Global consumer brands firm Unilever expects to recruit more than 770 management trainees to join the businesss in 37 markets in 2011 as part of its Future Leaders Programme (UFLP), according to Paul Maxin, the company’s global resourcing director.

Most of these new recruits will be brought into the company in the combined Asia, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe region more than double the numbers brought into the Americas and Western Europe regions, figures from Unilever show. The company anticipates a 30% increase in the number of recruits to the UFLP in 2011-12 over 2010-11.

Maxin was speaking to an audience at the Social Recruiting Conference in London on 30 June. In outlining the management trainee recruitment statistics, he also set Unilever’s digital recruitment strategy, aimed at supporting the company’s growth and aim of doubling its sales from e40bn (£35.8bn) to e80bn, in the context of also reducing its environmental footprint.

The UFLP’s usefulness to the business is evident as company statistics show that 60% of the current top level tier of executives began their careers at Unilever as management trainees.

In talent acquisition terms, Unilever is placing “particular focus on winning the talent wars in the BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] markets geographically, and job-wise, in the marketing and customer development functions, and in the beauty category”, Maxin said.

Asked what his underlying global priority was, Maxin told Recruiter: “In everything we’ve done, the one thing that links everything is… to treat the candidate as consumer, instead of as a product in a supply chain, and focusing on the candidate experience, and that experience drives the process instead of the other way around.”