Putting Talent at the Centre An Evolving Imperative for Manufacturing 2025

Unilever’s Kilbourn, Chicago, USA, saw an opportunity to address evolving workforce preferences and enhance performance. They embarked on a people transformation journey focused on improving retention, engagement and operational efficiency. The site implemented performance-driven rewards and recognition that created shared goals and an “always-on” Gemba philosophy to enable continuous dialogue. They also addressed a critical aspect of employee feedback by implementing a transparent and flexible scheduling app. Additionally, improved retention by creating development opportunities with a flexible, dynamic organizational structure. These efforts led to a 48% improvement in absenteeism while OEE increased by 16%.CASE STUDY 3 Unilever – Kilbourn, Chicago, USA 2.3 Innovative talent investments across six capabilities The initiative revealed that leading companies are investing in talent across the six capabilities mentioned earlier in this paper: work design and safety, talent planning, attraction and onboarding, talent development, talent effectiveness, and culture and experience. When companies couple these investments with total employee compensation packages appropriate for their industry and location, they see productivity and stability improvements that greatly outpace their peers. This chapter presents insights gathered from site visits all over the world, offering a detailed look at proven, innovative solutions with the power to shape the future of frontline talent.2.2 Multinationals must also localize talent strategy Localizing a talent strategy may feel daunting to multinationals who operate in many countries and regions. In some ways, localization may run contrary to ways of thinking motivated by efficiency of scale. Efficiency goals drive companies to centralize many teams and create global policies. Yet global measures of efficiency may not be what matters most when it comes to solving locally for talent. An essential question emerges, then: what missed opportunities might be realized with a localized strategy?Localization requires strong local HR and operations teams with thorough knowledge of local markets; moreover, these teams must have the autonomy to be proactive and reactive to local market movements. Unilever embodies localized investment to meet different market imperatives One of the initiative’s pilot participants, Unilever, embodies this approach. The company gives site leaders and local HR the flexibility to implement local solutions that fit their site’s unique needs. Unilever’s Tianjin, China plant sought a new and sustained approach to attract and retain talent, particularly in a context of rapid business growth and digital transformation. They focused on attraction, onboarding and talent development. Their talent acquisition tool helped increase the number of applicants by 567% while their onboarding booster programme improved new employee retention by 19 percentage points.CASE STUDY 4 Unilever – Tianjin, China Localization requires strong local HR and operations teams with thorough knowledge of local markets. These teams must be proactive and reactive to local market movements. 17 Putting Talent at the Centre: An Evolving Imperative for Manufacturing