Unilever has awarded its global human resources
outsourcing contract to Accenture, including IT support for HR
functions.
This contract follows a deal for Accenture to handle the
consumer goods giant’s European IT operations. In December last
year, Unilever contracted IBM to manage its European financial
transactional services.
The new contract sees Unilever, which own brands including
Persil, Flora and Marmite, hand over the transactional and
administrative parts of the HR function globally. It 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 create economies of scale, improve its
competitiveness and reduce costs.
Unilever intends to minimise the impact on people by
transferring staff to Accenture, early retirement, exploring
alternative roles, natural attrition and through voluntary
programmes.
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."
Unilever did not disclose the value of the HR outsourcing
deal.