INTRODUCTION

Most businesses are likely to operate in a market of fierce competition, and the industry
competitors constantly change their policies to retain customers to their side in this day
and age. Not to mention each sort of good, buyers stand in front of so many choices of
types and brands of products. Concurrently, customers’ demands are also progressively
diverse. Therefore, they could choose the goods appealing the most to fulfill maximum
needs and the benefits of themselves.
Such a competitive environment that each company is facing, what they must do to
survive and be at the top of the market. First of all, a business must be organized in a
reasonable scientific way, which can fully utilize the capabilities of all employees. This
essay may identify the organizational structure and financial status as well as examine
the human resources section of the Joint Venture Unilever company.
Unilever was formed by a merger of Dutch Margarine Union and British soap-makers
Lever Brothers in 1929. Unilever was one of the world’s first genuine multinationals with
operating companies in more than 40 countries.

1. The history of formation and development of Unilever

a) The history of formation
The story started in the late 1800s with a small family business that grew into the
purpose-driven company that is Unilever today through collaborations, brand innovation,
and industry firsts.
The Van den Berghs are a well-known family of butter merchants who has been able to
build up a thriving trade in Oss. They have built up a strong business, and their butter is
highly respected. By 1870 the business expanded and began to export to England, the
largest market for Dutch butter.
1871 can be seen as a milestone in the history of Unilever when the success of
hydrogenation allowed for the use of a diverse range of raw materials to solidify
vegetable oils, not just animal fat. Mège Mouriès, the inventor of margarine, granted the
Jurgens family a patent in 1871. The new product, which is made from animal fat, can
be mass produced as a low-cost substitute for butter and is dubbed margarine. Jan
Jurgens, who does business in the same town, takes a sample of this latest
merchandise to Simon Van den Bergh, who then begins to create the same product.
In northern England, Lever & Co, a family-owned grocery company, began producing a
new soap containing copra or pine nut oil to make it lather better than traditional soaps
made of animal fat. William Reaver was rare at the time and decided to sell this product
in a distinctive pack under the brand name - Sunlight in 1884.
Sunlight soap became one of the first brands to advertise in-home using innovative
methods such as small cards inserted into soap packaging featuring the Sunlight brand
in cartoon drawings or calendars. Since 1893, postage stamps have been used in New
Zealand to promote Sunlight Soap. This proves how effective and reliable this product
is, and we would recommend it to anyone.
With 450 tons of Sunlight soap produced per week, the scale of business stimulated
William Lever to purchase a large factory in Liverpool to build a purpose-built village for
its workers, providing them with a high standard of housing, amenities and recreational
facilities.
The year Lever Brothers became a limited company, sales of Sunlight soap soared to
almost 40,000 tons per year, and as a result, the business began expanding into
Europe, America, and the British colonies through factories, export businesses, and
farms.
Having noticed the increasing concern in public health and personal hygiene, in 1894,
Lever Brothers created a new product called Lifebuoy soap. Carbolic acid is used to
fight germs, but it remains accessible to everyone. Lifebuoy has been produced to
improve people’s healthcare awareness and hygiene in mind.
Van den Bergh's business is massively increasing, just like Lever Brothers'. In 1898,
they launched Vitello, their first branded margarine, with a 750-strong salesforce and a
thriving export trade. Produced from animal fats, its outstanding quality ensures its
success when made a comparison to competitors.
While Sunlight Flakes, a new type of good from Lever Brothers, aimed to make
housework easier than traditional hard soap bars. This breakthrough was known as Lux
Flakes in 1900.
The above paragraphs illustrate the brief history of Joint Venture Unilever company.
Let's move on to Unilever Vietnam's history.
Unilever entered the Vietnamese market in 1995. Up to now, the company has invested
a total of over 100 million USD. Unilever Vietnam is a collection of three separate
companies: Lever Vietnam Joint Venture based in Hanoi, Elida P/S in Ho Chi Minh City,
