Case Study
For more information visit
Talent Management Solutions                                       www.mclarensolutions.com
Unilever
Designing and enhancing a world-class team
and recruiting for success
                                                                  Company background:
    "As part of our drive to create recruitment consistency       Unilever is one of the world's
    across the 5 regions in Unilever for Global Audit, we         leading suppliers of fast-moving
    needed an easy to use solution to help us measure and         consumer goods. They are
                                                                  structured into three global
    maintain a structured recruitment process across the
                                                                  divisions - Foods, home care and
    world. McLaren Solutions web-based tools allowed us to        personal care.
    deliver this project in an efficient and cost-effective
    fashion.”    Rachel Deegan – HR Manager, Unilever             As a business-critical function
    Global Audit                                                  within the firm, Unilever Global
                                                                  Audit needed to ensure that its
                                                                  teams were properly staffed to
                                                                  meet the needs of a very
Business Challenges                                               demanding and truly global
The Corporate Audit group at Unilever employs people across       business.
the 5 Unilever regions and was keen to create a recruitment
brand and build a more robust selection process that was
consistent with global audit values across the world. The group   Location:
historically found it difficult to attract people and needed to   Global—North America, Latin
                                                                  America, Asia, Europe, Africa
instil a consistent selection process.
                                                                  Middle East and Turkey
Global Audit already had an internal rotation programme for
training and developing key members of staff but to ensure        McLaren Modules Used:
success, it needed to attract more people from other parts of     Capability Profiler
the organisation to join the programme and increase/diversify     Structured Interviewer
the talent pool.
                                                                  Project Details:
With a team that provides services across all 5 global regions,   McLaren Solutions were engaged
Unilever needed to adopt an approach that would ensure that       in order to develop a more
recruitment decisions could be made consistently across the       consistent selection mechanism
globe.                                                            based      on     a  detailed
                                                                  competency framework.
The most effective way to achieve this was via capability-based
                                                                  The project utilised the web-
assessment which would not only allow consistent recruitment      based modules to provide a
decisions to be made, but would also aid effective workforce      rapid and effective solution to the
planning and development over time.                               short-term issue of improved
                                                                  selection process.
Unilever had a requirement for a solution that would provide a
cost-effective and rapid way of achieving the following goals:
• gaining global consensus on the key competencies required
    for certain roles within the global audit team
• ensuring that interview questioning could be consistently
    implemented in all four regions
• building a core competency-based framework for
    performance measurement that could be enhanced and
    developed over time                                                                                 1
                                                                             Case Study
                                                                             For more information visit
Talent Management Solutions                                            www.mclarensolutions.com
Unilever selected McLaren Solutions because of their innovative
approach to building capability frameworks using online tools,
and their track record and expertise in the design and
development of capability-based interviewing schedules.
Solution Overview
The Leadership for Growth Profile (LGP) had already been               Business Challenges:
developed and contained 11 competencies against which all              • Gain global consensus on key
employees are appraised at various points throughout the                   competencies
rotation cycle. This framework has created a culture where             • Ensure consistent interviewing
                                                                           across the globe
people are motivated by vertical career development.
                                                                       • Build a core-competency
                                                                           framework for performance
The elements of the McLaren project were as follows:                       management
• Analyse, present and brainstorm a broadly-based
   competency starting list which incorporated elements of the         Solution Overview:
   existing LGP, McLaren’s best-of-breed capability framework          • Extensive analysis of broad
                                                                           range of competencies &
   and other Unilever-specific requirements.
                                                                           capabilities
• Distribute logons to key stakeholders in the global team, in         • Online competency decision-
   order to gather their opinions on the competency list.                  making process
• Deliver an online workflow tool, allowing the stakeholders to        • Competency-based interview
   rapidly provide their feedback on the competency starting               templates & guidelines
   list and submit to the steering group.
                                                                       Business Benefits:
• Develop competency-based interview templates and
                                                                       • Delivered robust & consistent
   guidelines to ensure a consistent and structured selection              selection process globally
   process.                                                            • Reduced              p r o j e c t
                                                                           administration time to develop
Benefits                                                                   competencies
• Delivering a robust and consistently implemented selection           • Complete buy-in from line
                                                                           managers whilst building
   process to the Global Audit Group.
                                                                           framework
• Allow the group to realise performance benefits via
   improved selection methods, driven by synchronising
   individual interviewers assessments.
• Reduce project administration time by gathering online
   judgements on competencies from global teams using an
   online mechanism.                                                   Contact us:
• Facilitate consultation with a large group of people in order        McLaren Solutions Limited
   to gather agreements or inconsistencies in regard to                1st Floor
                                                                       115 Southwark Bridge Road
   competency frameworks.                                              London
• Allow staff satisfaction and business performance to be              SE1 0AX
   improved by investing in the future of existing staff through       United Kingdom
   targeted learning and development plans.
                                                                       (t): +44 (0) 20 7410 7423
                                                                       (f): +44 (0) 20 7410 7425
Further Information
McLaren modules used:                                                  (e): info@mclarensolutions.com
                                                                       (w): www.mclarensolutions.com
•   Capability Profiler - Identify the key capabilities required for
    a role or team
•   Structured Interviewer - Structure a recruitment interview
    based on the key capabilities already defined
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