A company where women can shine
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A personal care company, Unilever Bangladesh Limited (UBL), provides products which aid women to sense decent life and to get more out of life.
From Lux to Dove and Rexona to Vim, all Unilever brands are built keeping in mind how it will make life more gratifying for the consumers. Ever the pioneer, Unilever Bangladesh has also contributed considerably towards leadership development in the country and more recently for championing gender balance in workplace. Since 2009, Unilever has slowly built an organization where women can sparkle.
Unilever Bangladesh Limited Human Resources director Mononita Syed-Haq said, ‘A well balanced organization helps build a rich culture— one where there is diversity of thoughts and ideas.’
‘With 75% of our consumers being women, gender balance is even more vital for Unilever,’ Mononita added.
UBL proactively made several changes over the past five years to become a woman friendly organization. Through seeking out high performing talent woman and integrating them into Unilever and through mitigating predominant notion in society about certain roles— such as field and factory roles, being for men only, Unilever Bangladesh has assembled an indomitable league of women managers who are now challenging the status quo at unconventional roles in field and factories.
The journey began with Unilever building the basics. Male line managers were trained to recognize and leverage on the diversity of thought that different genders bring to their teams. A formal supporting network for the women in the company was then created and initiatives such as role modelling sessions, to inspire talent of women within the organization, were started. In parallel, market mapping was initiated to discover more women talent in the recruitment market.
A new policy was introduced where for every new role which opened up in the Company, 50% of the contenders had to be female. Such innovative and proactive resourcing brought more female managers into the business.
With the progression of the first female director in the UBL board in 2013, greater drive has been placed in this space. Maternity policy was extended to 6 months, a crèche was introduced in the Corporate Office and a unique portal was launched to guide women managers’ while they transition into parenthood. Agile working, working from any location without the need to attend office, was facilitated through technology and encouraged for new mothers.
To groom women talent for the future, Unilever Bangladesh also introduced mentoring programs and balanced succession plans so that female managers’ career progresses alongside their male counterparts.
UBL delved deeper into addressing the major bottleneck of placing women talent in factory and sales roles in 2014. Strategic changes were made in both the functions to attract and retain more woman managers.
The Unilever Bangladesh Kalurghat factory (KGF) in Chittagong works in pillars such as production, engineering, logistics etc. In Supply Chain, the manufacturing function of the Company, the challenge was to build an environment where women can thrive in each of these pillars. These major challenging adjustments allowed the number of womenmanagers in the Unilever Factory to rise from 3 in the beginning of 2013 to 10 by June, 2014.
Nawrin Nahar, a manager at the factory who joined in 2013, observed the transformation having more women in factory has brought about.
‘With a greater number of women working in the factory, the whole work force is now more cooperative with women managers’ said Nawrin.
Cultural sensitivity was the main issue since women are not comfortable manning markets. These were addressed by analyzing the business geographies and identifying women friendly locations across the country. Universities from where recruitment occurred were also broadened so that more women candidates could connect with the company. Competent women were then recruited and placed in the identified geographies.
Mahdia Chowdhury, Territory Manager for Sylhet, says the field experience has been invaluable for her career. ‘Once I got accustomed to the location, nothing was more enjoyable then my job. I am very grateful that Unilever gave me this opportunity.’
Role modelling sessions, both internal and external, continued to groom women talent, Unilever strengthened its ties with external women forums to share and learn best practices. The women population of the company connected better through digital media through dedicated social pages and groups. Male managers driving the gender balance agenda in their everyday roles were recognized for their contributions and a previously absent, paternity policy has been put in place.
Since Unilever Bangladesh has embarked on its gender balance journey in 2009, the women population which could be counted in one hand has now risen to 60.
‘The path ahead is still challenging,’ says Mononita, ‘but with the learnings of the past years and the unwavering determination of every function, Unilever is poised to build itself into the employer of choice for women.’
The company is determined not only to attract the best women talent but also to provide them the platform to achieve their career ambitions without the need to sacrifice their uniqueness as a woman.