This document provides an overview of a project on the HR practices of Hindustan Unilever. It includes an executive summary that outlines the purpose of studying HUL's HR policies and processes. It then provides a brief company profile of HUL and introduces the various HR practices implemented, which are then explored in more detail in subsequent chapters. These HR practices covered include recruitment and selection, performance management, training and development, compensation, and employee engagement. The document aims to gain knowledge on how HUL approaches and carries out its HR functions.

1. A PROJECT ON HR PRACTICES
OF
HINDUSTAN UNILEVER
AT
SUBMITED BY:
SUBMITED TO:
Desai Madhav Ashutosh
Dr. Bhavna Jaiswal
Section –H
Human Resource faculty,
13BSPHH010941
IBS, Hyderabad.
Seat No. 45
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2. TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER NO.
TITLES
PAGE NO.
1
Executive Summary
3
2
Company Profile
4
3
Introduction to HR Practice of HUL
5
4
HR Practices
6
Recruitment & Selection
7
Performance Management
11
Training & Career Development
14
Talent Management
17
Compensation
19
Employee Engagement
20
REFERENCES
21
5
2

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMERY
The importance of personnel management is being increasingly realized in industrial and nonindustrial organization both in India and abroad. The realization has come about because of
increasing complexity of the task of managers and administrators. In most organizations the
problems of getting the competent and relevant people, retaining them, keeping up their
motivation and morale, and helping them to both continuously grow and contribute their best to
the organizations, are now viewed as the most critical problems.
So with this reference the project titled Study of Study of HR practices & process of
Performance Appraisal has been conducted, based on the primary research in HUL’s sales and
production Division has been prepared to get a better insight into the management practices
adopted by HUL with reference to HR Policies prepared by the HR department in organization.
It emphasizes on the importance of a clear cut organization structure and culture to avoid any
confusion in order to achieve maximum result with minimum resources.
The project is aimed to cover maximum knowledge of the HR practices followed in the
organization and how the performance is evaluated of employees, what primary factors are
considered, how data is maintained and finally the evaluation done. Here the HR practices of the
company have been explained to understand how the company follows these practices and the
performance appraisal process adopted. The practical knowledge has been gained mainly by
observing all the activities taking place in the H.R. department. This is a brief study done to have
understanding of the subject H.R., how it is practically implemented, why it is necessary, its
implications & the benefits.
With reference to the HR Practices brief knowledge has been gained how the Recruitment cycle
functions, Selection done, Training Calendar prepared, what does compensation & cost to
company means and the steps of performance appraisal.
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4. 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 employee strength over 15000 & 1200 managers. It has created widespread network
through its 2000 suppliers & associates. There 75 manufacturing locations in India itself. It caters
its wide range of products to 6.3million outlets. It has market capitalization of 11.5billion
BRANDS:
Home & personal care: - Under this it has brands that cater to every income segment of
population. In this segment it has brands like Lakme, Axe, Pepsodent, Surf Excel, Wheel, Lux,
Dove, Fair & Lovely & many more.
Foods & Beverages:-Under this segment it has brand like Kissan, Knnor Soups, Annapurna,
Kwality Walls, Brooke Bond and Lipton.
It has also launch water purifier with the name Pureit.
The FMCG market is set to treble from $11.6 billion in 2003 to $33.4 billion in 2015.
Penetration level as well as per capita consumption in most product categories like jams,
toothpaste, skin care, hair wash, etc in India is low indicating the untapped market potential.
Companies present in FMCG segment like HUL, Dabur, ITC, Godrej & many more have
potential to acquire market share.
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5. INTRODUCTION TO HR PRACTICE
HR PRECTICE
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.
OBJECTIVE OF HR PRECTICE
The main objective of HR Practices is to differentiate the organization from its competitors by
effective and efficient HR Practices. By following this, the organization does its whole work
process. The objective of HR Practices is to increase productivity and quality, and to gain the
competitive advantage of a workforce strategically aligned with the organization’s goals and
objectives.
As the transparent HR practices can reduce attrition, because Transparent HR practices ensure
continuous business growth in every organization. It gives the suitable working environment to
the employees.
The success of company motivates the employees of organization to continue relationship with
it. As all the employees Perks chart has been mentioned according to their designation in the HR
practices, it helps the employees to know what their perks charts are. So it creates a transparency.
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6. HR PRACTICES OF HINDUSTAN UNILEVER
Effective and Efficient HR practices are very much important for every organization. So, HUL
has also its HR Practices, which helps it a lot to achieve the targets.
Human Resource Management initiatives in any Organization endeavor to change, redefine,
revisit, renew, reinvent, revitalize & restructure the Organization architecture. This is effectively
done with the help of alignment & integration of HR policies & strategies with business goal &
objectives.
The HR Practices of HUL are as follow:

