Assessment 1 Human Resource Management

This report discusses the current and predicted changes in the external environment of Deliveroo, a British based online food delivery company. The report uses PESTEL analysis to examine the impact of political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors on the company. The report also evaluates how the company responds to these changes within their resourcing strategies. The report concludes that the company has altered its resourcing strategies in order to deal with the dynamic changes of their external environment.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Current and Predicted trends in external environment: .........................................................1
Discussing and evaluating response to the changes in the external environment within
resourcing strategies...............................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management involves various strategic approach for the purpose of
efficient and effective management of people in any organization or company. The process of
HRM is designed to enhance and maximize employee performance in order to achieve objectives
of business. The company chosen for this report is Deliveroo. It is a British based online food
delivery company founded in 2013 and headquartered in United Kingdom. This report involves
the current and predicted changes in the external environment. Moreover, it involves the result of
COVID pandemic and Brexit and evaluate how the company chooses to respond to the changes
in the external environment within their resourcing strategies.
MAIN BODY
Current and Predicted trends in external environment:
In order to analyse the predicted and current changes in the external environment,
PESTEL analysis will be used to examine how the organization will be influenced by various
external factors during COVID and British Exit. PESTEL analysis is a management tool that is
used for strategic planning which involves political, economic, social, technological and legal
factors which can lead to shaping of the macro business environment (Akpey-Mensah, 2020).
In context to the Deliveroo, the company applies the PESTEL analysis in order to expand its
operations and with identification of major external forces. It can help the company to shape its
competitive landscape, strategies and supporting its strategic decision making process. Using
Pestel analysis, the organization can expand its core capabilities and competencies for
achievement of long-term objectives and effective strategies.
Political Factors: It includes factors like trade restrictions, political stability, tax policy,
environmental regulations to determine the extent a government can make an impact on company
or industry. Political factors has a major impact on food industry everywhere in the world.
During the time of COVID Pandemic, the Deliveroo company was highly affected by the
particular situation due to various restrictions placed by government authorises. These restriction
cause the organisation to encountered issues such as reduced market share and overall customer
base. In addition to this, the organisation was asp impacted by the situation of Brexit as changes
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in trade law affective the organisation in a negative manner. The situation of Brexit cause
disruption in the supply chain of the organisation resulting in reduced supply and distribution
channels which causes loss of customers base and market share.
Political factors that affected the external environment involves: Changes in Policies: Due to Covid Pandemic there were various changes in government
policies that affected the business performance of Deliveroo company. These frequent
changes can cause negative impact on the performance of business because of increasing
environmental uncertainty. In context to Deliveroo, the company need to study the
current trends and make changes due to various policies such as Strict policies for
Restaurants, wearing masks, delivery and pickup of orders should be contact-free, food-
safe cleaning products etc. all these changes affected the organization working.(Alola and
Alafeshat, 2021). Political stability: It provides a friendly and stable business environment that predicts
market growth trends. With pandemic and Brexit scenario, it affected the organizational
performance including political chaos in terms of investors and stakeholders. In context
to Deliveroo, the company suffered political tensions due to Brexit resulting in
disruption in the acquiring process of the organisation relative to products and services.
The situation of Brexit caused the company major damage through constricting it supply
chain process. Health and safety guidelines: Political factors had a major impact and great influence of
the food industry. With the COVID 19 pandemic, there were more demand for safety and
health measures and various health guidelines were implemented on restaurant sector for
safety of people. (Doll, 2018).
Economic Factors: Economic factors involves labour market conditions, inflation rates, savings
rate, foreign exchange etc. All these factors determine the overall impact that an economic
environment can cause on an organization. In context to Deliveroo, during COVID -19
pandemic, all of a sudden there was high demand of online food as restaurants were closed due
to lock down which resulted in affecting the prices of ingredients. In addition to that, consumer
disposable income also affected the operations of the company.
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 Employment Rate: The main impact in terms of economic factors that affected the food
industry involves employment rate. Due to High impact on GDP rate, the consumer
ability to purchase a product also gets affected. In context to Deliveroo, the situation of
COVID-19 caused high rate of unemployment which resulted in decreased purchasing
power of the customers at a large scale. This decrease in purchasing power of customers
affected the sale of the organisation resulting in decreased revenue.
 Labour market conditions: It involves factors relating to supply and demand of labour.
Due to pandemic, there was high demand of online food delivery and in order to ensure
food delivery, there was a requirement of labour. The supply and demand of labour
determines the supply and wage rate of workforce.
Social Factors: It involves various trends, values and societal norms. Due to COVID – 19
pandemic, there was a lot of social factors that affected the organization including loneliness in
the people and less interaction between people due to people being locked in their houses
because of pandemic. In addition to this the situation of Brexit has cause major impact on the
overall market as organisation have to increase the prices of their products and services in order
to compete in the market.
 Online Presence: Due to lock down, the online presence of people started increasing
day-by-day which resulted in people spending more time on online sites and internet. The
impact of social media and e-commerce encourage people's behaviour.