and Best Food Company also located in Ho Chi Minh City. Unilever has five
manufacturing plants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
With familiar brands such as OMO, VISO, Lux, Lifebuoy, Lipton... Unilever was rated as
one of the largest manufacturers of consumer goods, operating most effectively in the
Vietnamese market. Unilever has invested money as well as time to gain the trust of the
government and partners in Vietnam. This is called ambitious but persevere. A large
investment of Unilever in Vietnam (over 100 million) has also expressed the company's
expectations: do not make a profit immediately, long-term investment in Vietnam.
The decision to extend investment in Vietnam has helped Unilever to learn the
peculiarities of the market, the consumer sentiment of the Vietnamese people along
with the traditional culture. P/S salt toothpaste is the right combination between
traditional and modern culture. Unilever helped users keep the familiar flavors in their
brushing habits. Or with the Sunsilk expectation, the shampoo has not lost the habitual
scent in the past. These are just two popular merchandise in the Vietnam market:
Sunsilk is expected to account for 80% of the total Sunsilk, and P/S salt accounted for
40% of the total number of P/S.
As we went into the rural areas, the more we saw the highlights of Unilever. Perhaps in
any one local area, OMO, VISO, Lux... are looking for customers. Although the income
in scrubland, where 80% of the population is greatly lower than in urban areas, Unilever
understands that 60 million people also have the same needs as the others do in the
unit. The challenge here is to price the products and how diverse they are. The products
of Unilever are suitable for Vietnamese people. That is beyond words to explain. A lot of
people (especially in rural areas) have used OMO instead of washing powder, naturally
regarded as washing powder, as OMO.
 b) The process of development (2019 - 2021)
The first main event of 2019 marks that Alan Jope, Unilever's new head of Beauty and
Personal Care, will succeed Paul Polman as CEO. Unilever has released the Cif eco
refill, a piece of new at-home machinery that allows users to refill and reuse their Cif
spray bottles for the rest of their lives. This happens at a point when the UK is
witnessing a growth in demand for less plastic and more refillable and reusable
solutions, with 62 percent of people saying reuse is more important to them than
recycling. This act led to the total use of renewable power across the world. All of our
factories, offices, research and development facilities, data centers, warehouses, and
distribution centers on all continents are now powered entirely by renewable grid
electricity. This plan has already been achieved all around the world ahead of schedule.
Having experienced a tough 2020, Unilever contributed about a hundred million to help
protect lives and livelihoods from the Covid - 19 pandemic such as donating soaps and
sanitizers to the COVID Action Platform. Different business activities were also operated
such as the completion of Hindustan Unilever and GSK Consumer Healthcare Limited in
India; the completion of the process of unifying our Group's legal structure under a
single parent company; and the announcement of the successful expansion of its
partnership with Burger King to set up the Plant - Based WHOPPER (the Vegetarian
Butcher) through three areas including Latin America, the Caribbean, and China.
Unilever also actively participated in protecting the environment. They set out a new
range of methods and dedications to promote human health by performing more actions
to fight climate change, protect and regenerate nature, and preserve resources for
future generations. Additionally, Unilever claimed that they will replace all fossil-fuel-
derived carbon in the formulations of cleaning and laundry products with renewable and
recycled sources.
The year 2021 passed quite smoothly with the beginning of Penrhos Bio, a joint venture
biotechnology company launched by Unilever and Innova Partnership with the goal to
commercialize a technology that will make self-cleaning surfaces a reality. Then, they
had a new change in the packaging and advertising strategy of the Beauty and Personal
Care brand. They also acquired Onnit, a realistic company, and Paula’s Choice, a
leading digital-led skincare brand from TA Associates. A remarkable beacon of this year
is leading the way in innovation with a world-first industrial carbon emissions laundry
capsule. In addition, Unilever reveals new technology to launch the world's first paper-
based laundry detergent bottle for leading laundry brand OMO.

