Assessment Brief

You have been asked by your CIPD Branch to lead a discussion at one of its events on ‘The evolving role of HR in the contemporary business world’. You have been asked to produce a paper for inclusion in the delegate pack. In your paper, you should include the following:

• An analysis of some of the key forces which shape the HR agenda e.g. models of the HR function, HR strategies, insights and solutions to support business performance, business ethics and accountability.

Assessment Criteria 2.1 

• Compare different tools for analysing the business environment e.g. SWOT, PESTLE, Porter’s 5 Forces etc.

Assessment Criteria 2.2

• Assess a range of different factors which impact on an organisation’s business and its HR function. You should include examples of external and internal factors to illustrate the different types of impact.

Assessment Criteria 1.1

• Summarise the key stages in strategy formulation and implementation with reference to a model from the literature. You should also refer to the role of HR in each of the stages and in particular, highlight HR’s contribution to business ethics and accountability.

Assessment Criteria 2.3, 2.4

• Give some examples of how business performance can be evaluated, making reference to traditional and modern indicators. You should make particular reference to the role of HR in business planning and change management with some examples to illustrate HR’s key role.

Assessment Criteria 3.1

• Explain how different sources of business and contextual data can be assessed and utilised for planning purposes e.g. internal information within the organisation including HR metrics, industry information e.g. trends in HR, competitive information, government information.