Human Resources Planning In Strategic Management Commerce Essay

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Human Resource Planning is seen as a pillar in any organizations success. For any organization to be successful, human resource planning must be considered as a priority in building the organization. How it is implemented in any organization.

The organization Unilever is one of the world's biggest and well known consumer goods suppliers. The products of Unilever is using around the world in every day and every house, the brands of Unilever are trusted and available at everywhere. Unilever is one of the growing and worlds most successful consumer goods companies in fact 150 million times aday, someone somewhere using and chooses a Unilever products. Unilever don't only consider measuring to success in financial term, the main achievement is to get result, respecting their employees and consumers and the environment around the organization. How Unilever's Human Resource Planning makes them in favors of the organization and got success.

This paper is grouped into four Topics and discussed the Strategic capability of Human Resource Planning through describing in first topic is the Dynamic Capabilities, HR Strategy, Organizational Design, second topic is about HR Planning, Attracting, Recruiting, and Selecting Talent, third topic is about the Culture of the organization, and the fourth and last topic is about Legal Requirements of the HR department.


Strategic Capability of the Organization

"The competencies, knowledge, and skills that an organization can apply to achieve success in a competitive environment. This involves the need to adjust and change in order to fit the changing environment and the need to stretch to exploit organizational resources".

Resource Based Strategy

According to Wernerfelt and Rumelt (1984)

"To transform a short-run competitive advantage into a sustained competitive advantage requires that these resources are heterogeneous in nature and not perfectly mobile".

Dynamic Capability

In Unilever as a growing firm and have ability to integrate and build the internal and external system of the organization and make quickly change in the environment. The basic perpose of dynamic capabilities is to manage the organization in to todays fast changing market forces and as a firm reply quickly and to be innovative.

Developing Strategic Capabilities

As a Unilever manager are needed to improve the important strategic analysis capabilities, which include a strong strength to rectify the current problems. The manager underlying the system and have ability to strategically solve all the issues related to macro and micro level business issues which often in ambiguous situation and always have facilitate the innovative changes in resource allocation and incentive programs.

As discussed above, very thoroughly about the Strategic capabilities, in Unilever the HR department find only those skilled people who really have some Dynamic capabilities, it caused for improvement in this organization and Unilever emphasis is on adapting, integrating, external and internal organizational skills, resource and functional competences to fulfill the basic requirement of organizational environment, Unilever follow the strategic capabilities to find that is there any training requirement in any department or organizational learning or may be some changing requirement in the staff policies.

Putting together an HR strategy for the organization

"The study reveals that successful deployment depends on the presence of a set of external environmental factors and on developing a set of internal capabilities that extends beyond this function".

Systems involved in the strategies together by the components are

Hard: "Competences and resource needed".

Soft: "Behavior needed to encourage in order achieving competitive advantages".

Linking Business and HR Strategy

"HR staff focused on administering benefits for organization and other payroll operational functions and didn't think of themselves as playing a part in the firm's overall strategy. The purpose was that improvements in individual employee performance would automatically enhance the organization's performance".

Component of HR strategy

"The role of an organization's HR function is to benefited the organization achieve its stated objectives through the best use of its employees by given them best environment. The diagram below shows how the organizational strategy should drive the creation of the service delivery strategy, people strategy, etc. related to all of the strategies within the HR function, logically, technically and then flow from the overall People strategy, and narrowing further define the elements within the reward strategy".

The Strategy of Unilever is always approach Soft behavior to achieve the competitive advantages from the employees because this behavior makes improvement in individual employee performance and that cause automatically boost the performance of organization. Unilever understand how they may need to change cultural issues, timescale, changing people behavior, structure and process of the organization.

Organization Design

"A process for improving the probability that an organization will be successful more specifically, Organization Design is a formal, guided process for integrating the people, information and technology of an organization. The facilitator assures that a systematic process is followed and encourages creative thinking".

The type of organizational design of your organization

What is Culture

"Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs artifacts of organization members and their behaviors. Culture is one of those terms that are difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it".

There are four types of cultures found in an organization

Task Culture

Power Culture

Role Culture

Personal Culture

Unilever is Role Culture organization which is split into various functional departments and each individual within the this chain perform a particular role, organization see many benefits like every employee focus on their particular job assignment which caused increased productivity and to follow the Role culture Unilever found weakness and resolve it as required department wise or individually.

