Geared to thrive
Unilever is looking to understand what motivates millennials
Consistently ranked as a leading employer in countries around the world, Unilever builds its ongoing HR success upon a global employee wellbeing model called “Thrive”.
“Thrive is designed to provide a holistic experience for our employees covering their physical, mental and emotional and wellbeing,” says Rachelle Harmsey, leadership development director: Africa at Unilever.
Unilever South Africa has been certified as one of the best companies to work for in the country by the Top Employers Institute since 2013, and recently announced that it has been awarded the Top E mp l o y e r s S o u t h A f r i c a 2 0 1 7 Certification. Unilever has also been certified in four other African countries, namely Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, thus earning the Top Employers Africa 2017 Certification (organisations must be certified in a minimum of four African countries in order to carry this title). This aligns local and continental operations with Unilever’s global successes, which have seen the global group winning more employer awards this year than ever before.
Unilever regards people as critical to the success of the group, and its more than 400 brands, and seeks to create optimal employee conditions. It offers flexible work, development and mentorship, a strategy focused on diversity, and being a multinational, it offers the opportunity to benefit from international knowledge and work opportunities.
Thriving careers
“Unilever’s consistently ranked as an employer of choice across the world as we provide a leading-edge employee experience. The consistency of Unilever’s employee experience is a key part of our success, as we leverage the best of our global expertise and our local experience,” says Harmsey.
In line with the company’s global practices, Unilever South Africa employees each have an Individual Development Plan, which combines their career aspirations with their development needs and serves as a roadmap for achieving their career objectives.
Unilever’s agile and flexible working policy means that employees can work with their line managers to establish a method of working that suits both the individual and the business.
The company’s world-class graduate programme — the Unilever Future Leaders Programme — is designed to meet the needs of millennials, with an accelerated development plan, customised for each individual. The rotation-based programme provides breadth and depth of experience in a condensed period of time, and is designed to prepare graduates for management readiness within three years. A sixmonth international assignment is included, which provides gradu- ates with the chance to understand Unilever from a global perspective and engage with people of different cultures.
Harmsey says that in Unilever’s experience, millennials seek work at companies that can provide them with diverse experiences, which develop them personally and professionally. “International working opportunities are a significant drawcard and are seen as being an important development opportunity. Job security is also seen as being important for millennials — permanent employment is an important piece of providing a defined and clear career progression path.” Unilever South Africa focuses on meeting these needs as it builds its talent pipeline.
But millennials are not the company’s sole focus, says Harmsey: “Unilever also provides the ideal work environment for experienced employees, who are looking for an employer to leverage their expertise, as well as develop them further.”
South African employees are looking for a holistic value proposition from employers — good remuneration, with opportunities for growth, a focus on development and the opportunity to do meaningful work, says Harmsey.
Unilever South Africa meets these needs through a number of training and development opportunities that employees can access in various ways.
“Our Digital Learning Hub is an always-on service that employees can access 24/7 and it provides a wide range of e-learning courses covering many subjects in various interactive digital formats,” she says.
“We approach training in three pillars: general skills (skills that are applicable across different roles); professional skills (technical skills for a specific function) and leadership skills. Employees have access to all three pillars of training and are encouraged to link them to their Individual Development Plans.
We also have an internship programme that is run twice a year. Our interns work on real Unilever projects that are designed to equip them with the skills and the experience to succeed in our graduate programme. We also run learnership programmes across our various manufacturing sites.”
Sustainable market leadership
Unilever, the biggest European fastmoving consumer goods company in the world, brings to market hundreds of household brands in daily use by over two billion people across the world. In South Africa, Unilever has more than 3 700 employees in two corporate offices and seven manufacturing locations.
The company’s stepped-up focus on responsible, sustainable products informs its Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, which seeks to decouple its growth from our environmental impact, while at the same time increasing its positive social impact. “Unilever has an inclusive and high performance culture,” says Harmsey. “Our employees are passionate advocates of our living plan, which seeks to embed sustainability. This includes reducing environmental impact; improving health and wellbeing; and enhancing livelihoods. This is one of our unique differentiators — the opportunity to align your personal passions with the company’s ambition.”
Enriching the workplace
Setting Unilever South Africa apart from many other employers, it goes to great lengths to offer benefits that make daily work more enjoyable.
Harmsey says: “Our offices have state-of-the-art gym facilities on site, with personal trainers, biokineticists and instructors who run various exercise classes. There is also a staff canteen and coffee shop available to our employees, which provide healthy meals and snacks with input from our dieticians.
“Staff shops are also available onsite that provide a range of Unilever products covering the home care, personal care, food and refreshments categories, which are made available to our staff at a discounted price.”
Unilever staff can also make use of onsite beauty salons providing hair, skin and nail treatments at subsidised rates; and they can even treat themselves to ice-cream at the company’s ice-cream bars.