps the company to incorporate innovative technology such as AI and Machine Learning tools in the recruitment process. However, due to Brexit, the hiring and recruitment process of the company has faced many issues as during the time due to poor international relationships with other EU nations, Unilever was not able to directly recruit the employees from these countries. According to an article due to the negative impact of Brexit, many companies in the country have multiple issues which affect employee retention and skilful labour supply in the UK (Ridgway, 2019). Along with that, during that time the immigration rate from the EU to the UK has also declined which denotes that the political relationship with the UK and other EU countries has been significantly affected which also affects the HRM decision making process of Unilever.

According to the product life cycle model, it is the duty of the management of the company to execute an effective training and development process even if without an effective recruitment process the company will not be able to reach the mature stage. Due to the negative impact of the Covid-19 the purchasing power of the UK people has been believed to also harm the HRM decision-making process (Refer to Appendix 1). Another harmful impact of Brexit is that it harmed the well-being and health of the workplace, as a result, many issues have occurred in the workplace such as the job security of employees also reduced (Stolk, 2020). However, due to huge technological improvement in the UK, the HRM of Unilever has not faced any issues in shifting the entire training and development process to an online platform. In addition to that, if the company will not resolve the issues in the early maturity stage then the HRM operation of the company will be massively affected in the maturity stage which may affect the profitability of the company. Moreover, ethical dilemmas in the organization always invite multiple HR issues in the organisation and for that reason, the HRM of a company needs to follow professionalism and ethics to establish strategic HR planning (Malik, 2018). After the Covid-19 many companies in the UK such as Unilever have faced serious issues in redesigning the entire HRM operations according to the new normal. However, it is expected that, if the HRM has implemented an emergent strategy to increase the flexibility of the decision-making process of the HR manager then these issues will be easily resolved.

Strategic level 

Universalist 

Unilever has been praised for committing to the sustainability pledge and also for maintaining and keeping a check on employee wellbeing. HRM strategic levels promote a physical and mentally healthy environment in the workplace that may enable the employees to thrive at work (Jo et al., 2020). The empowerment of the employees is to bring out the best versions of the skills and talents, by providing a safe work environment (Yarberry and Sims, 2021). The HRM strategy is utilized to maintain the workforce strength and also for the betterment of the company. The Unilever HRM team builds a purposeful business in the market with purposeful brands and for that, the employees are encouraged to bring a purpose to the work. Moreover, the employees bring personal purpose to the workplace often bring purpose and dedication to the job, that in turn benefits Unilever as a company in the market.

Contingent 

Engaging with the stakeholders may be the best fit for the business strategy utilized by the company for the development in the market. The company Unilever maintains the reputation and builds trust which is among the best behaviour of a company toward the consumers. The notion of transparency and trust-building is also expected from the employees in the company, the rules that have been set by the HRM team (Chanana, 2021). Unilever has made a huge brand image across the globe with talented and skilful staff and employees who are fully dedicated to the success of the organization. The role of the HRM team through strategies is to keep the employees engaged and informed about the aims and the goals of the company in the market for success (Qudah et al., 2021). In addition to that, Unilever has also gained a reputation for unlocking the capacity of the employees through digital transformation and agility and also focused on teaching the employees through long term learning methods. Unilever has transformed into a pioneer in bringing diversity among the employee workforce, and culture inclusion which has, in turn, led to the value-based selection and retention of the employees in the company. Sustainable growth culture is also maintained in the company by encouraging the employees to have a similar mindset in the professional setting of the company.

Resource-Based 

The resource-based strategy is utilized by the HRM of Unilever to understand the elements of business that may bring profit to the company such as Unilever’s long term competitive advantage. The strategy is utilized by the company to gain advantages by using the full potential of the internal factors in the company namely the employees and the staff (Hamad, 2019). The company utilizes the strategy to select unique and rare talents in the market and utilize the talents and skills for the development of the company. The products that are manufactured in the company that may be replicated in contrast to the human power and the talents that a company may possess are near to impossible to replicate (Monteiro et al., 2020). The strategy is used by the HRM department to identify and notify the employees of the uniqueness and bring out ways to retain the rare talents for the betterment of the company.