The process of HR planning in organization

"These strategic planning sites bring excellent resources to the strategic planning effort".

"Avoiding Circular Conversations".

"Thinking Strategically First Makes Strategic Planning Work".

"Recession Planning for Employees".

"Strategic Planning Pitfalls - to Avoid".

"Quick Start Learning Guide: Strategic Planning".

"Build a Strategic Framework: Mission, Vision HYPERLINK ""Statement".

"How to Implement Strategic Planning: Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Values".

"Preventing Predictable Decision Making Errors".

"Build an Organization Based on Values".

"Planning and Analysis in Change Management".

"Create Your Personal Vision Statement"

"A New Role for HR: Support Your CompanyHYPERLINK ""'HYPERLINK ""s BrandHYPERLINK """.HYPERLINK ""

Component of HR Plans

For a successful approaches to strategic planning in a professional way to develop the present scenario of marketing, financial, technology and operational departments in successful way. This includes both long rage strategic and short range tactical plans.

"HR supply plans".

"Organization and structure plans".

"Employee utilization plans".

"Learning and developments plans".

"Performance management and motivation plans".

"Rewards Plans".

"Employee relation plans".

"Communication Plans".

Reference taken from college notes

The Unilever itself very strict in HR Planning just because of a very big organization they care about each and every individual employee and departments. The process of strategic planning in Unilever is to first provide HR data and ideas, then strategic visioning for future planning and forecasting, Unilever always focus on the staff issues like learning and development plans, performance management and motivation plans, rewards, employees relation plan, communication skills, organizational structure and plans. All these activities are very suitable and caused improvement in the organization.


Attracting Talent

According to Lidewey and Sylvia (2009)

"Competing for Talent seeks to identify the emerging importance of attracting, retaining and developing talent in the 21st Century organization. It enables readers to develop a strategic understanding of the dynamics and the competitive advantage of the talent factor in modern business and society". http://talentmanagement.nyenrode


According to Carmel Streater (1999)

"Diversity is that exist in race, gender, ethnic or cultural background, age, sexual orientation, religion, and physical or mental capability. Diversity can also refer to differences in personality, job function, class, educational level, marital status, familial status, and demographic status. In other words, diversity is a word that describes the ways in which each individual is unique".

Unilever makes every effort to ensure that its workforce is representative of the cultural and ethnic diversity in the wider population. To attract the highly talented candidates, Unilever raising the company profile within the universities of UK. Unilever offer a good salary and training as part of its benefits. The main attraction of Unilever is the to give chance of a career rather than just given a job.

Recruiting Talent

In view of Bohlander & Snell (2010)

"Regardless of who does the recruiting, it is imperative that these individuals have a good understanding of the knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, and other characteristics required for the job. All too often, a new person in the HR department or a line manager is given a recruiting assignment, even before that person has undergone interview training, he or she fully understands the job being recruiting for, or comprehends the values and goals of the organization. On this basis we can conclude that personable, enthusiastic, and competent recruiters have an impact on the success of an organization's recruitment program. Another way organization may be able to increase the effectiveness of their recruitment efforts is to provide job applicants with (RJP) realistic job preview. In fact no of research studies on RJPs report these positive results".

Improved employee job satisfaction

Reduced voluntary turnover

Enhanced communication through honesty and openness

Realistic job expectations

Unilever's online recruitment system is a very charm able strategy for the candidates because it helps the speed and efficiency of the application although for the company and the candidates. Unilever also offers internship scheme for the fresh candidates and for students. Unilever advertise its vacancies and opportunities across a wide range of media like newspapers, online and magazines.

Selecting Talent

"Right selection is very important a poor selection can lead to poor performance, poor team moral, the need for additional training and waste of money spend on the selection process". (This definition is taken from college notes)

Selection Methods

As defined by Michael Armstrong (2003) a psychological Method is:

"Selection methods are used to provide more valid and reliable evidence of levels of intelligence, personality characteristics, abilities, aptitudes and attainments than can be obtained from an interview".

There are five types of validity for choosing a selection method.

"Predictive validity the extent to which the test correctly predicts future behavior".

"Concurrent validity the extent to which a test score differentiates individuals in relation to a criterion or standard of performance external to the test".

