HUL to cut 50 managerial positions

Fast moving consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever is cutting surplus managerial positions as part of its talent review process.

The company has said that jobs of around 50 employees are in transition period, who will be subjected to suitable outplacement or compensation. HUL has a pool of 1,100 managers working across functions and levels.

Though the company did not answer if the move was part of the parent company, Unilever's, strategy to cut 20,000 jobs across countries to cut costs, it said the main objective behind the job cut was talent review.

HUL spokesperson said, "The underlying objective is to ensure that the right talent is handling the right jobs which in turn will ensure challenging and enriching jobs that allow for long term growth opportunities to the employees. As is the normal process in any company, we continuously review talent deployment across our organisation to ensure that it is in line with the changing business and market requirements."

The company has also been battling with high input and employee costs. Analysts said that for the FMCG sector, the expenditure mix not only included high input costs but also high packaging and employee costs.

HUL evaluates its managers through a leadership matrix named LDT (Leadership Differentiation Tool), which sees how well the key resources of the company have been developed by the managers and how well they are building capacity. Supporting the company's HR team is consultancy firm Accenture.

Meanwhile, the company added that it was also recruiting talent in new emerging areas in line with the emerging market opportunities and attendant business priorities.

"Our non-compromising approach in promoting top talent and ensuring challenging jobs has established the company as a source of leadership talent, both for Unilever globally and the industry in general", said company spokesperson.

Talking to Business Standard, Leena Nair, executive director, human resource, HUL, had said, "HR is at the centre of our table in HUL. The company is known for nurturing managerial talent and has given nearly 400 CEOs to India and we would like this number to go up to 4,000."

The attrition rate in our company is one of the lowest in the industry. Through our review, we ensure people who are contributing the most to the company get due incentives and also identify, where we are lacking."