British Gas Case Study

David Lee
1. Main purpose of workforce planning at BGS

- Workforce planning is the process of anticipating the current and future demand for workers in
an organization, which requires business to be prepared for supply changes in the labor market.
Workforce planning is aimed at helping companies make sure they have the right people in the right
place at the right time and at the right price. Through Workforce Planning, the organizations can
clearly know what people the organization will need, and how many will be available to meet those
needs. So, by connecting the organization's demand and the available workforce supply, organizations
will be able to create and target programs, approaches and develop strategies.
According to the case study, the UK energy market is highly dynamic, so, to be able to compete in
such market, the company needs to strengthen their workforce with appropriate staff. For British
Gas, the main purpose of workforce planning is to help them to employ the right people for the job.
In BGS, Workforce requirements are driven by two different demands. First, the contract customers
that has service agreements with the company and those customers who call for one-off assistance.
In times of increasing demands, the company needs to get ready. Therefore the workforce planning is
very important, because it will help the company to estimate workforce demand and employ suitable
people which the company will need in future.
The workforce planning helps to simplify the recruitment process, because it sets out appropriate
information about the job and the person needed. Therefore, it attracts only suitable people and it
is time and cost saving for the recruitment process, which is the purpose of workforce planning for
British Gas. It will help British Gas not only to employ the best suited person for the job but also to
have enough engineers to meet the estimated demand of customers.
2. Importance of workforce planning in achieving BGS’s aims
- As it is previously mentioned, Workforce planning is the process of assessing a company's current
and future labor needs. Therefore, this assessment must consider not just overall employee numbers
but also the skills that will be required within the business. Workforce planning also involves
managing any training and recruitment process to ensure the organization has the right staff in place
and the goals of British Gas are to deliver long-term profitability, operate with the right people to
deliver its overall business plan and to ensure efficient management of people in the business. Their
main aim is to be number one in the UK energy market and maintain the competitive position.
The workforce planning is conducted while having in mind the importance of the workforce to the
company. The process involves an evaluation of the quantity of workforce needed by the company to
meet future customer demand. Then, a job analysis is carried out, it refers to the 'process of collecting,
analyzing and setting out information about the content of the job that the new recruit are expected
to do. The information collected will be the basis for the job description which will be prepared to
set out essential information about the company and the duties involved such as, job title, location,
salary and duties. Then a person specification is prepared to outline the human attributes seen as
necessary to do the job such as a skilled engineer or relevant experience they have or qualification.
The above process sets out the profile of the people needed for the job and after that the human
resource department designs the application form which will be sent out for recruitment process.
The recruitment refers to the process of attracting suitable people to apply for the job. Once the
applications have been received, the company move on to a selection process, where the people will
be tested, monitored and questioned. This process is effective as it takes into account all the aspect of
the outlines the qualities required, giving the company the opportunity to attract only suitable people
and employs the most prospective ones and finally, it is cost effective and straightforward.
Workforce planning in helping British Gas achieving also helps recruiting potential engineers to
strengthen the workforce. Getting the right people in the right place is the feature of workforce
planning and as for the British Gas company their main tool for success is labor. Because labor
forces operate the company, retain customers and gain new ones and achieve profitability level. The
engineers act as a middle-man between the company and customers and they will customer loyalty
and attract new ones by acting politely and working skillfully.
3. The effectiveness of application, recruitment and selection processes.

- In any business, the recruitment and selection of employees is vital process, since the labor is one
of the four basic factors of production. Hiring the most appropriate people will help the business can
function effectively. Even if the process is time-consuming and expensive, it is necessary because it
will obtain the quantity and quality of employees required to fulfill the objectives of the organization.
For British Gas Company, the benefits of application, recruitment and selection process is the same as
above. First, application will help to attract a vast number of applicants' suitable for the vacant post.
As application forms are design containing information about the vacant post, it will attract the most
prospective people. This will reduce the cost of recruitment because this will provide details of the
people and time saving. For the applicants, application is a time saving option. They just need to fill
in all required information and submit it via post. The benefit of recruitment and selection process
for British Gas Company results in the appointment of the most suitable people to fill in the vacant
post. Recruitment is advantageous because it analyzes all aspect of the vacant post and provides a
person specification. This is beneficial that it will help the company to narrow down on the number of
applications received, easing the process of recruitment. The selection is the last stage in the process
where the most suitable people are chosen, are tested on various grounds. At this stage it helps the
company to make the final decision of who is the best for the job, based on the data received through
the various test provided to those. The benefit to the applicants from the recruitment and selection
process is the fact that the process helps them to understand what quality and ability they will have
to acquire or deliver to meet the requirement of the vacant post. From this process, they can decide
of going forward for the job or step out. Recruitment and selection process is beneficial to both the
company and the applicant in their own respective way. The process should be well planned and
carried out effectively so as to benefit from it.
4. Recruitment is the most important function within BGS
- Recruitment is a process of sourcing and screening people for a job at an organization. While
generalist managers or administrators can undertake some components of the recruitment process,
organizations often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to recruitment
agencies. External recruitment is the process of attracting employees from outside the organization
whereas internal recruitment is where internal labor is used for filling vacancies.
The recruitment function is an important function for British Gas, as their key element for their
business activity is labor force. It is essential for British Gas to use effective recruitment practices
so as to attract a large numbers of potential people for the vacant post, so that the company is able to
choose their suitable people from a large number of applicants. Or else, limited number of applicant
from which to choose can have an impact on performance at a later stage of the employment contract.
A successful and efficient workforce will results in customer satisfaction which is very critical for the
company's progress in this kind of competitive market, UK energy market. Moreover, with customer
satisfaction British Gas can gain customer loyalty and attract more customers. Also, this would lead to
an increase in revenue, an improve brand name and gain competitive advantage.
Moreover, recruitment process helps British Gas to maintain the company's strategy of implementing
a diversified workforce. The need to recruit a diverse engineering workforce is seen as critical by
the company. It plans recruitment to ensure it has a socially inclusive workforce. It is important as
it will enable the British Gas Company to reflect the diversity of its customer base. This is a good
step forward as employees from different nationalities and backgrounds can help to establish a good
relation between the company and customers who are from different backgrounds, as they will be
able to communicate with these customers who do not have English as their first language. Therefore
Recruitment process is a part of workforce planning process that is the most important in workforce
planning.