Originally known as PEST Analysis, this is a macro environmental framework used to understand the impact of the external factors on the organization and is used as strategic analytical technique. PEST stands for “Political, Economic, Social, and Technological” factors.

Francis Aguilar is referred to as the originator of this tool. He talked about ETPS – Economic, Technological, Political, and Social– as the four important factors for Scanning the Business Environment. Later Legal and Environmental factors were also added by some analysts and thus evolved the term PESTLE Analysis.

Let us examine these factor in a bit more detail.

Political Factors affects the organizations in terms of government regulations and legal issues and define both formal and informal rules under which the firm must operate. Examples are:

Political stability
Tax policy
Employment and labor law
Environmental regulations
Trade restrictions
Tariffs etc

Economic factors affect the business operations and decision making of the organization. For example the predicted recession is preventing the organizations from increasing the workforce . Other examples are:

Economic growth
Interest rates
Inflation rate

Social factors refer to the cultural and demographic aspects of the environment. For example increase in the health consciousness may affect the demand of the company’s product. Other factor includes:

Age distribution
Population growth rate
Emphasis on safety
Career attitudes

Technological factors affect the cost and quality of the outputs. These also determine the barriers to entry and minimum efficient production level. Factors include:

Automation
Technology incentives
Rate of technological change
R&D activity
Legal factors influence the company’s operation, its costs, and the demand for its products. Factors include:

Consumer law
Antitrust law
Employment law
Discrimination law
Health and safety law
Environmental factors refer to ecological and environmental aspects such as weather, climate, and climate change. Climate change is a hot topic these days and organizations are restructuring their operations thus giving space to innovation and concept of Green Business.

Use

PESTLE Analysis is used to examine the current and future state of the industry an organization belongs to. This helps in the strategic planning and gaining the competitive edge over the other firms in that industry. This analysis can not only be used for an organization as a whole but various departments can also be inspected under this framework. For example, it makes more sense for a company with diversified product range to analyze its departments separately than the organization as a whole.

Importance of the factors varies depending on the nature of the industry and company. For example environmental factors are more important to tourism sector where as economic and plotical factors are more important for the Banking sector.

Let us see how the HR department can be analyzed using this technique:

Political Factors

The HR Policies of the organization
How are the HR function viewed by share holders and other functions?
Who are the political champions of HR?
Economic Factors

Financial position of the organization
Approved budget for HR Dept
Customer’s willingness to spend money on the services offered
Inflation
Salary trends in the sector
Sociological Factors

Other departmental attitudes to HR
Age profile
Education and Attitudes to career
Diversity
Health
Technological Factors
Crdit: Abha Pandey, BPMgeek