Case Study on Hr Planning Essay

It is the countrys best secernd get-up-and-go brand. Centrica is a multinational connection, with demarcationes in m any(prenominal) countries. Centrica was organise in 1997 and consists of eight separate animation-related c ruborit linees, ranging from the supply of shove off and electricity to consumers and agreements in the UK and Europe, to storage of turgidness for some different grantrs, and drain and pipe butt maintenance. The UK life force foodstuff is exaltedly dynamic. Customers look for the best deals and be increasingly prep ared to switch suppliers.In 2007, 900,000 guests switched energy providers. An energy company inevitably to fork out it is not solely belligerent on price, but that it stool to a fault provide the proper levels of customer aid to suck and retain customers. British petrol does not wholly supply gas but as well deals with the quickness and maintenance of national central heating and appliances. It provides a maintenance and breakdown service for electrical face cloth undecomposeds and home wiring. Through the Dyno brand, British flatulency withal offers drain clearing services, plumbing and home security de crock upment services. To deliver these services, British tout take high calibre lag.It employs more than 9,000 trained gas engineers to lay down and affirm central heating and gas appliances. This show window study explores how British botch manages the military recruitment and choice of rude(a) employees. rascal 2The role of forgiving resource oversight Managing a successful salient argumentation involves acquiring, originateing and maintaining a ample jog of resources. These resources include materials, buildings, land, equipment, technology and, crucially, wakeless deal. Any organisation involve good employees who gull the decently skills to achieve the companys aims and objectives.Human resource management (HRM) is the business function that focuses on the quite a little aspects of an organisation. It construes the efficient management of people in the business. It is responsible for ensuring that an organisation has the decline wing people to deliver its overall business plan. meet customer needs Centrica, the parent corporation of British triggerman, has to deliver long term profitability. Its shareholders book the business to show a return on their investment funds by making profits, now and in the future. British ordnance needs to contribute to these profits.This means systemati citey meeting the needs of its customers with competitively priced products and services that support good returns to the company. Residential consumers across the country are the result customer base of British throttle valve. These customers bear top-class service at keen prices. If British muck up does not meet this standard, the company may recur business to competitors. To ensure customer satisf legal action, British catalyst engineers mol dinessiness have the skillful skills to undertake endure to the demand standard and the people skills to deliver good customer service.Through its engineer recruitment team, the British Gas Academy must therefore ensure that the company deplumes and retains the best engineers. This involves several complementary tasks. It requires preparation to assess the future needs for expert employees at British Gas. It requires a recruitment and cream political program to bring new people into the business. It requires a upbringing operation to equip new recruits and existing employees with the right skills. Retaining people Importantly, British Gas must in like manner ensure that it retains its best people.It is much more make up effective to retain trained and highly skilled staff than recruit and train up new people. British Gas seeks to retain people by offering a mix of financial and non-financial benefits. As well as good pay and a pension scheme, the company provides employe es with the opportunity to buy shares in Centrica and it offers a great place to work and high-class reading. Page 3 raising As an expanding business, British Gas needed to increase its workforce to meet customer demand. At the end of 2002, British Gas established the British Gas Academy.The Academy has helped to develop and refocus culture facilities to handle the extra training requirement in recruiting an additional 5,000 employees into the engineer workforce. * British Gas runs an intensive apprenticeship programme. This is delivered in training centres. Trainees should expect to qualify by year five. All domestic gas engineers become fully acquainted with the in vogue(p) computer-aided diagnostic technology.There are also traineeships, which provide a way for new recruits to learn intimately the gas industry and gain relevant skills and qualifications. British Gas provides technical training for all its engineers with with(predicate)out their careers. This ensures that its employees are kept up-to- interpret with new development and technologies to en equal them to provide the best service possible. Training does not simply focus on technical skills and knowledge. Most employees have direct contact with customers, so it is important that they have good people skills. cognisance training is provided for employees across British Gas by means of an online learning package.An new(prenominal) programme is improving staffs cultural awareness, particularly to support the suppuration international operations at British Gas. Page 4Workforce be afterward Workforce planning is the process of assessing a companys authoritative and future labour needs. The British Gas Academies must consider not just overall employee poesy but also the skills that will be required inwardly the business. Workforce planning also involves managing any training and recruitment process to ensure the organisation has the right staff in place.Managers at British Gas conduct a programme of fortune telling to predict how much the UK market for domestic gas technology services will grow. This helps the company square up how many additional engineers it will need in the future. British Gas makes detailed forecasts of its demand for engineering personnel for one year in approach path and makes more general estimates for a further dickens old age into the future. Factors needing workforce planning At British Gas, workforce requirements are driven by two different demands. First, there are announcement customers that have service agreements with the company.Second, there are customers who call for one-off assistance if they have a specific problem. quest for both these services has grown. In the last terce or four years, the need for engineers has expanded accordingly. This has meant that it has had to recruit more staff. There are several other factors that influence workforce planning for British Gas. technology skills need to be constantly updat ed. Health and condom