❖ Methodologies:

For preparing this report we collected information from both primary and secondary sources.

Primary source:

We conducted a formal meeting with Shahrin Ali an HR executive of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd.
All of our team members asked questions related to Unilever’s HR system and policies. The
questions asked are attached to the report.

Secondary source:

To get a better picture of Unilever Bangladesh Company's Human Resource practices we took
help from various online reports, journals, and websites.

• Limitations Of the Report:

1. The major limitation factor for this report is the complexity of the topic. There were some
limitations of access to information, which are strictly confidential for the company.
2. The company did not have a sufficient source of secondary data and the collection of data
was not smooth.
3. The employees of Unilever Bangladesh Limited were too busy with their work.
4. The time of data analysis was trifled due to the limited access of information.
 ❖ Background Information about the company

Background Information about the company Lever Brothers was founded in 1885 by great
entrepreneur William Hesketh Lever. Lever established soap factories around the globe, he
started to diversify his business into foods, acquiring fish, ice cream, and canned food businesses.
All the time Lever brothers tried to use better technology than their rivals. The business grew
and new ventures grew, and new ventures were launched in America and Asia. The
entrepreneurial spirit of the founders and their caring approach to their employees and their
dedicated community remain at the heart of Unilever’s business even today. Lever Brothers'
business growth prosperity increased when they merged with the Dutch margarine Company
‘Unie’. They started large-scale marketing of household products and both used similar
distribution channels. In a history that crosses three centuries, Unilever’s success has been
influenced by major events of the day‐economic boom, depression, world wars, changing
consumer lifestyle, and advancing technology. Unilever Bangladesh started its glorious journey
as Lever Brothers Bangladesh Ltd. On 25th February 1964, the eastern plant of Lever Brothers
Pakistan Ltd. was inaugurated at Kalurghat, Chittagong with a soap production capacity of
approximately 485 metric tons. It was a private Ltd company 55% share held by Unilever and
the rest by the government of Pakistan. After independence, the eastern plant was declared
abandoned. But on 5th July 1973 it was registered under the name of Lever Brothers Bangladesh
Ltd as a joint venture Company of Unilever Plc.

❖ Culture of Interpersonal Relationship (Team Leadership) :

Unilever Bangladesh maintains an employee-oriented workplace culture. They give their high
preference to employee conditions, commitments, and relationships. Unilever is a highly team-
based organization where employees are encouraged to pursue leadership roles. Unilever includes
a "Future Leaders Program" which is aimed at developing leadership among competent employees.
Unilever practices a culture in which every employee is given the authority to be an entrepreneur
and to act like a ' business owner’. Employees are trained to maintain a friendly, healthy, and
cooperative atmosphere. The biggest strength of the HR of Unilever is that the workers love to
work within these practices and thus offer their maximum dedication. As the workers are always
motivated, the efficiency and pace of their HR system stay within the recommended. Every
employee is trained to maintain a public image of being hygienic and caring. They are forbidden
to do otherwise publicly while representing the company.
Unilever's Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)

Unilever merges its mission and vision with its human resources by creating and maintaining
employee competencies and behavior that represent the mission and vision itself which is
adaptation, happiness, and a healthy atmosphere. According to Douglas Baillie, Chief Human
Resource Officer of Unilever, ‘Happiness among employees has a direct influence on the
success and growth of the businesses.’ The SHRM model of Unilever Bangladesh is unique,
a sense that Unilever doesn’t carry a specific HR strategy. It’s a very flexible system that
follows one simple motto, ‘Better business, and better you (personnel)’.

Recruitment
Recruitment is the source of finding and attracting capable applicants for employment. Some
of the recruiting procedures used by Unilever is given below:

Projecting personnel needs

To project personnel needs Unilever uses the "Demand Planning" method. In this method, at
the beginning of every year, they analyze their personnel needs for the entire year to do their
business. In this way, they forecast the supply of both internal and external personnel needs.
For top level positions, Unilever prefers the "Succession Planning”.

