Case Study

Case Study- HR practices
The success of any business depends as much on appropriate, effective, well-communicated, HR

and business practices as it depends on meeting the requirements of mandated laws and
regulations. In fact, good planning and the development of effective practices make regulatory
compliance much easier. HR practices helps in increasing the productivity and quality, and to
gain the competitive advantage of a workforce strategically aligned with the organization’s goals
and objectives.
advantage of a
workforce strategically
aligned with the
organization’s goals and
objectives.
Company: Hindustan Unilever Limited
Area: Welfare, Health and Services
Company Profile:
 Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is the largest fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company,
a leader in home & personal care products and foods & beverages.
 HUL's brands are spread across 20 distinct consumer categories, touching lives of every 2 out
of 3 Indian. it has brands like Lakme, Axe, Pepsodent, Surf Excel, Wheel, Lux, Dove, Fair &
Lovely, Kissan, Knnor Soups, Annapurna, Kwality Walls, Brooke Bond and Lipton etc.
 It has employee strength over 1500 and 1200 managers.
 It has created widespread network through its 2000 suppliers & associates. There 75
manufacturing locations in India itself.
“Work Life Balance Initiatives – a road to Engagement”

There are several policies of HUL which helps employees to maintain the professional and their
personal life go hand in hand which engages them to the organization.
1. Career Break Policy: Any manager of HUL is allowed to avail this policy which will help them
to manage their work life balance. This kind of break can be taken for a period up-to 5 years
in total for any reason for the employee’s concern such as for higher study, adoption,
sabbatical, maternity, paternity or pursuing any personal dreams.
2. Work place Facilities: The head office at Mumbai is furnished with day care facilities, bank,
shopping center, café, gymnasium, florist etc. Even provision for drop facility with escort/
guards for lady employees working late in the evening exist.
3. MAPS (Maternity and Paternity Support): Maternity leave of 6 Months and Paternity leave
of 2 weeks are allowed at HUL. The same roles are responsibilities are given back once the
employees are back from their maternity leaves. The integrated online portal called MAPS
(Maternity and Paternity Support) enables the line manage and the employees during this
transition period via various tools, resources and guidance.
4. Agile Working: The technology enabled environment at HUL helps employees to avail
policies like Work from home, flexi-hours and part time / reduced hours (including a job
share policy).
5. Lamplighter Employee Programme: This program helps employees to tackle health risks
and renders support to eliminate such risks. It also aspires to advance the nutrition level,
fitness and mental condition of employees. The employee are assigned colour codes (green,
amber and red) based on their health quotient as a part of the programme. The Medical and
Occupational Health Team motivates employees through various health promotion and
protection programmes to bring about lifestyle changes thereby reducing health risks and
helping employees transit from Red to Amber and from Amber to Green.
6. Career by Choice programme: It is unique program which gives a direction for women to
come back to work after a long break. It helps to women employees to gradually transit to
the work life. It starts with a structured induction program designed to familiarize with the
company followed by an assigned project guide who co-owns the project. The guide would
be working closely with new employee to provide direction and support throughout the
project across various functions like Sales & Marketing, Human Resources, Supply Chain and
Research and Development. This program is eligible for any women with minimum of two
years experience in areas of Marketing, Human Resources, Supply Chain or Research and
Development who are looking for an opportunity to work flexibly. A similar kind of program
is run by TATA group called the Tata Second Career Internship Programme (SCIP), calling
upon women to take on a second career.
Employer Brand Management
Hindustan Unilever adopted a slew of measures to brand itself as an ideal employer, and attract top
talent from campuses and ambitiously stepped out of their sector. The Unilever Future Leaders’
Programme brought the focus on training young talent in their formative years and proved to be a
success.
The Challenge:
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) had to consistently build their brand from scratch every year, due to the
highly dynamic nature of the talent market on campuses. In the years 2003-10 HUL did not enjoy
the top rank, and was not considered an attractive employer by students, thereby it lost a lot of
talent. As a result, the impact of poor attractiveness of the brand image was unable to attract top
talent which had a direct and significant impact on business outcomes. If the issue was not resolved,
an ineffective image would have continued to impact business outcomes, and adversely affected
collective performance of teams and individuals. Furthermore, since it is difficult to build an
employer brand in the mid-career recruit market owing to its fragmented nature, employer brand
built in the minds of students while they are on campus has a direct impact on the perception of an
employer in the market.
The Chosen Method:

HUL chose to take the ambition of being the best employer brand across sectors and across
functions. It strived to attract the top talent in all functions across sectors, and the constant
reinvention in Employer branding in line with the needs of the talent proved to be a key strength.
Since the focus was centered on brands and people – two of the biggest assets – HUL created a
platform when their position was endangered by sectors like consulting firms and banks. The
organization and its line leaders put their might behind this agenda as attracting the right talent and
grooming them was made every individual’s job. This also happened to be line with the company
policy of leaders building leaders. Line leaders devoted sufficient energy and resources to establish
this employer brand, as attracting top talent was considered critical to business success.
The Management Training programme, Unilever Future Leaders’ Programme had several features
that worked for it, like
 putting trainees being put into leadership roles directly at the end of training,
 maintaining a buddy or mentor system,
 reverse feedback,
 international stints to help trainees understand foreign market and cultures,
 rural stints to inculcate social responsibility,
 international and domestic e-learning developmental plans,
 and 100% trainee interaction with organization Board members, and a special Executive
General Management for IIT graduates at IIM Bangalore, to establish an understanding of
business fundamentals prior to landing full-time roles.
The Impact:
The policy created a pipeline of top talent to take on large jobs which helped take up big audacious
goals as an organization and beat the market. Grooming the top talent for further roles was also
taken into account simultaneously. HUL became one of the first companies in India to formalize the
development of young talent in their formative years, by giving them big responsibilities.
The initiatives undertaken to ensure all round development of top talent into leaders at an
accelerated pace proved to be successful as:
1. HUL has been the No. 1 Employer of Choice for four years in a row (2011, 2012, 2013 and
2014) as per The Nielsen Report Employer Brand Ranking
2. Additionally, HUL became the Dream Employer for sixth consecutive year from 2009 (Nielsen
Report).
3. HUL also won the Best Apprenticeship/On the Job Training Program 2014 and 2015 in the
TISS-LeapVault CLO Awards.
Furthermore, in the last two decades, 3 out of 4 Indian CEOs/Chairmen of organization have been
products of this Management Trainee programme and 50% of the organization’s current
Management Committee has grown from within the organization and started their careers as
Management Trainees in the organization.
The Road Ahead:

The goal is to ensure that HUL, as an employer brand remains relevant to students. This would be
achieved by constant reinvention, to meet the changing talent needs, which would ultimately attract
top talent. The changing aspirations of students have resulted in an upsurge in the attractiveness of
e-commerce sector as well as entrepreneurship as a career alternative, and fur HUL this has meant
to continue their impetus on making the organization nimble footed, fast paced with even more
vigour. An essential step would be to refresh the communications to highlight the large leadership
role that management trainees get into after their training which actually make them CEOs of their
areas/brands, thereby providing them with rich entrepreneurial experience, with the safety net of a
large organization.
----------------------------------------------------
Ref:
https://www.peoplematters.in/article/employer-branding/best-practices-employer-branding-
hindustan-unilever-12782
https://fdocuments.in/document/hr-practices-at-hul.html

Case Study

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Case Study

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Case Study

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Case Study- HR practices

The success of any business depends as much on appropriate, effective, well-communicated, HR

“Work Life Balance Initiatives – a road to Engagement”

Employer Brand Management

The Chosen Method:

The Road Ahead:

You might also like