Unilever 2011 Annual Report Download - page 21

18
WINNING WITH
PEOPLE
Our growth ambitions demand that our organisation has a structure
and culture that make us fit to win in a fast-changing environment.
Above all, they require us to find and develop the world’s best talent
and leaders – a challenge we are striving to meet.
Leverage our operating
framework for competitive
advantage
Success in the future will depend on being
lean, agile and competitive in a resource-
challenged world. In three years, we have
transformed our structure to enable us to
move faster, innovate better and take full
advantage of our global scale.
More focused categories
During 2011 we started to move from
11product categories to four: Foods,
Refreshment, Home Care, and Personal
Care. This streamlining makes our
decision-making faster, lets us share
best practice more effectively, and
creates greater scale for innovation
and sustainability initiatives.
Getting closer to the consumer
We are also moving from 22
geographical clusters to eight. The
clusters – six of them primarily in
emerging markets – allow us to focus
more closely on the consumer, help us
spot wider opportunities, and create
regional economies of scale.
Our global function network, including
IT, Finance, R&D, Supply Chain and HR,
further drives the benefits of scale and
shared best practice.
Organisation and diverse talent
pipeline ready to match our
growth ambitions
Attracting, developing and retaining
talent is essential if we are to meet our
ambitions. We constantly audit the skills
and leadership that will be needed
across every cluster and in our key
global functions to achieve our ambition
of doubling the size of the business while
reducing our environmental impact.
Seeking talent globally
The talent we need will come from all
over the world. We’ve introduced global
standards for graduate recruitment, so
that people have the same experience
wherever they start. We have targeted
universities, particularly in emerging
markets, with our campus recruitment
programme. In 2011, we were
recognised as the most preferred
graduate FMCG (fast-moving consumer
goods) employer in 14 countries.
Developing leaders
We are expanding our Unilever
Leadership Development Programme
todeliver high quality training to more
managers. All our senior leaders have
been through the programme and are
now mentoring our next generation of
leaders. In 2011, we began building our
Four Acres leadership facility in
Singapore (see picture story below)
–reinforcing our presence in
emergingmarkets.
Furthering diversity
Our consumers come from every
background, nationality and social
group, and we want our people to
reflectthat diversity. Over the past
fewyears, we have focused on
improvingthe representation of women
in the workplace. Today, 30% of our
Non-Executive Directors are women,
and the proportion of women in senior
positions rose from 23% in 2007 to
28%in 2011. In our annual Global People
Pulse Survey, gauging managers’
views of the company, approval of our
diversity and inclusion measures rose
by four percentage points in 2011 to
reach 83%, well above the external
benchmark of 74%.
Performance culture which
respects our values
We are building a winning culture, in
which every employee is encouraged
to grow to his or her full potential. We
have developed a new performance-
based reward structure that recognises
86%
of managers proud
to work for Unilever
Most preferred
1
gra
4
duate FMCG
employer in
countries
INVESTING IN LEADERSHIP:
FOUR ACRES, SINGAPORE
In 2011, we broke ground on a new
leadership development centre in
Singapore. The new facility will bring to a
vital emerging market the excellent training
we have given managers at our existing
Four Acres centre near London for 57
years. Both learning centres will continue
to look beyond Unilever for inspiration and
best practice, forming partnerships with
universities and business schools.
Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2011
Report of the Directors About Unilever
Artist’s impression