2. Areas of business
Unilever primarily concentrates on three kinds of products: home care, personal care,
and foodstuff. Representative brands are internationally faith in and widely accepted
such as Lipton, Knorr, Omo, Comfort, Lux, Vim, Lifebuoy, Dove, Close-up, Sunsilk,
Clear, Pond's, Vaseline, and Hazeline,...with sales over millions of dollars for each
brand that has proven Unilever becomes the most successful in the world's businesses
in personal care.

3. Organizational structure
In January 1930, the merger between Margarine Union and Lever Brothers was made.
A new England - Dutch alliance called Unilever has been born.
To avoid the dual taxation system, the coalition decided to separate into two companies:
UK - based Unilever PLC and Unilever NV headquartered in the Netherlands.
Although these two companies have almost independent operating structures, Unilever
remains a unified entity. Unilever shareholders, whether in Britain or the Netherlands,
receive the same dividend.
Before 1990, Unilever had a product-type divisional structure.
 The subsidiary of each market is in charge of production, marketing, trade, and
distribution according to the orientation of the basic product group to which it
belongs
 They need to be self-responsible for business performance
This structure worked effectively from 1950 to 1970.
In the 90s, the corporation restructured its system, the regional structure has been
applied

In 2005, changing the leadership structure. For the protection of shareholders’ rights
and unified development, Unilever maintains only one CEO and a non-executive
chairman. This unification makes all decisions possible to come out quickly.

4. Finding of business
 Year (billion) 2019 2020 2021
Revenue 51,980 50,724 52,444
Costs 43,237 42,401 43,806
PBT 8,289 7,996 8,556
Tax 2,263 1,923 1,935
PAT 6,026 6,073 6,621

The Covid 19 pandemic had a negatively dramatic effect on the global economy and
Unilever was no exception. The sales revenue saw a slight decline from 51,980 to
50,724 billion euros (about 2,4 percent) in 2020. However, this number moderately
increased to 52,444 billion euros, surpassing the beginning quantity during a three-year
period starting from 2019. The turnover of 2021 rose 3,4 percent compared to the
number of the last year.
The Group costs witnessed the same fluctuation trend as its revenue, which fell to
42,401 billion euros in 2020 and went up again of 1,405 billion euros. This number
accounts for approximately 3,3 percent compared to the proportion of costs in the last
year of this time frame.
In 2021, the profit before tax from Unilever slightly dropped from 8,289 to 7,996 billion
euros (about 3,5 percent). Then, this number continued to go up to 560 billion euros in
the next year.
The Group profit after tax experienced a totally opposite trend compared to these
previously mentioned patterns, which continuously increased from 6,026 to 6,073 and
ended up by a noticeable growth at the end of the period.

POLICIES TO MANAGE AND DEVELOP ITS HUMAN RESOURCES

1. Recruitment and selection

a) Recruitment
Unilever has always prioritized human resource development as a significant step
toward long-term sustainable development. In order to fully understand consumer
behavior in different ranges of the market and create a “root system” that authorizes the
enterprise to penetrate into the market, Unilever has formed an executive team of local
workers and frequently focuses on employee training activities. Unilever's philosophy is
"Development through People," so the company is always concerned with the interests
of its staff and is ready to assist them in all fields of work.

*Internal source
Internal resource recruitment is not common and is rarely mentioned at Unilever. It
usually occurs in jobs that are higher than the beginning level of one profession or when
jobs are rearranged to better suit employees' capabilities and interests. Unilever
typically employs the following policy:
 Notices of vacancies are distributed to all employees in the organization via an
internal bulletin or posted on bulletin boards to stimulate people who are qualified
to join in applying. These are then made available to all employees via
newsletters. Unilever Economist, Unilever Sustainable Living Newsletter, and
other bulletins and memos can be seen as examples. Further recruitment is
made possible by the company's email and website. This approach is publicly
used, and employees who contribute to the company are given equal
opportunities to apply for attractive positions within the organization.
 Using human resource management software the company stores skill
categories for each employee. This directory contains information about
education and training qualifications, academic qualifications, skills, techniques,
seniority, work history, and the capacities of employees. In a recruit, this is a
modern and fast method.

