Unilever 2013 Annual Report Download - page 19

FROM DIVERSITY TO INLUSION
Women are Unlever’s core consumers,
controllng nearly two thrds of consumer
spendng, so t’s mportant that we
represent them n our workforce As at
31 December 2013, 119,139 (68%) of our
global workforce of 174,381 employees
were male and 55,242 (32%) female
Ofthese, 115 are consdered senor
leadershp executves (96 male, 19 female)
If you nclude employees who are statutory
drectors of the corporate enttes whose
fnancal nformaton s ncluded n the
roup’s 2013 consoldated accounts n
thsAnnual Report, the number ncreases
to 681 males and 181 females 35% (fve
out of 14) of the Board are female Our
ambton s for 50% of our managers to
bewomen (2013 42% were female and
58% male)
We know there s stll much to do and we
are workng hard to put programmes n
place to mprove our representaton and
retenton of women Our Wnnng Balance
campagn, for example, encouraged
employees to gve ther vews on gender
balance We used over 1,750 responses
to make real changes These ncluded a
programme to retan female staff durng
and after maternty leave, as well as
tranng leaders to be more nclusve
Our efforts are showng sgns of
successand we’re encouraged by
externalrecognton ncludng two golds
for ‘Wnnng Balance’ at the tenth Steve
Awards for Women n Busness, as
wellasa atalyst Award for reatng a
ender-Balanced Workforce n Dfferent
ultures We were ncluded n The Tmes
Top 50 Employers forWomen n the UK,
The Workng Mother 100 Best ompanes
n North Amerca and the orporate
Empowerment for Women Award from
osmetcs Executve Women, North
Amerca
SIMPLIFYIN THE WAY WE WORK
Smplfyng workng practces and
cuttng out unnecessary bureaucracy
has a twofold beneft t helps us respond
swftly to changes n the market place and
allows our people to focus on what nspres
them – buldng and growng our brands
One way of dong ths s to brng people
together we have opened a European
Marketng and Innovaton Hub n
Rotterdam, relocatng approxmately 270
employees from nne dfferent countres,
whch wll speed up both decson-makng
and the sharng of best practce We’re
also pleased that 58% of people based
there are women and they represent 28
dfferent natonaltes
We are also lookng at workng practces
across the company For example, we
arerollng out Agle Workng and now
have 30 Agle Workplaces Ths new
way of workng measures performance
on results, not tme and attendance, and
renforces dversty by helpng people –
partcularly women – balance ther
personal and professonal lves
And durng the year we set ourselves a
challenge to rework our maor processes
and systems – those that are the most
complex, tme consumng and frustratng
– to halve the tme they take to use In the
sprt of ths ambton, we coned the
ntatve Proect Half for growth, and
dentfed a radcal smplfcaton of ten
processes and systems that would reduce
the tme we spend on dong thngs that
don’t add value and concentrate on thngs
that do Each ntatve s champoned by a
ULE member
Smlarly, Proect Sunset, an IT tool that
speeds up decsons, has been rolled
out across 103 countres and s already
avalable n seven languages The new
approach, poneered by Hndustan
Unlever n 2012, escalates busness
problem solvng to the hghest levels
of leadershp wthn three weeks
Usng Sunset n Inda to deal swftly wth
customer management ssues has led
to better retenton of salesmen and
lower costs of hrng
Meanwhle, buldng on the fndngs from
our Wnnng Balance campagn, more
than 87,000 people vewed our Wnnng
Together programme whch s helpng
teams make changes to everyday workng
practces Ths ncludes meetngs and
emal etquette, so as to spend tme
more effectvely on makng the bggest
dfference to the busness For example,
teams are creatng ther own manfestos
and sharng best practce, wth promses
ncludng more vdeo conferencng to
reduce travel, keepng meetngs to tme
and an end to cc-ng emals unnecessarly
But there s stll much to do In 2014,
we ntend to focus on helpng leaders
promote a culture of nclusvty
VALUES AND
PERFORMANE ULTURE
In a turbulent world, people are lookng
for meanng at work, and contrbutng to
makng sustanable lvng commonplace,
as we do at Unlever, s hghly motvatng
Our values of ntegrty, responsblty, and
respect, and our poneerng sprt gude
our people n the udgements, actons and
decsons they make each day They are
especally mportant as we expand nto
new markets, recrut new people and face
new challenges
ENAEMENT
Each year, our lobal People Survey
measures employee engagement,
alternatng between pollng all employees
and managers only In 2013, we surveyed
our managers and 89% partcpated, wth
the overall engagement score ncreasng
fvepercentage ponts to 78% (compared
wth managers’ results n 2012) However,
our bas for acton scores rose only slghtly
to 50% – we hope to see ths change as
our programmes to smplfy our workng
practces start to take effect
SAFETY KPI
Total recordable
accident frequency rate
1.03+
per 1 million hours worked
2012: 1.17 per 1 million
hours worked
Unlever Annual Report and Accounts 2013Strategc report16
OUR PEOPLE
ONTINUED