We’re focusing on precision skilling: HUL chief

The country’s largest consumer goods firm Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is reskilling its workforce at a time when digital disruption is growing and traditional players have to reinvent themselves in order to compete with nimble-footed online rivals.

Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII’S) National HR Conclave in the city on Thursday, HUL’S Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Mehta said the company was identifying skill-sets needed by its employees to navigate the complex and ever-changing world of marketing, increasingly being led by technology.

“It is better to lead the disruption rather than to be swamped by disruption. The organisation of tomorrow will be like amoeba that has no structure at all,” he said. HUL has already begun implementing an end-to-end digital transformation programme, which includes leveraging data and technology as well as artificial intelligence across the value chain. It has also set up a digital council and 85 experiments are underway across functions to help the firm get future-ready.

The role of the human resources team in HUL would increasingly become critical, Mehta said, to help in bringing about this shift in culture, mindset, and leadership as the company gears up for the future. “We are moving from mass marketing to massive personalisation to hyper personalisation. HR has become a key participant on the top table and the role of HR will significantly get enhanced over time,” he said. “If we can focus on precision marketing than why not precision skilling,” he said.

India is among the largest market in terms of volume for Unilever, with 98 per cent of households using one or more HUL brands and 45 billion units manufactured annually at its factories. “We are trying to sell to the 2 per cent we don’t reach and keeping our ears to the ground to get insights that can help us speak to them,” he said.

HUL’S people data centre are already picking up real-time consumer signals and using shopper data to drive marketing programmes to different cohorts at the same time.

The company is also embracing technology on the factory floor by reducing service lead time through an integrated sales and operation planning programme, creating a customer-focused factory network, and a faster logistics and distribution footprint.

85 experiments underway to aid transformation into future-ready company