*External source
To begin with, human resource recruitment is primarily implemented from external
sources. Unilever organizes a series of recruitment activities, including the Unilever
Future Leaders Program UFLP (Formerly Management Trainee), U Fresh Program, with
different standards and targeting many kinds of students, with the goal of alluring
talented students. Both are recruitment activities for seniors who are about to graduate
or have recently graduated that are under two-year-experienced. UFLP requires English
skills and leadership, whereas UFresh requires basic English communication skills as
well as teamwork skills rather than administration. Unilever has selected excellent
candidates through job fairs for students like these to train brilliant trainee administrators
for its human resources and has a salary regime, scholarships, good benefits, and
focused courses at home and abroad for employees to improve their academic skills.
The company holds Job Fair Days at schools prior to each selection period (typically at
big and reputable universities such as Foreign Trade University, University of
Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, etc.) to
introduce and orient students to the professions and jobs they will be undertaking at
Unilever. Career days are typically held between January and March. Because of the
past success of Unilever's recruitment programs, the annual career fair has caught
many people‘s attention, particularly final-year students. Students can also learn about
working opportunities at Unilever in addition to recruiting human resources at the
aforementioned career fairs. Furthermore, information about the company's recruitment
is disseminated on university forums (FTU, UEH, IU, HCMUT, etc.).

b) Selection
When Unilever posts job recruitment, it immediately piques the interest of many job
seekers. Annual selection activities (regularly twice a year) draw a large number of
people, and one of these activities is Unilever's selection chain. Typically, each
interviewee must go through six rounds, which include:

*First round: Application screening

As previously stated, Unilever has two prominent programs (UFRESH and UFLP), so
the contestants must determine which program is better suitable for them and download
the application form from the Unilever website. Participants will be asked for basic
information about themselves, as well as their strengths and weaknesses; the
registration department, and the reason for choosing that department at this stage.

*Second round: Aptitude test

You should prepare some accounting knowledge in advance, finance, or GMAT; and
refer to the Big 4 recruitment
 Test of Numerical Reasoning
 Test of Verbal Reasoning
 Logical Reasoning Exam

*Third round: The first interview

CD training or the HR manager will conduct a preliminary survey. This round is to
determine the applicant's personality, understanding of the industry overview, and
commitment to the company. Some common interview questions that candidates may
face include:
 What do you know about Unilever?
 Do you have any previous experience?
 Who are our main rivals?

*Fourth round: Teamwork

This round is to test the interviewee's enthusiasm, and ability to learn and analyze.
Participants will be divided into groups; a market-related case study of a distributor to
survey customers; service quality of the distributor, then, providing solutions to boost
sales for that distributor. After one week, there would be a group presentation event.
The judges are Branch managers, CD Training, and Area Sales Managers (ASM).

*Fifth round: Final interview

This is an opportunity for applicants to give their wishes and aspirations to develop
while working at Unilever (which department do you want to work in, what position you
want to be in...). The branch manager can advise you on career paths at the company.
Rest assured, if you get to this round, you are almost sure of being admitted to Unilever.

