Unilever 2009 Annual Report Download - page 31

Our business (continued)
28 Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2009
Report of the Directors About Unilever
Ice cream and beverages includes ice cream sold under the
international Heartbrand, including Cornetto, Magnum, Carte
d’Or and Solero, Wall’s, Kibon, Algida and Ola. Our portfolio also
includes Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Klondike and Popsicle. This
category also includes tea-based beverages, where our principal
brands are Lipton, Brooke Bond and PG Tips, as well as weight
management products through our Slim•Fast range and
nutritionally enhanced products sold in developing markets,
including Annapurna and AdeS.
Within these groups, we also include sales by Unilever
Foodsolutions, which is a global food service business providing
solutions for professional chefs and caterers.
In personal care, six global brands are the core of our business in
the mass skin care, daily hair care and deodorants product areas –
Dove, Lux, Rexona (including Sure and Degree), Sunsilk (including
Seda/Sedal), Axe/Lynx and Pond’s. Other important brands include
Suave, Clear, Lifebuoy and Vaseline, together with Signal and
Close Up in oral care.
Our home care ranges include laundry products, such as tablets,
traditional powders and liquids for washing clothing by hand or
machine. Tailored products including soap bars are available for
lower-income consumers. Our brands include Omo (‘Dirt is Good’
platform), Surf, Comfort, Radiant and Skip. Our household care
products include surface cleaners and bleach, sold under the Cif,
Domestos and Sun/Sunlight brands.
Please refer also to pages 8 to 21 where we give many examples
of the ways in which our brand portfolio is being actively managed
in support of our strategic objectives.
Our employees
We believe in providing an environment where individuals can
achieve their goals, both professionally and personally. In order to
attract and retain the best people, we recognise the need to offer
them ways to take advantage of opportunities, room to succeed
and grow, and more directions in which to pursue their careers.
Our success depends on innovation, so we do everything we can
to ensure that the enterprising people we employ have the
freedom to act. We give them all the support and encouragement
they need. At the same time, we empower them to make tough
decisions, implement new ideas and use their initiative. As a result
our people have a passion for achievement, strive for outstanding
results and are determined to get things done.
We believe in everyone’s ability to develop and grow, and that life
at work should be a continuous learning journey and that we all
have an equal right to take advantage of the opportunity to
develop ourselves. In our view, seizing the opportunity to make
a difference is more important than simply progressing up
the ladder.
Personal vitality is also something we feel strongly about and we
have programmes and activities in place which are designed to
help everyone in the business take care of themselves and
encourage a better quality of life. By creating a vitalising work
experience and environment for our people we help them feel
energised and able to perform to the very best of their ability.
We have created an inclusive environment where people can bring
their whole self to work; they do not have to change to fit in. We
want people to be themselves. This drives a higher level of
engagement and, as a direct result, improves all-round
performance.
The fact that everyone is unique and has different interests outside
the office has a positive impact on the way we work and on our
culture. Understanding other people's perspectives and learning
from them adds variety and enriches what we do.
Our total employee numbers over the last five years were as
follows:
Year end in thousands 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005
Asia Africa CEE 95 102 97 98 118
The Americas 40 42 43 45 47
Western Europe 28 30 34 36 41
Total 163 174 174 179 206
Diversity
Diversity in Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences,
creating possibilities and growing together for better business
performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce: this means
giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing
development to all employees regardless of gender, nationality,
race, creed, disability, style or sexuality. Diversity plays a vital role in
ensuring we understand consumers’ needs.
The commitment to diversity is set right at the top of our business.
It is driven by the Global Diversity Board, chaired throughout 2009
by Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman.
Unilever is a very culturally diverse business, with 20 different
nationalities represented among our top-tier management.
We have worked to embed diversity firmly into our day-to-day
business decisions, via our talent management and people
processes, from appointments to development. In addition the
Global Diversity Board has agreed a number of actions which must
be implemented by all of our business units to promote and
support increased diversity. Our business units are required to
report progress against each of these actions on a quarterly basis
using the Diversity Scorecard, which is reviewed by the Global
Diversity Board.