This follows the announcement in April of an outsourcing contract to Accenture for its European IT operation, and in December last year for its European financial transactional services to IBM.
The Human Resources contract sees Unilever outsourcing the transactional and administrative parts of the function globally. The contract covers transactional, administrative and HR IT systems support for activities such as recruitment and resourcing, reward, training, and performance management.
The outsourcing programme is part of the company’s One Unilever initiatives to increase leverage of its scale, improve its marketplace competitiveness, deliver functional excellence, and create a more competitive cost-structure allowing it to focus on its consumers and customers.
Unilever intends to minimise the impact on people by transferring staff to Accenture, early retirement, exploring alternative roles, natural attrition and through voluntary programmes.
Unilever has a great deal of experience of managing change and, as well as dealing with people issues sensitively and professionally, it is committed to working closely with the relevant employee representatives and works councils.
Sandy Ogg, Unilever's chief HR officer, said: "This global outsourcing deal represents a major strategic choice for Unilever. We believe that it is best for our business if we concentrate on our core competencies and transfer what is our back office and make it into someone else’s front office. We can also leverage Accenture's capabilities and expertise. This deal allows us to create a simpler, more agile Global HR function to better support Unilever’s growth agenda."
John Zealley, managing partner of Accenture's European Consumer Goods & Services Practice, said: "This agreement should help support Unilever as it strives to transform its business."
"By outsourcing functions such as human resources to Accenture, Unilever should benefit from increased efficiencies, decreased costs and greater global standardization."
About Unilever
Unilever's mission is to add vitality to life. We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.
Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of fast moving consumer goods with strong local roots in more than 100 countries across the globe. Its portfolio includes some of the world’s best known and most loved brands including twelve €1 billion brands and global leadership in many categories in which the company operates. The portfolio features brand icons such as: Knorr, Hellmann’s, Flora, Bertolli, Dove, Lux, Pond's, Lynx, Sunsilk, Persil, Cif and Domestos.
Unilever has around 206 000 employees in approaching 100 countries and generated annual sales of €40 billion in 2005.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments.
With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 129,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$15.55 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2005.
