Bangladesh rising with U

The past few weeks, my social media feed has been buzzing with endless stories of grit and inspiration. From the proud moments of the Padma Bridge inauguration to Wasfia Nazreen becoming the first Bangladeshi to climb the treacherous K2 peak, to the story of Lamia Ashraf Mowla, a Bangladeshi-born astrophysicist being a part of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope team; Sajid Asbat Khandaker and Sourodip Paul making history as the first debate team from Bangladesh to win the prestigious World University Debating Championship, and then closer to Unilever home, our BizMaestros champions at Unilever Bangladesh lifting the global Unilever Future Leader’s League (UFFL) trophy beating 23 countries.

I am also mindful that these successes come at a time when millions in the northeastern region of the country are left homeless, having suffered from the worst floods in decades in an already difficult economic and inflationary environment. As I write this piece, the team at Unilever Bangladesh is working diligently to support the sales field force and outer core team members whose lives have been disrupted by the calamity through monetary and material donations. As I observe the juxtaposition of these scenarios, I pen down my thoughts about the passion and resilience of Bangladesh’s youth, a country I have been serving in the capacity of a servant leader since 2019 as the HR Director of Unilever Bangladesh.

Cashing on our demographic dividend in Bangladesh, where more than 50 per cent of the population is under the age of 35, will be the key drivers of change for the country. Against the backdrop of recovering from an unprecedented global pandemic, inflationary pressures, and global extreme temperatures, we have prepared ourselves in the transition to a BANI world (‘Brittle’, ‘Anxious’, ‘Nonlinear’ and ‘Incomprehensible’). Several organisations have come forward with actionable plans to empower the youth in breaking societal barriers, gender bias and skills gap. The scale at which we operate at Unilever, being present in 190+ countries, puts us in a position of responsibility to make sustainable living commonplace. In Bangladesh, we have taken up an ambitious target of building the future workforce by helping equip 1 million young people with essential skills by 2030 and support the Government of Bangladesh’s ambition for youth skills development as per the 8th Five-Year Plan.

The month of International Youth Day reminds me of the conversation I had with a madrasa student from Sylhet during one of my classroom visits with a Unilever sustainability project partner. He has big dreams to pull his family out of poverty cycle, but when he looks at the undeniable barriers in his academic degrees leading to immediate financial stability, he feels demotivated. I told him that we need to transform ourselves as the world evolves rapidly around us. The vehicles of economic growth greatly value technical skills, and our youth must take up the opportunity to diversify their vocational and technical skills, taking advantage of the institutes and partners that support the journey from training to placements. The opportunities are endless, so we must have the right mindset and agility to capture them for our growth. Most importantly, our ambition always must be greater than our resources.

At Unilever, my role allows me the privilege of meeting thousands of young minds in various capacities beyond direct employment, such as interns, freelancers, ‘Learn to Lead’ sessions, seminars, BizMaestros case study competition and others. Regardless of their demographic background, they all have a common ask. They want flexibility, a match of their passion with job descriptions and the desire to achieve a greater purpose.

At Unilever, we have a diverse pool of talent - the country’s STEM graduates are driving advanced machineries in our Chattogram factory that manufactures over 95% of Unilever Bangladesh’s products. Graduates from various disciplines are leading distribution salesforce in the most remote regions of Bangladesh, supporting income opportunities for millions of households from the very early stages of their careers. Our talent philosophy is that leaders develop more leaders. Driven by this mindset, we are involved in dedicated capability development programs for shopfloor workers in factories and our distributor field forces to ensure they have relevant skills for employment sustainability.

Globally, we are now even more conscious about the social barriers many may face, whether it is a gender bias or exclusion due to disabilities. However, I strongly feel that the women in Bangladesh have a stellar role model to look up to in the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. Taking cues from the nation’s growth mindset, instead of pondering on the issues we face, we are looking at how can we solve them collaboratively. At Unilever Bangladesh, we have 40 per cent gender balance at managerial levels, with a clear intent to be a 50-50 gender balanced organisation by 2025.

To achieve this vision, we created the unique opportunity to provide women taking a career break to restart their career trajectory through the STRIDE programme, where we ask applicants who are on a career break to join us on high intensity projects to propel them back to their career trajectories. Brands must operate with a deep sense of purpose, and initiatives such as Unilever’s Glow&Lovely Careers and Rin Namkora Nari are two platforms that allow women to explore their full potential. We also believe that we can thrive with a diverse and inclusive team, so we ensure that people with disabilities receive the necessary support to thrive in their careers with Unilever.

The world we are living in and moving towards will always have disruptions. Change is the new normal. Even in face of these multitude of challenges, the youth today have more opportunities that the previous generations did not. Today, technology has democratised the learning and job market, and Bangladesh is a global freelancing hub at 8th position globally. The FMCG industry will always be the number one learning place for marketeers because of the unbeatable opportunity it provides to develop consumer centricity and to turn problem solving strategies into action. Additionally, with the advent of technological transformation, our talents within Unilever get to practise their skills of data, digital and entrepreneurship that sets them on the right track to build a portfolio of a future-ready global resource.

As I am writing these thoughts from our wonderful new office premises in the country’s first twin towers, I look down the window and see the bustling street with office staff, traffic policemen, a group of garment workers, street vendors and happy children in school uniforms. While we will continue to achieve greater milestones in 50 years and beyond, it is every single young person, as an essential cog in the churning wheel of socio-economic growth, who will propel the country forward. Bangladesh is rising with you!

The writer is the HR Director of Unilever Bangladesh