Internal sources of candidates

Some of the internal sources of candidates of Unilever includes:

Succession Planning
For top-level positions Unilever prefers the "Succession Planning" process to predict the job
opening and replacements of top-level or leadership roles.

Job Posting
Unilever publicizes an open job usually to employees by literally posting it on bulletins.
Outside sources of candidates
Unilever recruits most of its employees through outside sources. Some of their outside sources of
candidates are:

Online sources
Unilever makes the most use of online sources to find potential employees. In this case, they
look for candidates in online job searching websites like Linkdin,, BDjobs etc. It is the most used
source for finding candidates.

College Recruiting

Unilever Bangladesh allows opportunities for college graduates to work in their organization.
through internship programs. If the interns show potential and work well, they are hired for full-
time jobs there.

Internal CV Source

Unilever often seeks out candidates through internal CV sources. In this regard, CVs are.
collected by employees internally.

Referrals
In Unilever Bangladesh, referrals are also used to find qualified candidates.

➢ Diverse Work Force

Since Bangladesh is a Masculine society, there is always a high percentage of male in most
workplaces. However, Unilever Bangladesh aims to maintain diversity in its workplaces. Even
though they view both men and women as equal in their recruitment process, Unilever is involved
with many campaigns to encourage women to join the workplace. They are involved with the UN
Women entrepreneurship campaign as well. Their workplace culture provides a suitable
environment for women to perform their work flexibly.
Selection Process
Unilever Bangladesh applies a fixed selection process to select their potential nonpermanent
and permanent employees. Unilever is highly regarded and respected for their strong EEO
policy. Some of their selection process includes:

Administration of tests
Unilever uses the concurrent validation where their test is mostly administered by the line
manager. The HR manager of course assists the line manager in their test administration
process along with the head or manager of the vacancy posts department.

Initial Screening
Unilever encourages the candidates who meets Unilever HR’s given recruitment criteria to
apply online. The candidates can apply from Unilever’s website or through apps like LinkedIn.
The candidates have to complete the application by filling out personal details using his/her
LinkedIn Profile. Depending on the successful registration, candidates receive a confirmation
email from Unilever.

Completing the application

Qualifying candidates receive an email that directs them to a gratified profile assessment,
where a candidate has to play 12 short online games that look at different elements of the
candidate such as cognitive, emotional, and social traits. These tests help Unilever to evaluate
candidates.

Employment Tests
Unilever HR creates tests based on actual job duties and most of their selection tests are done
digitally. The different types of tests that Unilever prefers are:
Aptitude tests and Intelligence tests
Personality test
Written tests
Computerized Case Study
Focused group works
Presentation.
 Interview
Successful candidates from the Employment Test gets an email from Unilever to seat for an
interview. Unilever follows an unstructured interview format. This interview is administered
by the line manager, and HR representative along with the supervisor/manager/head of the
vacancy post. A candidate might face questions related to himself/herself, Past behavior
questions, situational questions, experience, and critical thinking questions. Unilever
prioritizes organization-fit employees and therefore, they look for candidates whose attitude
and perspective fit Unilever’s corporate culture. Based on the candidate’s interview and
employment test, Unilever HR selects the potential employee.

➢ Background Investigation and Reference Check

Unilever has a reputation for maintaining high standards regarding background investigation
and reference checks. Unilever only uses the information that is given in the employee
application by the candidates. Unilever HR scrutinizes background checks by calling referred
contacts from curriculum vitae. HR verifies candidates' permanent addresses, educational
institutions, etc. HR takes help from law enforcement agencies to check whether the selected
employees have any criminal records. Unilever maintains high integrity. So, any lies,
identified, have serious consequences.
➢ Pre-employment medical examination: Unilever requests their selected candidates to
submit their BMI and drug test before joining them officially. Unilever conducts this to check
if their selected candidate has a drug abuse problem or any sort of contagious disease. Unilever
provides funds for the medical check-up.