 Spending patterns and behaviour: In order to analyse the customers interest, it’s
important to study and forecast the consumer's purchasing power based on economic
indicators. When it comes to society, some products are considered to be a status symbol.
Technological Factors: It involves factors that are related to rapid technology advancement and
changes in technology. In order to deal with these technological changes, it’s important to
understand the technological factors relating to strategic decision making process. In context to
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Deliveroo, various technological trends can be used to create campaigns on social media for
development of online brands.
 Impact on cost culture: In context to Deliveroo, the company need to consider
investments made my micro and macro level competitors in order to understand influence
due to technological factors. Cost culture plays an important role in organization, the
company need to invest in technologies to re-invest and maximize the profits (Nyaw,
2017).
 Technological Innovations: The companies need to carefully consider and analyse
ongoing technological innovations. With entire COVID situation, there were various
innovations that were implemented due to people being locked in their houses. In case of
Deliveroo, it should implement new technological advancements, increase speed and
enhance user experience. The company in order to deal with these factors, need to focus
on emerging technological innovations. In addition to this the organisation should focus
on utilizing technology in order to combat the situation of Brexit by introducing new and
innovate production operations in order to reduce the overall cost of products and
services.
Environmental Factors: In order to perform business operations, organizations need to consider
and understand the internal and external environment. For an organization it’s very important
that they take care of environment and nature through proper cleanliness. In context to the
company it should use food waste management policy and recycled material.
 Attitude towards eco-friendly products: In order to grow trends towards usage of eco-
friendly products. In context to the company, it should start adopting green business
practices due to major impact because of pandemic. The company need to focus and
should prioritize eco-friendly products over customary value propositions.
 Weather and Climatic conditions: Due to COVID – 19 pandemic, the quality of air
improved but changes in weather and climate conditions had a major impact on business
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operations. Extreme weather conditions can affect the cost of operations. In context to
Deliveroo, the operations of organizations are highly affected due to new way of working
and various weather and climate factors
Legal factors : Various legal factors and local bodies can affect the operations of business. These
authorities can affect the food industry.. In context to the company, it cannot expand its
operations without detail study of regulatory structure and legal environment. Due to pandemic,
it was more important to improve the quality of food items according to people's health
(VARDARLIER, 2020).
Consumer Protection Laws : To safeguard the interests of consumers and their privacy
concerns. In context to the company, it needs to study the regulations required to protect
customer data.
Employee Protection Laws: It very important to provide a secure environment to the employees
working in the organization. In context to the company, the situation of COVID – 19 forced the
organisation to take the direction of safety and welfare for their employees in order safeguard
their skilled workforce and follow all the legal requirements under the employment protection
law. The organisation should also follow ethical practices and retain their employees in hars
economic conditions such as the situation of Brexit in order to avoid any negative legal actions
relative unlawful firing of employees.
Discussing and evaluating response to the changes in the external environment within resourcing
strategies.
There has been a massive impact on the resourcing strategies of Deliveroo due to the
dynamic changes of their external environment. These changes have affected the performance as
well as productivity of the organisation. Given below is how Deliveroo has responded to the
changes in its external environment through their resourcing strategies:
Political:
The massive changes in the political environment had a major impact on the overall
operations if the business. The situation of Brexit introduced various elements such as alternation
in taxes and overall business cost. In order to counter this situation, the management at Deliveroo
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altered their recruiting and talent acquisition strategy to hire only necessary employees for their
organisation (Alzola, 2018). This ensured that the negative cost effect of Brexit was reduced and
the organisation gained highly skilled and capable individuals. Moreover, the resourcing strategy
of recruiting and talent acquisition allowed the company to cut down on unnecessary employee
cost and ensure that their business operations are able to function at optimal levels in situation
such as Brexit. This allows the company to keep its performance and productivity high and be
competitive in the market. In addition to this, the organisation is able to develop effective
strategies that provide them assistance in improving their human resource management which
allows them to be highly productive in their business operations.
Economical:
The company faced economical external environment issues due to the situation of
COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive impact on the economy of the
county as well as the company. In order to deal with the particulate situation, the management
focused upon their compensation and benefit resourcing strategy in order to keep employees
motivated in the pandemic situation. In addition to this, the strategy allows them to keep their
employee financial stable which resulted in them being able to work for the company in an
effective manner (Chieng, Arokiasamy and Kassim, 2019). It also allowed the company to build
positive brand impale in the market, enabling them to attract potential customers and building a
positive reputation. Moreover, they the strategy allowed them to have a functioning workforce
during the COVID-19 lock down restrictions which gave them a competitive advantage in the
market.
Social:
The external social environment had a great impact on the operations of the company as
employee’s moral was low especially during the time of COVID-19 restrictions. This forced the
company and its management to focus upon its employee relations resourcing strategy. It
involved team building exercises as well as establishing an effective channel of communication
during the COVID-19 pandemic lock down. This allowed the company to keep its employees
motivated and have a connection with the company as well as their colleagues in order to boost
their moral. This enabled the company to fulfil the social needs of their workforce resulting in
enhanced performance as well productivity of their employees. In addition to this, they altered
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their recruiting resourcing strategy by utilizing online medium for recruitment in order to fulfil
their social obligation under COVID-19 restrictions.
