Unilever CEO recognizes Gloat as major contributor to high Q1 returns

The strategic advantage Gloat provides is helping the consumer goods giant thrive, despite the financial crisis.

In the post-pandemic era, we’re still seeing some organizations delay HR transformations, while others thrive thanks to successful Talent Marketplace implementations. We’ve seen from our customers like Unilever, how the investment in Gloat’s Talent Marketplace technology can pay off.

Gloat’s Talent Marketplace is a Key to the Unilever’s Global Response to COVID-19

Unilever started out with a 5,000 employee pilot, quickly scaled to 40,000 and now the consumer-goods giant is using Gloat across all functions and geographies (100,000+ employees).

During Unilever’s most recent Quarterly Earnings Report, Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever cites Gloat’s Talent Marketplace as Key to the Company’s Global Response to COVID-19.

We’re also drawing on our adaptability by quickly redeploying teams from parts of the business with low demand to the areas that are seeing high demand. This has been enabled by a digital internal talent marketplace called Flex (Gloat), that matches employees who have capacity with opportunities to do interesting new types of work. So far we have redeployed over 3000 people (during the pandemic)

Unilever improves operating margins by over 9%

Unilever has improved operating margins by over 9%, and has cited optimization of talent utilization through the Gloat Internal Talent Marketplace as a key strategic enabler in the company’s 2019 Annual Financial Report

Unilever cites:

More flexible and agile working

Continuing to be an industry-leading business and employer means moving to faster, smarter ways of working at all levels of our company. So we’re evolving our culture to encourage more agility and accountability.

Our new Flex Experiences platform (powered by Gloat) offers employees the chance to share their talent and experience with people on other teams and in other countries. Live in 20 business areas, so far it has reached over 40,000 people in more than 100 countries and unlocked over 100,000 hours of new career experiences and learning. We’re also changing how we manage performance – encouraging employees to set goals throughout the year to encourage more innovative, entrepreneurial ways of working.

In 2019, we had 30 agile teams on pilot projects around the business. So far, the results have been positive: working in this way not only improves people’s speed and agility but helps them to feel more engaged. So, we’ll be taking what we learn from these pilots to the wider business. We believe that allowing people to work flexibly will help us continue to attract talented employees and future leaders – as well as people in the open talent economy such as contractors, consultants and independent project workers. It will also make us a more inclusive employer – giving more options to people with disabilities, family commitments or other time pressures. By moving beyond the typical 9 to 5 employment model, we’re opening up, enhancing and future-proofing Unilever.

Fit for the Future

To become a more agile organisation, we need to
simplify and flatten our internal structures – and
to work in more networked ways. We also need
to encourage people to make smarter decisions
faster, and with customers and consumers front
of mind.