Training and Development

New workers' capacity to handle the corporate environment, work culture, and grasp the
company's essential values is aided by training and development. Unilever's approaches are
listed below:
 Orientation: For any organization, the orientation program affects the newcomers in order to
motivate themselves. Unilever Bangladesh provides offer letter, token of appreciation,
functional review, tour of entire organization & visit to the factory etc. to the newly joined
employees.

Training during job

When an employee joins an entry-level position, Unilever's recruits must go through the first
stage of training: on-the-job training by their senior executive or a line manager who guides new
employees through the processes. Each employee would receive training under a senior manager
for three to six months to shadow their working practices. Before being evaluated by the HR
team and line manager, the candidates should be relocated for the same duration under different
management, to improve their overall market knowledge.

Training in internship

Graduates seeking an internship with a reputable company such as Unilever should attend this
program. Staff should demonstrate their value for full-time employment at Unilever but specific
training methods to secure their positions. Training through apprenticeships is considered a Unilever
internship.
 Coaching and mentoring
A personal relationship between a trainer and a trainee is referred to as coaching. It is a
technique of correcting employees' mistakes since it allows people a chance for progress.
Mentoring is usually directed at managerial-level employees. It gives trainees a chance to work
according to their role models and allows employees to have a point of reference in
accomplishing work tasks (Farhana, S., 2016).

E-Learning through Degreed

Unilever has a customized webpage for all Unilever employees worldwide. The site comprises
training that an employee needs to enhance his communication skills, time management, MS
Office, etc.

Performance Appraisal

Unilever uses specific criteria after the employees have been recruited for the performance
assessment. After they join, they have specifically defined goals. One strategy is known as 3 plus
1. Three key performance indicators are given (KPI). These KPIs measure their ability. They are
assigned a time frame and will have to perform their jobs inside this period.

(Trong Tuan, 2012)

UNILEVER BANGLADESH
 Unilever's performance evaluation methods:

1. Offer a complete and impartial appraisal of the workers, and gather input from supervisors,
peer groups, and subordinates.

2. Employees are transparently informed about their evaluations.

3. They have similar career trajectories.

4. Purpose-oriented goal: This measures if the employees are working towards their
company's goal.

5. Function-oriented goal: Checks if the employees are working towards their department's
functional goals.

6. Do something extra: Check if the employees have done something extra for the company
or not.

Some of their performance standard processes are mentioned below:

The line managers are usually the ones to do the actual appraising there and the HR manager
assists the line manager.

The different types of ranking methods used for performance appraisal by Unilever
are:

o Unilever Bangladesh mostly uses the "Forced Distribution Method" to rank their
employees.

o Unilever Bangladesh uses the method of "Leadership Team" where all the
employees and their supervisors discuss each other’s performances. This helps to remove
misunderstandings that might appear in their distribution method.

o They have a discussion of all pillar heads where all employees discuss their
main job duties.

o Unilever Bangladesh has a double evaluating system in which both the employees
and the employer evaluates each other.
 SCOPES :
Unilever provides a wide range of benefits for their employees. Some of the benefits are
listed below:

Financial benefits

As financial benefits are strictly confidential for the organization and employees, much.
information could not be gathered regarding this issue. However, some of the financial
benefits provided to the employees of Unilever are:

Profit sharing
Stock options
Performance bonus
Provident fund
Gratuity

Nonfinancial benefits
Some of their nonfinancial benefits include:

Special holiday and Casual Leave

Only the company's highest-ranking employees get reimbursed for certain of the company's
holiday expenses, such as airline tickets or hotel fees. Every year, all employees receive
government vacations as well as 25 days of unpaid leave. An employee may depart casually
at any time. If they do not take the leaves, they will continue.