"Content validity the extent to which the test is clearly related to the characteristics of the job or role for which it is being used as a measuring instrument".

"Face validity the extent to which it is felt that the test looks right, is measuring what it is supposed to measure".

"Construct validity the extent to which the test measures a particular construct or characteristic".

The Selection Interview

In the view of Gatewood (2008),

"The employment interview is a very flexible tool, and when properly conducted, should provide a wealth of information that can be used by both the interviewer and interviewee for making quality decision. A first step in understanding the appropriate use of the interview is a discussion of its proposed advantages in selection. Generally, these advantages fall into three main categories".

"The fact that the interview provides an opportunity for the organization to recruit good candidates and educate them about the job".

"The fact that the interview is an efficient and practical method for measuring a number of different KSAs of an applicant".

"The fact that the interview can help an employer make either an early decision about an applicant's acceptability i.e., screening out an applicant or a later one i.e., selecting in an applicant".

The selection process of Unilever is to identify the best candidates for the right position. Unilever HR manager often use standard documentation in order to match job roles with personal qualities and skills like identifying job description and person specification. During selection of any candidate then have an initial face to face interview with a Unilever recruitment manager. And after selection of new candidate he/she responsible for creating and delivering multiple training programs to improve employee performance.


What is Culture

In view of Colin A. Carnall (2007)

"Organization culture is normally described as the behavior, importance, attitudes, values, beliefs, norms and customs which distinguish an organization from others".

According to Johnson (1988)

"Sets out a culture web nothing a number of components which help in the definition of organization culture".

"The organizational paradigm what an organization does its mission, its values and how it define itself".

"Control System Process in place to monitor performance and/or behavior. Role cultures have many formal controls, rules and procedures".

"Organizational Structures Reporting lines, hierarchies, work flows".

"Power Structures who makes the decisions, how widely spread is power and on what are power and influence based".

"Symbols Logos and designs, office allocation, car parking and other tangible and intangible means of differentiating people".

"Rituals and Routines Meetings, reports, budget and performance review processes".

"Stories and myth Convey messages about what is important and valued in an organization".

Importance of organizational Culture

According to Deal and Kennedy (1082),

"A strong culture exists where employees respond to changing situation consistently with their alignment to the value of the organization. Identified by Janis (1972), of groupthink. This happens when people do not challenge current thinking but also where the group will take riskier decision than would any individual member acting alone. There is a strong belief in the organization's values and a tendency to create negative stereotypes of competitors, in turn this leads to the riskier decision making. It is worth nothing that strong cultures tend to outperform weaker cultures (Kotter and Hesketh, 1992; Burt et al., 1994). Strong cultures likeliest to emerge in a period of growth, it is when organizations with strong cultures perform best".

In Unilever the culture play very important role in the organization because culture need strong relationship, Unilever makes a strong communication with the employees because it is another key to get success, the external values or elements of culture they are more visible and known as practices. Unilever itself follows corporate culture which helps to make any big or critical decision at any time and at the time of decision employees are must have to support the organization for their success. Unilever believes in healthy culture so that it follows all the element of healthy culture.

Changing Working Practices

"There are now different options of working practices which have ability to change the procedure of labor market. This includes shifts patterns, increased part time working, flexi time, annual hours, incentives, zero hours, home working, part time and teleworking. These changes have both positive and negative effects".

"Positive Effects Workers have more choice of how they work and when the working hours are suitable for them, can get better work life balance".

"Negative Effects Workers working round a clock which is not in favor of worker or the demand of ever present technology". (Definition taken from college notes)

The Work Life Balance

Changing in work practice is defined in Unilever as always make equilibrium between the staff efforts and control over their working style and try to better accommodate other aspects of their lives, Unilever benefited their employees by increased flexibility in working hours and providing full holidays as per law and needs. Unilever offers for only senior managers and directors to work from their home on their holidays or during outside for meeting. By providing flexible work life balance the employees of Unilever get raised morale, motivation.


Legal Requirements of HR

According to Mathis and Jackson (2008)

"Three very interrelated HR issue are considered in this topic, employee rights, HR policies, and discipline. How are they related, Employees come to work with some rights, but many more are granted or constrained by the HR policies and rules an employer sets".

