British Ceramic Tile | Briefly evaluate the key aspects of the role of HR in managing the impact of contemporary business issues and external business influences | Word count 920 |

Terri Fenwick
16th March 2015 |

HR continuously works in a changing landscape of variables, including technology and legislation. Writing in Personnel Today, Dennehy (2014) states that “every year brings with it numerous legislative changes”. This will force businesses to regularly review their policies and procedures and adjust them accordingly in light of external forces.
Technology has advanced significantly and we are now seeing a massive increase in Social Media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn being used in the Business environment for many things including general business marketing and as a recruiting platform. Employers need to keep up with technology and embrace the changes in order to compete with other Businesses.
The key in HR successfully keeping up with these contemporary business changes is Change Management (Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT 2004) * Planning for change * Implementing change * Supporting continuous improvement following change
According to MIT (2004) in order to successfully manage change, HR must always plan for change due to the ever changing environment. It needs to reinvent itself to develop and grow with the change. Human Resource Management comes in different national styles but none of these are ‘free from the pressures to change’ (Edward and Rees 2006 as cited by Farnham 2006). The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development suggests that most organisations will look nothing like they did 5 – 10 years ago; in turn they will most likely look different in a few years to come. There will always be change, and thus, the ability to improve.
Taylor, (2011) states that during the first decade of the