Recruitment and Selection

Performance Management

Training & Carrier Development

Compensation

Employee Engagement
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7. RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
RECRUITMENT
It is a process to discover the sources of manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing
schedules and to employ the effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate
numbers to facilitate effective selection of an efficient workforce. Edwin B. Flippo has defined it
as “The process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in
the organization. “
PROCESS:•
Finding out the requirement (hiring vs. exit), upcoming vacancies, kind of employees
needed.
•
Developing suitable techniques to attract suitable candidates.
•
Stimulating as many candidates as possible.
FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT:INTERNAL FACTORS
EXTERNAL FACTORS
Employer’s brand
Socio-economic factors
Company’s pay package
Supply & Demand factors
Quality of work life
Employment Rate
Organisation culture
Labour market conditions
Career planning & growth
Political, Legal, Governmental factors
Company’s size
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8. SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT:INTERNAL SOURCES
EXTERNAL SOURCES
Present employees
Campus Recruitment
Retired employees
Private employment consultant
Dependent of present
Data Banks
Employee Referrals
Casual Applicants
Trade Unions
Walk-ins
Head Hunting
Mergers & Acquisitions
E-Recruitment
It helps in translating Business Strategy into people requirements. A combination of internal
recruitment, campus recruitment, and executive search is leveraged to meet up to the changing
needs of the organization.
In today’s rapidly changing business environment, organizations have to respond quickly to
requirements for people. Hence, it is important to have a well-defined recruitment policy in
place, which can be executed effectively to get the best fits for the vacant positions.
SELECTION:It is one area where the interference of external factors is minimal. Hence the HR department can
use its discretion in framing its selection policy and using various selection tools for the best
result.
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9. Recruitment of staff should be preceded by:
An analysis of the job to be done (i.e. an analytical study of the tasks to be performed to
determine their essential factors) written into a job description so that the selectors know what
physical and mental characteristics applicants must possess, what qualities and attitudes are
desirable and what characteristics are a decided disadvantage.
Effectively, selection is 'buying' an employee (the price being the wage or salary multiplied by
probable years of service) hence bad buys can be very expensive. For that reason some firms
(and some firms for particular jobs) use external expert consultants for recruitment and selection.
Equally some small organizations exist to 'head hunt', i.e. to attract staff with high reputations
from existing employers to the recruiting employer. However, the 'cost' of poor selection is such
that, even for the mundane day-to-day jobs, those who recruit and select should be well trained to
judge the suitability of applicants.
Outsourcing is also done through consultancies by mentioning the requirement, number and
time. Where the organization does its own printed advertising it is useful if it has some
identifying logo as its trade mark for rapid attraction and it must take care not to offend the sex,
race, etc. antidiscrimination legislation either directly or indirectly. The form on which the
applicant is to apply (personal appearance, letter of application, completion of a form) will vary
according to the posts vacant and numbers to be recruited.
Interviewing can be carried out by individuals (e.g. supervisor or departmental manager), by
panels of interviewers or in the form of sequential interviews by different experts and can vary
from a five minute 'chat' to a process of several days. Ultimately personal skills in judgment are
probably the most important.
Training in interviewing and in appraising candidates is clearly essential to good recruitment.
Largely the former consists of teaching interviewers how to draw out the interviewee and the
latter how to rate the candidates. For consistency (and as an aid to checking that) rating often
consists of scoring candidates for experience, knowledge, physical/mental capabilities,
intellectual levels, motivation, prospective potential, leadership abilities etc. (according to the
needs of the post).
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10. The Recruitment and selection process of HUL:-