The legal requirement of HR is operate some important areas within the context of a range of laws that protect employees and ensure employees are treated fairly, some of them are

Fairness in Recruitment and Selection

Gender reassignment

Race, national origins, ethnic origins, color

Disability, religion, Sexual, orientation

Types of Discrimination

Direct discrimination

Indirect discrimination



Fairness and Protection

Health and safety at work Act 1974

Data protection Act 1998

Right to be treated fairly

Providing all kinds of Leaves

Family friend law

Maternity rights

Adoption rights

Parental leave

Paternity leave and pay

Right to request flexible working

The main motto of Unilever is to operate all the functions of recruitment within the criteria of laws and give protection and insurance of all the employees are equally treated and fairly. Unilever always treated equal to all employees either male or female, there is no difference in race, national origins, color, religion and difference in age factors, infect more careful during advertisement that nobody get discriminate by Unilever through direct or indirect discrimination. Related to health and safety and data protection Acts Unilever itself and the employees are strict to follow all the laws. Unilever fully protected its employee when they need leaves such as maternity, adoption, parental, paternity, and emergency by followed the rules and laws because it's the right of employee, same as if any employee wants to leave organization willingly or be dismissed or by misconduct or retirement.

Disciplinary and grievance procedure

According to Mathis and Jackson (2008)

"The system of grievance are formal route of communication designed to improve the grievance problems as soon as possible when its arise. Line manger is first who is direct to the issue, however the managers are related with many other matters related to employee's grievance but they have to resolve each individual issues of grievance".

The procedure of Unilever is that there are written disciplinary and grievance prove in place which should be feature as part of terms and condition for employment. Because of this disciplinary procedure all the employees to know what is expected if they are not following the standard procedure and rules and if they are fail to meet them, take the needed action, but managers first discuss all matter then find evidence and then provide written reason of decision. As same the grievance procedure process for settling or redressing employee complaints by following the same route by which employee can bring up any issue which is related to organization, by first inform through mail or letter, than had make meeting, and after that investigate the grievance issue and at last making decision whether to uphold grievance or not.

The Role of External Agencies

According to Armstrong and Lucas (1985)

"Having presented and briefly discussed the view of the ACAS advisory role held by significant samples of employers association, trade unions, management consultants and training institution. The topic restrict itself to the interesting advisory role of Britain's Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), deliberately excluding its other roles, such as conciliation both on individual statutory rights and on collective disputes, and mediation and arbitration. To improve industrial relations by providing free advice to employers, unions and workers on any matter concerned with industrial relations or employment policies".

The doors of Unilever is always open for ACAS and other external agencies, because all the employees working in Unilever have all rights to resolve their issues, but at first Unilever always try to fix the employees issues by their end and try to make decision in favor of employee as well as because the main assets of Unilever is to provide the basic needs of employee and customers as well. The culture of Unilever is so friendly that why if there is some issues related to employees it resolve at the inside the organizational level but if any employee is not satisfy the decision of organization they can approach to ACAS or EHRC for better decision until he/she is not satisfied. Unilever is always up to date by the new laws information commissioner's like to be very strict to follow Data protection under the Act of 1998, as every individual have to protect company information by given separate ID's and security passwords at all levels. Such as maintaining the environmental issues under the Environmental Information regulation 2004, the basic focus of Unilever is always make healthy and safe environment because a healthy environment makes healthy worker and a healthy worker produce healthy and efficient efforts. Unilever is providing to its all employees a handbooks which is up to dated with new health and safety laws and tips and timely upgrade when required. Also the main facility is that all the information which is either related to data protection, privacy or ACAS, or health and safety is provided any time on companies' web including newsfeeds, bulletins, press release, latest issues or many more information.


The conclusion in my view is that human resource planning is seen as main pillars of any organization because to hire a suitable person for a suitable job in suitable time is only done by HR department, not by the finance and other departments, if we summarized the job of HR department is first to plane all the needs and strategy which is suitable for organization however its long term strategy or short term strategy, to select a right person for the right job, then assign into right place and providing them the best culture and through providing all facilities, benefits, leaves, loans, medical, insurance, in standard legal and lawful way, and arrange all the employees and employers in equal work life balance as per their needs. This is the main conclusion which a human resource planning is always moving on.