Recommendations

1. The HRM strategy has to diversify into the streams of the talent in the market in order to extend the range of productions and thing of innovation measures to gain the attention of the public, as only attractive products may not be sufficient (Hughes, 2019)
2. Product innovation of the Unilever Company and free mindset of the employees may help in bringing the opportunities for boosting the business performance
3. The level of competitiveness within the staff may have to be installed as the industry market is ever-growing with new launches
4. The employees have to be given an engaging role in making small decisions in the manufacturing of the products as the employees are faces to the generalized population (Kaasinen et al., 2020)

Conclusion

In this essay, it may be concluded that through Porter’s strategy the identified strengths and weaknesses of Unilever have opened up scopes for future development and renovations. The company is quick to make operational changes based on the current situation which may be said to be a positive note for the HRM of the company. The HRM strategies that are utilized by the company have helped in doing research on the present market as well as helped to bring out new and innovative ideas to develop products catering to the needs of the consumers (HONG, 2021).

References

Al-Qudah, S., Obeidat, A.M. and Shrouf, H., 2020. The impact of strategic human resources planning on the organizational performance of public shareholding companies in Jordan. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 18(1), p.219.

Chanana, N., 2021. Employee engagement practices during COVID‐19 lockdown. Journal of public affairs, 21(4), p.e2508.

Emeagwal, L. and Ogbonmwan, K.O., 2018. Mapping the perceived role of strategic human resource management practices in sustainable competitive advantage. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 17(2), pp.1-19.

Geetha, R. and Bhanu, S.R.D., 2018. Recruitment through artificial intelligence: a conceptual study. International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 9(7), pp.63-70.

Hamad, Z., 2019. Talent management as a facilitator of organizational intelligence. Management Science Letters, 9(6), pp.809-822.

Hesse, A., Bündgen, K., Claren, S. and Frank, S., 2022. Practices of brand extensions and how consumers respond to FMCG giants’ greening attempts. Journal of Brand Management, pp.1-18.

HONG, J.H., 2021. A Global Strategy of a Company that Uses Culture Content as its Core Business. The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business, 12(6), pp.37-46.

Hughes, C., 2019. Workforce inter-personnel diversity: The power to influence human productivity and career development. Springer.

Islami, X., Mustafa, N. and Topuzovska Latkovikj, M., 2020. Linking Porter’s generic strategies to firm performance. Future Business Journal, 6(1), pp.1-15.

Jo, H., Aryee, S., Hsiung, H.H. and Guest, D., 2020. Fostering mutual gains: Explaining the influence of high‐performance work systems and leadership on psychological health and service performance. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(2), pp.198-225.

Kaasinen, E., Schmalfuß, F., Özturk, C., Aromaa, S., Boubekeur, M., Heilala, J., Heikkilä, P., Kuula, T., Liinasuo, M., Mach, S. and Mehta, R., 2020. Empowering and engaging industrial workers with Operator 4.0 solutions. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 139, p.105678.

Malik, A., 2018. Strategic human resource management and employment relations. Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018.

Mallick, A., 2021. Application of Machine Learning (ML) in Human Resource Management. In New Business Models in the Course of Global Crises in South Asia (pp. 209-220). Springer, Cham.

Monteiro, B., Santos, V., Reis, I., Sampaio, M.C., Sousa, B., Martinho, F., José Sousa, M. and Au-Yong-Oliveira, M., 2020. Employer branding applied to smes: A pioneering model proposal for attracting and retaining talent. Information, 11(12), p.574.

Ridgway, M., 2019. Brexit: human resourcing implications. Employee Relations: The International Journal.

Rua, O., França, A. and Ortiz, R.F., 2018. Key drivers of SMEs export performance: the mediating effect of competitive advantage. Journal of Knowledge Management.

Unilever. 2022. Unilever Global: Making sustainable living commonplace. [online] Available at: <https://www.unilever.com/> [Accessed 16 May 2022].

van Stolk, C., 2020. The impact of Brexit on health and wellbeing in the workplace: What we know so far. In Brexit in the workplace. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Verhoef, P.C., Broekhuizen, T., Bart, Y., Bhattacharya, A., Dong, J.Q., Fabian, N. and Haenlein, M., 2021. Digital transformation: A multidisciplinary reflection and research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 122, pp.889-901.

Yarberry, S. and Sims, C., 2021. The impact of Covid-19-prompted virtual/remote work environments on employees’ career development: Social learning theory, belongingness, and self-empowerment. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 23(3), pp.237-252.

Appendix

STEEPLE analysis

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