1 Understand the key contemporary business issues and main external factors affecting different organisations and the impact on HR

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Business Issues and the Contexts of Human Resources

Purpose and aim of unit

Human resources (HR) professionals need to understand key developments in the business and external contexts within which HR operates. This unit enables learners to identify and review the business and external contextual factors affecting organisations and to assess the impacts of these factors on the HR function. The unit also examines HR’s role in strategy formulation and implementation. The unit is designed to encourage learners to adopt a critical perspective of these contexts and to provide workable organisational and HR solutions to address them.

This unit is suitable for persons who:

  • seek to develop a career in HR management and development
  • are working in the field of HR management and development and need to extend their knowledge and skills
  • have responsibility for implementing HR policies and strategies
  • need to understand the role of HR in the wider organisational and environmental context.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this unit, learners will:

1      Understand the key contemporary business issues and main external factors affecting different organisations and the impact on HR.

2      Understand how organisational and HR strategies and practices are shaped and developed.

3      Know how to identify and respond to changes in the business environment.

Guided learning hours

The notional learning hours for this unit are 60 in total. If the unit is provided by attendance mode, the guided learning hours would normally be considered to be 30 with an additional 30 hours of self-directed learning for reading and the preparation of assessment evidence.

Unit assessment

To achieve this unit, the evidence the learner presents for assessment must demonstrate that they have met all the learning outcomes and assessment criteria.

 

Learning outcomes

The learner will:

Assessment criteria

The learner can:

1      Understand the key contemporary business issues and main external factors affecting different organisations and the impact on HR.

 

1.1  Assess a range of different factors which impact on an organisation’s business and its HR function.

 

2      Understand how organisational and HR strategies and practices are shaped and developed.

 

2.1  Analyse the forces shaping the HR agenda.

 

2.2  Compare different tools for analysing the business environment.

 

2.3  Explain the key stages in strategy formulation and implementation and the role of HR.

2.4  Examine HR’s contribution to business ethics and accountability.

3      Know how to identify and respond to changes in the business environment.

 

 

3.1  Evaluate business performance and the role of HR in business planning and the change management agenda.

 

3.2  Assess and utilise different sources of business and contextual data for planning purposes. 


Unit content

Indicative content is provided for each of the learning outcomes of the unit. The content is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive but should enable achievement of the learning outcomes.

1       Understand the key contemporary business issues and main external factors affecting different organisations and the impact on HR.

Different types of organisation: SME’s; global; private, governmental etc; the role of management within them; ways in which HR is delivered in different organisations; the main functional areas of management; the search for sustained organisational performance, business profit and efficiency; analysing, evaluating and drawing conclusions from financial and non-financial data; balanced scorecard or similar performance measurement tools; managing the change agenda.                   

Factors impacting on organisations: the market and competitive contexts of organisations; principal demographic, social and technological trends; globalisation and international factors; government policy and legal regulation; the European Union (EU) and other international bodies.

2       Understand how organisational and HR strategies and practices are shaped and developed.

Forces shaping the HR agenda; models of the HR function; HR insights, strategies and solutions to support organisational performance; relationships of HR with senior management and line management; basic issues of ethics, accountability and good governance.
Strategy development: how corporate and HR strategies are shaped by the business and external contexts; organisational insights and organisational performance; strategy formulation and implementation; emergent strategies; vertical and horizontal integration; business ethics and accountability.
Techniques and tools to analyse organisational and business environment: e.g. PESTLE, SWOT, the Value Chain etc.

3       Know how to identify and respond to changes in the business environment.

HR’s role and function in business planning and review: HR as a business partner; environmental scanning
Assessing and using data: sources of data and business information including HR metrics; handling, analysing and reviewing complex business data; interpreting trends, patterns and metrics in the organisation, and identifying obstacles and risks; responding to change: short-term imperatives and long-term horizons; preparing position and policy papers; communicating with senior, middle managers and staff.

Evaluating agreed strategies: understanding different tools for evaluation


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