Unilever has been chosen at the No. 1 Employer in Africa for two years in a row. The award was announced recently by the by the International Top Employers Institute. This award recognises the firm’s focus on developing local talent to meet its sustainable growth ambition in Africa.
“Building African talent and leaders is obviously central to the success of our sustainable growth ambitions in Africa,” explains Bruno Witvoet, Unilever’s Executive Vice President for Africa.
Key to Unilever’s plans to attract and develop such talent are initiatives such as internal academies to build skills in customer development, marketing and supply chain. A single cross-company system allows the company to plan performance and talent development globally, including rotating promising African managers between countries or internationally to build skills and experience.
“As a result African businesses that were talent importers are now producing managers that can compete with the best globally,” says Bruno. To date, over 250 Unilever African managers have been given the chance to undertake development opportunities outside their home countries.
“I’m one of the African resources who has benefited,” says Agnes Kitololo who is currently on a placement in London working as a brand director in Foods. Agnes will shortly return to Africa. ‘Getting the opportunity to work in regional brand development in South Africa and Global brand development in the UK has been invaluable in helping me grow as a marketer. I look forward to bringing these learnings home and complementing them with the richness that comes from an in-market brand building experience,” she adds.
“Our strength as a global company is that our African managers can access global best practice. We’ll always maximise local employment but, unlike local firms, we can also bring in global talent to train and work with African teams. We are often asked if our management is 100% African but our real goal is to ensure 100% of our African managers can compete with the best globally,” says Bruno. “We want to set the benchmark for best employment practice and make our people best in the market, so that Unilever’s talent in Africa will have an impact for years to come as the continent carves out its place in the world economy.”