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CLIENT CASE STUDY

Unilever: Aligning talent acquisition model with business strategy

Accenture helped Unilever reduce overall recruitment spend by 39 percent as its recruitment process outsourcing partner for non-managerial talent.

Overview

Unilever wanted to double the company’s size while reducing its overall environmental footprint and increasing its positive social impact. To contribute toward achieving this vision, Unilever sought to create and deploy a new talent acquisition model to attract suitable talent available in the market. Accenture helped the company develop and implement a recruitment model for non-managerial talent, focusing on four key pillars—attract, hunt, cultivate and hire—leveraging the reach of social and the power of analytics. The new talent acquisition model has already delivered 51 percent reduction in average cost to source, 47 percent reduction in agency spend, more than 40 percent reduction in time to fill positions and increased both hiring manager and candidate satisfaction.​

Opportunity

In 2012, Unilever set out on an ambitious journey to double the company’s size while reducing its overall environmental footprint and increasing its positive social impact. Rising to this challenge, the company’s talent acquisition team wanted to:

  • Reduce cost to source.

  • Reduce agency spend.

  • Reduce time to fill positions.

  • Increase hiring manager and candidate satisfaction scores.

Unilever was looking to develop and deploy a new, more "digital" talent acquisition model, encompassing social and other digital technologies, to attract the best talent to remain competitive and support its growth strategy.

Solution

Unilever chose Accenture as its recruitment process outsourcing partner for non-managerial talent. Accenture provided end-to-end recruitment services to Unilever across more than 43 countries in 11 languages. The Accenture team helped Unilever develop and implement a recruitment model, focusing on four key pillars:

  1. Attract—leverage social, digital and offline channels to educate passive and active candidates on the benefits of a career at Unilever. Key activities included advertising on careers site, job boards, LinkedIn and other social media platforms.

  2. Hunt—proactively network with both passive and active candidates in the job market to build targeted pipelines of talent across demand segments. Key activities included competitor talent mapping and labor market analytics.

  3. Cultivate—create a talent pipeline strategy, take an existing talent pool and provide engagement in a two-way approach to form a true ‘community’ candidate experience. Key activities included engaging the talent pipeline through online virtual events and newsletters, leveraging social media.

  4. Hire—take a candidate from application to joining work on day one with all the administrative requirements involved. Key activities included reviewing applications received through careers website, mobile site and offline channels, interviewing, extending offers and onboarding.



With the new recruitment model, Unilever’s talent acquisition team was able to attract and acquire the right mix of skills needed to achieve the company’s vision. The company was also able to:

  • Reduce average cost to source by 51 percent in 2014 compared to 2012

  • Reduce overall recruitment spend by 39 percent in 2014 compared to 2012

  • Reduce agency spend by 47 percent in 2014

  • Fill 84 percent of external roles through direct sourcing (in-house capability)

  • Reduce time to fill positions by 40 percent

  • Improve hiring manager satisfaction scores (4 out of 5) and candidate satisfaction scores (4.2 out of 5)

Moreover, Unilever has leveraged social and digital tools to further strengthen its position as an employer of choice and received multiple awards, including:

  • HRO Today (Europe) Recruitment Team of the Year award in 2015.

  • Third position in the LinkedIn Most in Demand Employer index 2014 (only Google and Apple ranked higher).

  • Brandon Hall HCM Excellence Award, jointly won by Unilever and Accenture in the category of "Best Advance in Talent Acquisition Process."