2. Treatment
Unilever is a transnational corporation in the field of consumer goods and cosmetics so
they have a very own corporate culture. Within the company, employees have a
professional and specialized working style just like in most developed countries in the
world. Therefore, Unilever pays great attention to people in the process of working,
especially the compensation regime. Each employee and rank has different
remuneration regimes, but there is still a basic common regime for all employees in the
company. Here are Unilever's main treatments:
 Hard salary: every employee working in the company has a certain and fixed
salary, it is satisfactory to their position and any details about the salary and
bonus regime of employees in the company are kept confidential.
 Working expenses: when employees have to travel for the company, the
company will bear all expenses for that business period such as train money,
hotel money, and food ... However, with each rank, the office of business travel
will have a different preferential regime. For example, for an ordinary
administrative employee traveling for business, the employee's accommodation
and travel diet are at the usual price. If something arises, the employee will take
it. Meanwhile, the director of the branch traveling for business will have a higher
mode such as staying in a good hotel, the price is not less than 500,000 VND /
night, traveling with the company's car and private driver.
 Social insurance regime: the company will pay 17% social insurance for all
employees in the company and employees pay 6% of that insurance. In addition,
the company also buys AON's insurance entirely for employees and supports
insurance premiums for employees' relatives of about $100 per year.
 Unemployment insurance: The company pays unemployment insurance for
employees to help employees can work with peace of mind.
 Health care: all employees of the company are examined every 1 year and
vaccinated against flu and epidemics once a year.
 Entertainment, tourism: employees of the company are organized by the
company to travel abroad or to high-end resorts in the country at least once a
year. In addition, the company regularly organizes team building and outside
 activities for employees to help employees be friendly, understand each other
better and improve teamwork skills.
 Employees in the company are given the company's goods every 2-3 months to
use. It also helps the company advertise its products through employees' relative.

 Bonus: Employees in the company will be rewarded monthly if they meet the
sales targets set by the company. In addition, every year there is a review of
employees with excellent achievements and the highest achievers will receive
the prize, the value of the prize can be up to 50 million.
 Development opportunities: Dynamic and competitive working environment to
develop together so there are many opportunities for promotion for employees.
At the same time, the company always encourages employees to work and
develop internally.
 Training opportunities: Employees in the company will be regularly participating
in training courses organized by the company to help employees improve their
qualifications, and professional skills, and expand their knowledge. From there,
employees can develop their own careers.
 The remuneration regime is one of the top concerns of the candidates.
Therefore, Unilever is very interested in this issue and has launched a very
attractive compensation regime to attract talented candidates.

EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Recruitment and selection

a) Achievements
It can be said that effective human resource management is one of the things that
makes Unilever successful these days.
 Unilever's recruitment is thriving, and it is organized at a reasonable time when
students have time to find work (from January to March each year). Therefore,
the enterprise has piqued the interest and desire to work with the best students.
Moreover, through various talent acquisition programs, Unilever has acquired
 qualified applicants for various positions within the company. As a result,
Unilever's talent attraction policy is not one-sided, aimed at finding the most
suitable people rather than the best people.
 Not only does Unilever's hiring process efficiently raises the company's
reputation but serves as an introductory and promotional event in order to attract
outstanding individuals as well. Promote Unilever's brand, goods, and culture to a
variety of students, especially the young ones who are aware of current trends in
consumer behavior, and recent purchase items, and determine future family
consumption patterns.
 The processes of selecting the appropriate job-seekers for the job are all evident.
Additionally, Unilever always employs cutting-edge technologies when hiring staff
to minimize waiting times. For instance, the UFLP has a novel approach to
utilizing contemporary digital technology with an online test made up of mini-
games after applying to the selected department, unlike the conventional
process.
 Regarding the recruitment and selection process, Unilever is like a mirror. When
you apply to Unilever, many people want and dream of working in a professional
environment. Unilever's HR department is constantly evolving day by day to
become full-fledged and professional. In particular, they creatively and
innovatively updated the management training program (UFRESH and UFLP).
So, this is actually a great process for other small businesses.
 Internal recruitment has a positive effect on the organization because it costs
less. This retains valuable employees and allows the employer to benefit from
their investment in training. Even better, internal recruitment ensured high
employee motivation through the possibility of upward promotion. Additionally,
knowing that promotions reward candidates who perform above certain
predetermined levels boosts employee morale to perform better than others.
Unilever employees are satisfied and committed to their work, which has ensured
high productivity and low turnover.
 At Unilever, internal recruitment still exists but is not common. That is why the
company always tries to create equal opportunities for everyone who wants to
 work for them. They also identified that young staff is always the most important
factor that an organization wants to target.

