Unilever 2012 Annual Report Download - page 29

26 Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2012Report of the Directors About Unilever
WINNIN WITH PEOPLE continued
Leadershp for the future
We are committed to the growth of
our people throughout their careers,
and to ensuring that leadership skills
in particular are developed at every
level of management. Our new Four
Acres Learning and Leadership Centre
in Singapore, scheduled to open in
mid-2013, is physical proof of this
commitment. Like our long-standing Four
Acres Centre in Kingston, UK, the facility
will run a global curriculum to drive
excellence and commitment to leadership
development and sustainability.
We now have programmes for existing
and future leaders at all levels. These
are designed in a blended approach of
leaders teaching leaders, senior executive
sponsorship, academic rigour and
application through job experience,
mentors and coaches.
A dverse busness for a dverse world
Two billion people use our products every
day and, if we are to meet their needs, we
need to reflect their diversity in our own
workplaces. Through better recruitment,
family-friendly working conditions,
a culture of accountability, and initiatives
like employee networks and mentoring,
our business is becoming increasingly
gender-balanced. By the end of 2012,
41% of our management headcount were
women, compared to 39% at the end of
2011. After a decade of steady improvement,
achieving an increase of more than 1%
in a single year shows progress – but we
recognise there is still a long way to go.
We are working hard to improve further
and it is encouraging that we have received
external recognition for our efforts. For
example, we were: awarded the prestigious
2013 Catalyst Award; awarded Company
of the Year in the Vodafone European
Diversity Awards 2012; named Top
Employer by workingmums.co.uk; winners
of Japanese magazine Toyo Keizai’s Female
Management Appointment Award for 2012;
named among the 2012 Working Mother
100 Best Companies in the US; and our
US business was given a 100% rating in
the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate
Equality Index.
Values and
performance culture
Ours has always been a business based
on values. We aim to ensure that integrity,
responsibility, respect and pioneering
spirit underpin our activities. In the last
two years we have found new ways to
express those values through the Unilever
Sustainable Living Plan (USLP).
Engaged employees
We have been encouraged by what our
people are telling us about our culture.
Our Global People Survey (GPS) measures
the level of engagement of all employees.
Over 114,000 eligible employees participated
in the 2012 survey, representing an 87%
response rate. Our engagement score of
75%, up from 73% in the 2010 GPS, is now
in line with the scores of high-performing
employers in our class.
Other key aspects of the survey also
showed good progress: scores rose by
5% for people management, and by 4% for
performance culture, bias for action and
diversity. We believe that the USLP and our
values are significant factors in keeping
employees fully engaged in our business
– and therefore driving performance.
Everyday heroes
Our values are exemplified every day
by thousands of employees, without whom
our business could not meet its ambitions
for sustainable growth. But even amidst
all this good work, some actions stand
out. This year we honoured six employees
nominated by their colleagues as ‘Unilever
heroes’ – one of the ways in which we
recognise significant contributions to
society and our business.
FOUR ARES
SINAPORE
In 2011, we began work on the Unilever
Four Acres Learning and Leadership Centre
in Singapore. The facility is on course to open
in mid-2013, and will provide learning and
capability development from our new global
curriculum, designed to ensure that our people
have the skills to meet our growth ambitions.
Four Acres Singapore has accommodation
for 55 students and includes two flexible
training rooms, a teaching amphitheatre
and a multi-purpose hall for up to 200 people.
More at wwwunlevercom/
developng-and-engagng-our-people
Unlever Annual Report and Accounts 2012