The recruitment process of HUL Ltd starts from the requirement of different departments as per
to the org chart. Then they tell to the HR Department. HR Department takes the candidates from
Data bank of company, Poornata etc, then does the short-listing, then does the scheduling for the
interview. After this the selection and negotiation process occurs. Then offer letter is been given
to the selected candidate. The employee then joins in the organization. Then the company
arranges the Induction Program for the employee. After this the recruitment process ends with
this.
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11. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
It is a structured method of formally and objectively evaluating employees’ performance with
respect to their objectives. It addresses the issue of an employee’s development by providing
them with structured and in-depth analysis of strengths and areas of improvement. It provides
with input for annual increments, training and development.
For an organization the aim should not be just to have the best people, but also to retain them and
get best out of them. Employee Performance management includes planning work and setting
expectations, developing the capacity to perform, continuously monitoring performance and
evaluating it.
Most organizations focus on an annual evaluation process for employees and call that
Performance Management. However, annual evaluations are often subjective and can lack
specific measurements and supportive data to help the employee truly improve their behaviour.
Simply putting, a Performance Management System is essential to the success of any
organization because it influences the effort expended by employees, which in turn, drives
bottom-line business results. Furthermore, the Performance Management System helps an
organization identify, recruit, motivate, and retain key employees.
An effective Performance Management System should achieve the following:•
Review the employment cycle of every employee,
•
Beginning with the recruiting process,
•
Employee development,
•
Ending with effective exit interviews.
•
Employee’s knowledge, skills, and abilities with the organization's human capital needs
and business objectives.
•
Provide managers and employees with the tools necessary to focus on short-term and
long-term goals that contribute to both career and organizational success.
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12. PURPOSE:
For Administration•
Document HR decisions with regards to performance & its related issues.
•
Determine promotion of employees.
•
Determine increment in pay of employees.
•
Determine transfer & change in job assignments.
•
Determine retention or termination.
•
Decide on layoffs.
•
Decide need for training
•
Decide salary & related issues.
For Development•
Provide performance feedback to all concerned.
•
Identify individual skills, core competencies, strength & weaknesses.
•
Assist employees in setting goals.
•
Identify training needs.
•
Improve communication.
Method employed:•
360 degree performance appraisal.
Mechanisms like 360 degree feedback provide feedback from superiors, peer groups and
subordinates to provide holistic and objective evaluation of the employees. Assessment on their
potential is communicated transparently to all employees individually and career paths are shared
with them.
•
Management by Objectives (MBO).
MBO is a process whereby superior & subordinate managers of an organization jointly identify
its common goals, define each individual’s major areas of responsibilities in terms of results
expected of him & use these measures of guides for operating the unit & assessing the
contribution of its members. The MBO focuses attention on participative set goals that are
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13. tangible, verifiable & measurable. The superior & subordinates jointly determine goals to be
considered during appraisal period & what level of performance is necessary for subordinates to
satisfactorily achieve specific goals. During performance appraisal period the superior &
subordinates update & alter goals as necessary due to changes in business environment. If not
achieved identify reasons for deviation.
SYSTEM of Performance Appraisal –

Establish Performance Standard.

Communicate standard & expectation to employees.

Measure actual performance by following instructions.

Adjust actual performance due to environment influence.

Compare actual performance with set standards & find out deviations.

Suggest changes in job analysis & standards if necessary.

Follow up.
PROBLEMS
Rating biases-

Halo effect

Error of central tendency.