b) Limitations and Recommendations

 Before joining the Unilever team, candidates have to go through a long, difficult
and stressful process. Besides that, after selection at all stages, the verification
process has many challenges. The pay is competitive but compared to the time
and effort involved, it is not worth it. Therefore, there are times when trainee
managers cannot follow the same plan and are offered jobs from other
businesses with fair treatment and salaries. In brief, the company should reduce
the section process, but maintain its original value and top quality.
 Unilever’s recruitment system is expensive and time-consuming, as many
students must pass a background check before deciding on the most satisfied.
Therefore, HR should consider finding and enhancing a smart and appropriate
methodology that supports profile verification initially to save time later in the
retirement process.
 The interview process also has limitations. An interviewer's first impression of a
candidate is not a true picture of that person leading to wrong conclusions.
Additionally, an interviewer who may or may not know the job requirements may
make decisions based on an incorrect stereotype of who the ideal employee is.
Applicant’s order can influence judgments about the best candidate. So,
considering artificial intelligence to make objective decisions to control emotions
during interviews. For instance, using robotics or advanced technology to
analyze according to company criteria provides candidates with objective and
accurate insights.


2. Treatment
a) Achievements
 Unilever has a comprehensive and attractive remuneration regime, taking care of
all aspects of the life of employees, from salaries, allowances, and daily
 consumer goods to traveling around the world. As a result, talented employees
are retained by the company and have better contributions at work.
 The remuneration regime is so attractive that it attracts the attention of even
employees who do not work for Unilever, which is one of the factors attracting
talent and promoting Unilever's image and position compared to other
competitors.

b) Limitations and Recommendations

The remuneration regime, especially the bonus mode is attractive but the requirements
and targets set are often very high, requiring employees to devote themselves and
hardly enough time to spend on other activities. Especially for salespeople, in order to
achieve the sales targets set by the company, the employee must work very hard. This
easily leads to an assessment of Unilever's human resources management in a
capitalist way, i.e. high welfare means "exploitation" of the strength and gray matter of
workers.

WHAT CAN BE LEARNT FROM THOSE POLICIES

The purpose of the talent management policy is to ensure the achievement of the
organization's goals by identifying, attracting, developing, and retaining talent
throughout the organization.
Therefore, Unilever implemented policies to help them make the best use of their
employees' potential and developed systems to ensure the quality of their workers. In
addition, Unilever maintains a talent mechanism in its company with criteria for gender
and racial equality. Today, in addition to international integration, the business pays
more attention to and trains workers with language skills and creates conditions for all
workers to have access to English.
In addition, the company has top priorities and incentives for employees who are
interested in ideas aimed at creating great positive value.
A compensation policy is a set of instructions issued by a company regarding an
employee's pay, benefits, and incentives. There are many different types of
compensation, and each is governed by state laws and regulations, as well as company
culture and insurance policies. There are two types of compensation: financial and non-
financial.
Unilever Company has also developed an employee welfare policy based on the above
principles. This social insurance guarantees two types of benefits: financial and non-
financial. Financial benefits include basic to basic items such as salary, insurance, or
debt settlement. In addition, the non-financial benefits provided by Mabuchi are health
guarantees and material guarantees and are important for the families of employees.
Over time, working at Unilever, employees always feel comfortable and want to
dedicate themselves to creating more positive values for the organization.

CONCLUSION

After the above analysis of Joint Venture Unilever Company, I realized that the success
or failure of the company mostly depends on the employees. These are talents that
raise the value of the company to a higher level. Workers have many opportunities and
businesses must have policies to exploit, nurture and manage these people. In addition,
there should be welfare policies so that the workers feel comfortable and ready to give
their dedication to the organization. In addition, a company must respect the value that
employees create for the company, big or small. All of the above must be logically
compatible to create better values for the company, employers and employees.