issues are also critically important in the gas industry. Health and safety regulations are ever-changing all the time and EU regulations must also be considered.Apart from regular formal training to close skills gaps to ensure engineers stay up to date with technical matters, British Gas can refreshful engineers about technical changes via field radio or text messaging. Engineers can work all their careers in the field until they retire. Qualified engineers may spend up to 10 years gaining their skills, qualifications and experience. They have valued working skills that are needed to deal with equipment and customers. However, British Gas also needs suitable people for promotion to higher roles, such as management hypothesises.It needs managers to plan, organise and co-ordinate the teams of engineers. It therefore needs to sop up and recruit a wide range of people into the organisation. Page 5Recruitment As part of its workforce planning, British Gas imp lements a alteration and inclusion strategy using tailored action plans. This means it actively seeks new recruits from a wide range of backgrounds. The need to recruit a respective(a) engineering workforce is seen as critical by British Gas. It plans recruitment to ensure it has a socially inclusive workforce. This is important as it will enable British Gas to reflect the diversity of its customer base.For example, it is useful to have employees from different nationalities and backgrounds to communicate with customers that do not speak English as a first language. Recruiting more women engineers may help to curl female customers. British Gas has win a national award from the Council for Registered Gas Installers (CORGI) for its efforts to encourage and attract women into the engineering workforce and into plumbing and associated trades. To dispel the fabrication that only men can be good engineers, British Gas runs a Georgina and the Dragon private road for children.What Bri tish Gas recruitment programmeshave achievedis demo by various awards during 2009 * British Gaswon awards from the Local Employment Partnership in the easternmost Midlands. The awards for Unlocking Talentand theOutstanding LEP Achievement Awardrecognisethe companys recruitment work with the LEP and Jobcentre addition in the region. * British Gas has been named in the 2009sunshine Timess 20 Best openhanded Companies to Work For. * The British Gas Academy won an award from Women into Science and Engineering (WISE).The award Investor in WISE rewarded the efforts British Gas makesto promote science,engineering and constructionto girls and young women. Advertising British Gas tries to appeal to a varied and diverse audience when promoting its apprenticeships. To advertise opportunities widely, British Gas uses specialist flip out channels like Parliamentary Projects TV, which focuses on careers, and impatience TV, which is aimed at the black community. In print media, it uses wome ns magazines, publications targeted at ethnic minorities such as The Muslim Weekly as well as other careers directories for the same reason.Other channels include radio, newspapers,British Gas website(www. britishgasacademy. co. uk) and a DVD for schools. Recruiting gas engineers of the right level is important. Candidates for a British Gas apprenticeship must be at least 16 years old, and have a minimum of four GCSEs at grade C or above or equivalent (e. g. NVQs). However, they need more than academic qualifications, they must be able to show some skill for customer service, such as being able to listen to customers and understand their requirements. ApplicationBritish Gas uses an online application form. To help British Gas determine an applicants suitability, this includes a value-based questionnaire. This requires responses to a serial of statements about attitudes to work. There are 90 statements in all, and an applicants overall responses are rated green, chromatic or red. The colour reflects the attitudes the applicant has about work and people. This helps to show which roles a person is best conform to to. British Gas does not take applicants with red ratings further as they may not show a fit with the company requirements.However after an initial screening, green and amber applicants are invited to an discourse and mind centre for the final selection process. Here, candidates must show evidence of qualifications, ID and driving licence. Page 6Selection At the British Gas assessment centre the emphasis is very much upon core competencies and life skills. Life skills are personal skills that are likely to affect the customer experience when someone is working in the field. British Gas engineers needs to show courtesy and politeness, for example.These are personal qualities that have a direct impact upon customer perception. encumbrance competencies involve team working, interpersonal skills (such as traffic with people), motivation and respond ing to change. These are crucial skills that can affect the way an individual fits in and works within an organisation. Candidates attend the centre for a half-day assessment. This has three elements. The totality scores from the three-part assessment help British Gas to decide who forgathers a job offer. Candidates are notified of the offspring within 14 days. All candidates can receive feedback.For those candidates offered a job, British Gas provides the usual job benefits including a van from the outset and a competitive starting salary. The new recruits then go on to benefit from the comprehensive programme of training through its Academy. This ensures that they are given the best start in their new careers. It also builds employee motivation and commitment to the company. Recruiting and selecting staff is an expensive process. By following a big-chested selection programme in this way, British Gas is able to ensure it gets the right people with the right skills.It also mean s it maximises the benefit from its investment. Page 7Conclusion Recruitment and selection at British Gas is driven by the need to maintain the competitive position of the company within the energy market. Domestic gas customers demand the very highest standards of service. They can be assured that British Gas engineers have high-level skills and expertise through its careful condition of entry qualifications followed by top quality training. British Gas also assesses the personal attributes of staff through role play and questionnaires as these influence customers perceptions of the service and the company.Great care is taken in ascertain the organisations future staffing needs. This drives the recruitment and selection process to ensure British Gas is seen as offering dynamic and exciting career paths for people of all backgrounds. By developing and nurturing its people, British Gas ensures that new recruits have the right qualities to help the business to compete.