Unilever employs over 223,000 people worldwide and generates over 40.4 billion euros in annual revenue. The document examines Unilever's strategic human resource practices around succession planning, restructuring, and downsizing. It finds that Unilever takes a strategic approach to succession planning by identifying future leadership needs and developing a pipeline of internal candidates. When restructuring and downsizing, Unilever aims to support impacted employees through redeployment, job placement, counseling, and protecting their terms of employment to minimize negative impacts.

1. Bus 419<br />Strategic Human Resource Management<br /> Written Assignment #2<br /> <br />Submitted to: Prof. Anand Kishore<br />Submitted on: 23rd March,2010<br />Gaganjot hunjan<br />Student ID: 200068443<br />Contact No. 9814099338<br />E-Mail: Sonia_hun88@hotmail.co<br />Introduction<br />Unilever is one of the largest consumer goods companies in the world. It deals in various global, regional and local brands.Currently Unilever is employing 223 000 employees world-wide. Its 2/3 of 40.4 € billion turnover is from developed world whereas 1/3 from developing and emerging markets. The company enjoys a tremendous reputation when it comes to recruitment and development of its employees. It rewards employees competitively based on performance, potential, and responsibility. It is generally perceived in business circles that Unilever provides an organizational environment which allows people to flourish and grow <br />Objectives<br />To study succession planning as a part of strategic human resource management with the reference to Unilever

2. To study restructuring as a part of strategic human resource management with the reference to Unilever

3. To Study downsizing as a part of strategic human resource management with the reference to Unilever

4. To conclude the studyProblem statement<br />Succession Planning is a necessary evil for any organization weather big or small, restructuring and downsizing are also necessary as a response to changes that occur both inside and outside the organization but often organizations are not able to incorporate these strategies efficiently thereby leading to mismanagement of human talent and resources. <br />Symptoms of Problem<br />The consequences of appointing wrong successor can be much worse than slow growth or decline in market capitalization

5. Downsizing in an inappropriate manner may lead to the breach of physiological contract that exist between employer and employee which may adversely affect the performance of survivors in the organization due to job insecurity and those who are laid off may spread a negative word of mouth for a company.

6. Restructuring may take place on two conditions if company is adopting turnaround strategy or it is undergoing the change for hierarchical system in an organization on the other hand the process of corporate restructuring often occurs after buy-outs, corporate acquisitions, takeovers or bankruptcy which involve a significant movement of an organization’s liabilities or assets.Causes of Problem<br />Organization does not have an appropriate succession planning evaluation & training model or officials at higher levels fail to understand the importance of a successor within the organization

7. Downsizing inappropriately to increase profitability and efficiency of organization by sidelining the important asset of human resource on which organizations thrive.