Technological:
There has been a positive impact of the technological external environmental factors on
the business operations of Delivroo especially in the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The
pandemic has forced the company to modify is traditional recruiting and selection process and
use online mediums. This has allowed the company to negate the negative impact of COVID-19
lock down restrictions (Gärtner, 2020). Moreover, it has also allowed the company to connect
with individuals relative to recruitment trough social media technology which has saved them
business cost as well help to meet the safety regulating under the regulations of the pandemic. In
addition to this, they have been able to use technology in their advantage during the pandemic by
effectively being connect to their employees and ensuring they receive clear and correct direction
relative to their job roles. This helps the company ensure that their employees are well informed
about the actions taken within the business.
Legal:
The situation of COVID-19 had a major impact on the overall operations of the business
of Deliveroo. The company encountered various issues related to hiring and recruitment of
employee. Moreover, the situation of COVID-19 complicated the scenarios as the restricted lock
down impacted the functioning of the business along with its management. The management of
the business had to focus on altering its workplace safety resourcing strategy in order to ensure
all their employees are safe from the situation of COVID-19 pandemic (Opara, Stanton and
Wahed, 2019). Moreover, due to Brexit, the company changed its benefit and compensation
resourcing strategy which ensure that their employees are satisfied with their salaries and negate
the situation of legal employee action. In addition to this, these changes in their resourcing
strategy of hiring as well as compensation allow the company to avoid negative impact of the
legal external environment as well as improve their overall business performance.
Environmental:
The company is focused upon having a positive impact on its external environment by
shifting all their process of recruiting and talent acquisition, employee relations and labour
relations, compensation and benefits along with work safety to a digital platform. This has
allowed the company to ensure its operations have a positive impact on its surrounding
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environment through reduction in their overall carbon footprint as well as reducing the utilization
of paper in their business operations. In addition to this, the company reduced its carbon footprint
making all its business operations relative to resource strategy online. This enables the company
to not only save cost during the time of COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit but also ensure that the
company has a positive impact on the environment (Turker, 2018). Furthermore, it allows the
company to build and establish strong and positive relations with its customers and ensure
increase in its overall market share. Moreover, the online medium for resourcing strategies
provide the company with high level performance and productivity.
From the above discussion upon the impact of external environmental changes on the
company of Delivroo, it is evaluated that the organisation has effectively responded to these
changes by altering their resourcing strategy. This has enabled the company to negate current and
future scenarios such as the situation of COVID-19 and Brexit. The changes in resourcing
strategy has allowed the company to overcome the various external environment issues in an
effective and efficient manner. The company has been able to shift it's business operation online
by effectively altering their resourcing strategy which has enabled them to be effective in their
business operations.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that it’s important for a company to
understand its external environment in order to perform its operations. It involves how
organization uses various strategies in order to gain a competitive advantage and maximizing
employee performance for achievement of strategic objectives. In addition to that, Human
resource management plays a very important role in bringing changes to various activities of
organization. Furthermore, this report involved various factors and laws that were implemented
during COVID 19 and Brexit Scenario and organizations deal with all the outcomes.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akpey-Mensah, T. L., 2020. Social capital development as innovation in human resource
development: A case of Technical Universities in Ghana. African Journal of Science,
Technology, Innovation and Development, 12(1). pp.27-32.
Alola, U. V. and Alafeshat, R., 2021. The impact of human resource practices on employee
engagement in the airline industry. Journal of Public Affairs, 21(1), p.e2135.
Doll, J. L., 2018. Structured interviews: Developing interviewing skills in human resource
management courses. Management Teaching Review, 3(1). pp.46-61.
Lee, H. W., 2019. How does sustainability-oriented human resource management work?:
Examining mediators on organizational performance. International Journal of Public
Administration, 42(11). pp.974-984.
Nyaw, M. K., 2017. Human resource management in the People's Republic of China. In Human
resource management on the Pacific Rim (pp. 187-216). de Gruyter.
VARDARLIER, P., 2020. Digital transformation of human resource management: digital
applications and strategic tools in HRM. In Digital Business Strategies in Blockchain
Ecosystems (pp. 239-264). Springer, Cham.
Alzola, M., 2018. Decent work: The moral status of labor in human resource
management. Journal of Business ethics, 147(4). pp.835-853.
Chieng, H. P., Arokiasamy, L. and Kassim, K. A. A., 2019. Human resource management
practices and their impact on construction organizational performance. Global Business
and Management Research, 11(1) pp.392-406.
Gärtner, C., 2020. Smart human resource management. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.
Opara, S .C., Stanton, P. and Wahed, W., 2019. For love or money: human resource
management in the performing arts. Employee Relations: The International Journal.
Turker, D., 2018. Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management. In Managing Social
Responsibility (pp. 131-144). Springer, Cham.
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