Before looking at the internal or external environment factors affecting the delivery of HRM policy in UK, it is important to look at some of the most important internal and external factors in this regard. The internal factors are concerned within the organization, which means that factors which are in the limits of an organization, and organization can control such factors. On the other hand, external factors are those, which come from outside, and beyond the control of organization. One of the important external factors is competition. It is one of the most critical factors making a viable impact on the ability of the company to deal with its HRM policy and practices. The competition is the most powerful external factor, as it drives the competition between companies, and a company ahs to adjust their policies as per the intensity of competition. Keeping this fact in view, the company has to adjust their HRM policy, and find talent from the market, which helps them to compete well and earns competitive advantage for them. The company has to understand in intense competition situation that they have to retain their best talent by developing attractive incentive plans and attract more skilled and experienced talent to be more diverse and competitive (Benjamin, 2018)

            The other important factor is related to internal environment and that is employee relations along with compensation plan. When a company is looking to make a mark in its market, and compete with the best competitors, then they have to develop great relations with their employees. This is important internal factor for an organization to remain on course of success, otherwise their speed and ratio of being successful can be affected badly. The companies have to understand that they promote and encourage employees within the organization, and allow them to participate in training and developing programs so that they are able to learn new required skills and tricks of trade to apply in their business strategies. The employees should be monitored properly and when they are in need of something, the company should provide that like they may need a machinery or training program to bring in positive change in the process. Moreover, compensation plan is also crucial internal factor; as better compensation plans developed by HR department retain employees reduce employees’ turn over. The other most critical external factor is legislations made by government for the companies to operate in a territory. The companies will have to rely on legislation that how they will deal with employees, what would be the minimum wage, how much employees record will be stores, and what healthcare polices will be given to employees, as well as what kind of taxes will have to be paid (Benjamin, 2018)

            Keeping above mentioned external and internal environment factors in mind, it is important to see the evolution of HRM practice and policy in United Kingdom in last few decades. It is observed that roles and responsibilities of HR department have changed over the period of time due to changes made in work policies and practices. In 1990s, the focus of HRM policy was to review that what it actually does, and how people should be chosen for different roles, but in next decade, things changed overtime, and HRM started to look at its role in terms of what it actually delivers to an organization. This is how evolution of HRM began with so many changes coming in next few years. In 21st century, HRM started to take a strategic approach to handle its business practices and policies and came up with strategies, which were aligned with strategic objectives of the organizations. In 2009, after the recession, the things got difficult for companies to manage in UK as external factors of economic activity with recession threw different challenges to these companies (Ashdown, 2014)

            It is also important to view that how different legislations and other external factors affected the HRM policy and practice in UK as well as all over the world. It is a fact that when there was no HRM, then things were managed through personal management by employees. Then a great transition came, which evolved human resource management as a recognized discipline. The latest stage of HRM evolution began after 2000, and it is still going on with so many aspects. One of the recent changing businesses dynamic is its evolution into global scale; as s businesses are becoming more global. So, HRM policy & practice of UK has been affected by this external factor of competition and economic forces on global scale, which has asked to shift HRM policy and move towards in a direction where an international approach is taken for HRM policy & practice. It has happened so because global talent has been adopted by many companies and this has brought more diversity in the companies. So, this one of the most significant external factor which is still making a considerable impact on UK companies, and they have to adjust with these external factors by developing more integrated HRM policies, which have the capacity to adopt talent from various cultures and backgrounds (Tubey, Rotich and Kurgat, 2015)

            One more critical external factor influencing the essence of HRM policy & practice in UK is the awareness about green technologies and use of natural resources to protect environment from global warming, and keep this earth clean from pollution. This corporate social responsibility factor has been really important in driving the business in a certain directions. The people in UK are more aware about environmental issues, and they give value to those companies, which are aligning their business with CSR activities. So, corporate social responsibility has made a huge impact on delivery of HRM policy, because HR departments have to make sure that they develop polices, and hire people, which are able to understand the importance of CSR, and work with the organization to achieve those CSR objectives. This issue is becoming more serious with the passage of time, and it looks that HRM policies will be driven more strongly in the future by the essence of corporate social responsibility (Higginbottom, 2014)

References of Internal or External Factors affecting Delivery of HRM Policy & Practice in UK

Ashdown, Linda. 2014. he evolution of HR: 1984 to 2014 and beyond, part two. Accessed December 18, 2018. https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/the-evolution-of-hr-1984-to-2014-and-beyond-part-two.

Bagga, Teena, and Sanjay Srivastava. 2014. "SHRM: alignment of HR function with business strategy." Strategic HR Review 13 (4/5).

Benjamin, Tia. 2018. External & Internal Environmental Factors Influencing HR Activities. Accessed December 18, 2018. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/external-internal-environmental-factors-influencing-hr-activities-34745.html.

FedEx Newsroom. 2012. FedEx Recognized as One of 100 Best Human Resource Management Companies in China. Accessed December 18, 2018. FedEx Recognized as One of 100 Best Human Resource Management Companies in China.

Higginbottom, Karen. 2014. Why HR Needs To Take A Leadership Role In CSR. Accessed December 18, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/karenhigginbottom/2014/01/06/why-hr-needs-to-take-a-leadership-role-in-csr/#102707431eeb.

Martin. 2014. How HR Strategy Can Help You Gain a Competitive Advantage. Accessed December 18, 2018. https://www.cleverism.com/hr-strategy-competitive-advantage/.

Storey, John. 2007. Human Resource Management: A Critical Text. illustrated Edition. Cengage Learning EMEA.

Tubey, Dr. Ruth, Kipkemboi Jacob Rotich, and Dr. Alice Kurgat. 2015. "History, Evolution and Development of Human Resource." European Journal of Business and Management 7 (9).

Verasai, Anna. 2016. Implementing Best HR Practices makes FedEx a Great Place to Work. Accessed December 18, 2018. https://www.thehrdigest.com/implementing-best-hr-practices-makes-fedex-great-place-work/.