The following are the main advantages that Unilever provides:

• Bonus
The employees received bonuses when the festival arrived. The base wage is paid in full as a
bonus. As an example, if a Territory Manager's primary salary is 50,000 Taka, he will earn
50,000 Taka bonus.

• Employees' parenting
Unilever female employees are entitled to 6 months of full-pay maternity leave. To obtain this
leave, an employee must submit all required documents. They also provide a daycare center for
their employees' children.
 • Life Insurance
Unilever provides its employees with life insurance. If an employee dies on site because of the
company's failure, his or her family receives money of 50 lakes ++ typically, depending on the
condition of death and payment rate.

• Medical facilities
In case of accidents, they can have their care at United Hospital, and the company would pay the
entire cost for the employees. Unilever staff are now on medical leave. If an employee requires
15 days of treatment, he or she can take 15 days off work

• Transport Services
Top-level or pre-designated employees will be given a car and reimbursed for gasoline cost.

• Home Office during a pandemic situation

Unilever offers a term called "Home Office" since the culture of the company is flexible. It
allows employees to work from home with the consent of the line manager. Also, during this
Covid-19 pandemic situation, their employees can work from home.

• Provident Fund

Every Unilever employee has a provident fund. Government guidelines govern this fund.
Unilever allows its employees to save 10% of the base salary per month and contribute the
same amount when retire. However, there is a stipulation that an employee must work for that
perk for at least one year. Suppose Unilever's territorial manager, who has a basic salary of
50,000 Taka and worked five years after joining, is paid 15% more of the basic salary each
year.

❖ Suppose a Territory officer of Unilever who has a basic Salary of 55,000 Taka and has
worked 5 years from his/her joining, gets a raise of 10% of the basic salary every year.
The provident fund will be.
 Year Basic salary Employee’s Employee’s Employers’ Total (Taka)
contribution contribution contribution
(Per month) (Per Year) (Per Year)
1 55,000 5,500 66,000 66,000 1,32,000
2 60,500 6,050 72,600 72,600 1,45,200
3 66,550 6,655 79,860 79,860 1,59,720
4 73,870.5 7,387.5 88,650 88,650 1,77,300
5 81,257.55 8,125 97,500 97,500 1,95,000
TOTAL 4,04,610 4,04,610 8,09,220

• Gratuity :
For employees who have worked for at least 5 years, Unilever provides gratuity funds for
them. After 5 years, for the same Territory Manager basic salary is 81,257 Taka. If he/she
leaves or retires from Unilever after 5 years,

he/ she will get a gratuity amount of:

Total gratuity payment = Last basic salary × Years of service
= (81,257×5) Taka
= 4,06,285Taka

The implication of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)

Unilever's fundamental aim is to increase the company's overall value. In a constantly
shifting business climate, the company is able to thrive because of its organizational culture
and structure. The corporation requires the human resources department to locate and groom
great employees, which will be crucial in supporting the goods and brands of the company in
the future. The consequences of the SHRM are discussed below:

I. Recruitment and Selection process

Unilever wants people that focus on adding value. That is why they occasionally outsource
recruitment and use internal references. In addition, the selection procedure ensures this by
seeking motivated staff during the screening and CV checks.

II. Training and Development

To reach its SHRM goals, it aims at improving its employees' general abilities, professional
skills, and leadership. They do it by carrying out several training and development programs to
improve these three categories of talent.

III. Compensation and Benefit: Unilever's remuneration structure is specifically

developed to support its strategy and its corporate goals. The elements are both fixed and
variable. Variable remuneration is introduced to boost employee and manager performance
better.
Future Leaders Program for final-year students:

Unilever Bangladesh believes it will invest in the future, including its products and brands
and the people involved. That is why they established UFLP, a Unilever graduate program
designed to lead graduates through complex employment responsibilities and education to
future leaders. These features work rotation for an accelerated learning environment in
different functions.

(2019 Bizmaestros champions team from BUP)