Personal Prejudice.

Regency effect.
Mainly the performance management of HUL is done by online system includes the following
basic processes
1. Annual goal setting
2. Mid-year review
3. Annual performance review
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14. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
The needs of individual are objectively identified & necessary interventions are planned for
identified groups, which get rolled out in a phased manner through training calendar.
The training and development program is charted out to cover the number of trainees, existing
staff. The programs also cover the identification of resource personnel for conducting
development program, frequency of training and development programs and budget allocation.
Training and development programs can also be designed depending upon job requirement and
analysis. Selection of trainees is also facilitated by job analysis.
The company has a strong focus on manpower training according to their requirements. The
internal training department aims at improving the skill sets relevant to the work profile of
employees. This includes improving communication, Different skills, E-mail programming,
Operation systems.
The design of the training program can be undertaken only when a clear training objective has
been produced. The training objective clears what goal has to be achieved by the end of training
program i.e. what the trainees are expected to be able to do at the end of their training. Training
objectives assist trainers to design the training program.
Training Design:The trainer – Before starting a training program, a trainer analyses his technical, interpersonal,
judgmental skills in order to deliver quality content to trainers.
The trainees – A good training design requires close scrutiny of the trainees and their profiles.
Age, experience, needs and expectations of the trainees are some of the important factors that
affect training design.
Training climate – A good training climate comprises of ambience, tone, and feelings, positive
perception for training program, etc.
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15. Trainees’ learning style – The learning style, age, experience, educational background of
trainees must be kept in mind in order to get the right pitch to the design of the program.
Training strategies – Once the training objective has been identified, the trainer translates it into
specific training areas and modules. The trainer prepares the priority list of about what must be
included, what could be included.
Training topics – After formulating a strategy, trainer decides upon the content to be delivered.
Trainers break the content into headings, topics and ad modules. These topics and modules are
then classified into information, knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
Sequence the contents – Contents are then sequenced in a following manner:
•
From simple to complex
•
Topics are arranged in terms of their relative importance
•
From known to unknown
•
From specific to general
•
Dependent relationship
Training tactics – Once the objectives and the strategy of the training program becomes clear,
trainer comes in the position to select most appropriate tactics or methods or techniques. The
method selection depends on the following factors:
•
Trainees’ background
•
Time allocated
•
Style preference of trainer
•
Level of competence of trainer
•
Availability of facilities and resources, etc.
Meaning of training & development according to HUL: The need for Training and Development is determined by the employee’s performance
deficiency, computed as follows. Training & Development Need = Standard Performance –
Actual Performance.
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16. Training: Training refers to the process of imparting specific skills. An employee undergoing
training is presumed to have had some formal education. No training program is complete
without an element of education. Hence we can say that Training is offered to operatives.
Development: Development means those learning opportunities designed to help employees to
grow. Development is not primarily skills oriented. Instead it provides the general knowledge
and attitudes, which will be helpful to employers in higher positions. Efforts towards
development often depend on personal drive and ambition. Development activities such as those
supplied by management development programs are generally voluntary in nature. Development
provides knowledge about business environment, management principles and techniques, human
relations, specific industry analysis and the like is useful for better management of a company.
The Training Inputs are:•
Skills
•
Education
•
Development
•
Ethics
•
Problem Solving Skills
•
Decision Making
•
Attitudinal Changes
Carrier Development:Hindustan Unilever provided both vertical and lateral growth prospects for its employees in all
the business units present in India. India was one of few countries where all the different
business divisions – Research, Development, Testing, Consulting, Sales & Marketing, and
Support – had a significant presence. Employees could move between the business units
according to their areas of interest. Moreover, employees were provided with exposure to
different business units by way of mentoring from senior employees of Unilever.
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17. TALENT MANAGEMENT
It is a holistic and systematic process, across the group. It is built on the work done so far on
people processes, and has a Talent Identification and Talent Development Strategy for all the 3
levels of management i.e. Senior, Middle & Junior Management. This is facilitated by
Development Assessment Center followed by Individual Development Plan, enabling planned
succession and career management.
The talent management process includes HR process for:•
Recruitment,
•
Performance,
•
Compensation,
•
Succession planning,
17

