International Human Resource Management: A Case Study of Unilever, Australia

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International Human Resource Management: A Case Study of Unilever, Australia

Businesses across the globe encounter intense competition within both their domestic country and internationally, leading to the establishment and rise of multinational firms that seek to strengthen their competitive edge by investing in foreign countries. This has drawn the attention of scholars and international management practitioners, their major focus being human resource management beyond national boundaries. As companies spread and expand their supply network across multiple markets, they also have to increase their integration across their borders through direct venture.  With the technological development and competition all around, companies have to grow beyond their country borders bringing about the need for International human resource management. This paper explores International human resource at Unilever Australasia. It also looks into the difference between domestic and international Human resource management and the various ways through which an effective International human resource policy can be structured and implemented. This is the subsidiary company of Anglo-Dutch FMCG Company Unilever. It is one of the largest multinationals across the globe with over 400 consumer products that range from health care products to foods and nutritional products.   

There are currently a total of 77000 transnational corporations with the same number of foreign affiliates that employ approximately 62 million people worldwide. This brings about the need for an understanding of international Human resource management (Dowling, Peter J., Festing, M., Engel, Allen D. 2008). Multinational firms heavily rely on having the right personnel to operate and manage their establishments, and superior international human resource management (IHRM) is essential in order to achieve this. The combination of well articulated human resource practices and the right personnel is a critical success factor for multinationals Dowling et al. (2008). This makes international human resource management as essential as capital is in the firms. With well-trained and adequate staff, firms are sure of surviving competition and expand to more countries too. Though important a lot has to be done and considered in order to have a well run human resource program in place and that can support rapid expansion.

When a multinational enters a new country and undertakes functions such as hiring, job creation, and job definition using only the mother country practices, the ramifications may include lack of trust, alienation and grow to serious issues like the inability to acquire quality manpower. This simply calls for the firms with the intention of expanding beyond their borders to understand the different countries and cultures that they wish to venture in. different countries have different labor laws and would require different acts of the law   put in place some of which may include the percentage of the workforce that has to be from within (Briscoe, Schuler, Taquie, 2012). Unilever the company on which our case is studied was established in 1929 after the merger of the U.K. based Lever brothers and the Dutch union of fats and oil business union. Prior to this, the Lever brothers had established a soap production firm in Sydney in the year 1899. Over the years, the company has transformed itself to be the global manufacturing giant it is today.

All multinationals need to have unique and unified traditions that bind all its subsidiaries together. There is need to build a common culture among the top managers and strive to decentralize each organization. Unilever has for several years employed people of different nationalities and but who hold comparable values and interests, this leads to employees who easily jell into Unilever's traditions and culture (Aswathappa & Dash, 2008). This makes marketing of products in the new company quite simple as buyers are drawn by the name of the company and products. Managing the staff is equally achievable as the employees share a lot in common. Unilever stands out in this aspect. Human resource practitioners must now develop the skills, understanding and experience in order to manage the inevitable international expansion of their firms (Joynt, 2009). Joynt further explains that, one of the essential challenges is to have human resource heads who though trained in one culture and country can manage people across the borders should they be called upon. In addition to finding unique individuals who fit into the team, the companies should develop good and well designed human capital policies and guidelines. This will not only draw the best to the organization but also ensure steady growth as a result of the individual skill the staff possess (Aswathappa & Dash, 2008).  This brings about the difference in Human resource management and International human resource management.

Though almost similar, the roles and depth of the two are a major difference with one locally focused while the other majored in managing human personnel across the borders (Briscoe, 2012). He further explains that both serve to plan, staff, and create performance management tools, compensation, and benefits within the organization. International Human Resource Management is more complex as compared to the local based human resource management because of various factors such as the different government policies and other regulatory bodies that look into human resources in different countries (Stolt, 2009).

Unilever’s global presence depicts how much the company has invested in their employees and above all the top managers. The managers are trained through various workshops to integrate various aspects of change in management as seen fit by the organization, and this trickles down the hierarchy in the respective countries. One of the key managerial competencies that bind together businesses and experts is networking. The interaction, exchange of ideas be it formally or informally creates a bond of unity. This is made easy by training workshops where members of staff get to meet officially in training, but may also be done during sport days where the company allows the staff to interact in a sporting challenge that enhances openness, teamwork, dedication, and creativity, which are key issues in the development of the organizations both in the local market and globally (Collings & Wood, 2015).

The implementation of IHRM policies should be undertaken under guidelines stipulated by the management board, with such factors as adequate compensation and relocation packages, training and any other incentive that would make the employee live comfortably in the new country taken to consideration (Collings & Wood, 2015). They further explain that compensation for international staff is usually three to five times the non-expatriates. This is to buffer them from the difference in currency values across different countries make easy the transition from one country to the other.

The next stage is preparation and training of the international assignees before leaving for the different roles in the different countries. This helps them adjust to the cultural, linguistic, and any other challenges they are bound to come across as they transact their businesses. During this, they should be trained on organizational support that is important to them effectively doing what they are meant to do as expatriates (Collings & Wood, 2012). There is additionally the issue of work and life balance affected by the relocation that needs to be addressed. The international assignees need training on how to manage their social life and work in the new places and develop coping strategies to help them manage the changes with relative stress and strain.

Summary

     The Unilever group stands out among multinationals not only in Australia but across the globe for their unique International Human resource management programs.  Unilever managers can with ease recognize each other in the airport as a result of frequent interactions brought about by trainings and workshops made possible by the company. This basically shows how unique their international assignees are and how much they mean to them. They have invested in their training as and made it possible to brainstorm at both individual and group levels explaining why Unilever's growth has been on the rise (Aswathappa & Dash, 2008).

It is inevitable for well-managed firms get to grow beyond the borders; however, this should be done with due diligence because it takes a lot to set up a successful venture in a foreign country, factors such as labor laws should be taken into consideration and regulations such as tax considered. The most important consideration, however, should be the international assignees that embody the values of the parent organization and are to pass them on to the new venture in the new country. With this in mind, they should be well equipped through training and well compensated as they move into their new roles across the borders. Lastly, there is need to create good International human resource policies that would support the company’s traditions across the globe.

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