18. •
Learning and other capabilities around self-service,
•
Analytics.
•
Reporting.
With businesses going global and competition becoming intense, there is mounting pressure on
organizations to deliver more and better than before. Organizations therefore need to be able to
develop and deploy people who can articulate the passion and vision of the organization and
make teams with the energy to perform at much higher levels.
Talent management is a key business process and like any business process takes inputs and
generates output. Talent management is a professional term that gained popularity in the late
1990s. It refers to the process of developing and fostering new workers through on boarding,
developing and keeping current workers and attracting highly skilled workers to work for your
company. Talent management in this context does not refer to the management of entertainers.
Companies that are engaged in talent management (human capital management) are strategic and
deliberate in how they source, attract, select, train, develop, promote, and move employees
through the organization. This term also incorporates how companies drive performance at the
individual level (performance management).
The term talent management means different things to different people.
•
To some it is about the management of high-worth individuals or “the talented”.
•
To others it is about how talent is managed generally - i.e. on the assumption that all
people have talent which should be identified and liberated.
Talent management decisions are often driven by a set of organizational core competencies as
well as position-specific competencies. The competency set may include knowledge, skills,
experience, and personal traits (demonstrated through defined behaviours).
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19. COMPENSATION
Hindustan Unilever offers compensation packages on par or higher than the industry standards
based on the technical skills and experience of the candidates. Employee benefits were
standardized across employees.
The benefit schemes were re-evaluated twice a year. The benefit programs included:

Medical benefits that were aimed keeping the employees healthy and motivated, so as to
reach expected productivity levels.

Tuition assistance programs which included financial assistance to meet tuition expenses
for all employees. This gave them the opportunity to continue their formal education
while working.

A range of professional counseling and support services for employees and eligible
family members

Facilitation for employees to relocate if transferred to help them settle easily in the new
location

Assistance programs in case of emergency for employees and their eligible dependents
travelling on company work to locations worldwide.

Company stock offers to the employees to enable them to share the benefits of the
company’s performance.
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20. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Employee engagement is the measure of how involved and committed the workers are
towards their organization and values. A well engaged employee is well aware of the day to day
happenings of the organization and work with his or her fellow colleagues to improve the
performance of the individual and work s towards the betterment of the organization. It is an
optimistic attitude that the employees hold towards their organization. Employee engagement is
how the employee feels about his workplace employee feels about his workplace and whether he
or she is satisfied with the work or not. It is also concerned with the emotions of an individual
employee, the unique emotional balance of employees and their experience. The employers and
their talent of creating conditions that give rise to employee engagement. Communication among
employees at all levels in the organization.
Engagement assessment: This HR practice plays a crucial role in every organization. Employees
who are engaged perform to their full potential, they are motivated and can also improve their
skills as they progress. Employee engagement plays a vital role in the hotel because it affects
everything from retention and productivity to profitability and safety. In today’s world
organizations have found out various methods of creating competitive advantage. They have
created competitive advantage through innovation, quality products, technology and pricing
technology. Organizations view “customer service that exceeds expectations” as their key to
success. Engaged employees provide quality service. Now there are a numbers of jobs in every
industry but organizations need to focus on the right people for the right job. They should also
make sure that these right people are satisfied with their work.
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21. REFRANCES
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustan_Unilever
2. http://info.shine.com/company/Hindustan-Unilever-Limited/796.aspx
3. http://www.managementparadise.com/pongal1990/documents/8112/best-hrpractices/
4. http://www.hul.co.in/mediacentre/newsandfeatures/2013/HUL-is-the-No1Employer-of-Choice-in-India.aspx/
5. http://www.HUL.co.in/
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