Related: British Gas
Case studies in Business Case Studies
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Edition 15 Workforce planning at British Gas
This case study explores how British Gas manages the recruitment and selection of new employees.
Roles, responsibilities and career development
A British Gas case study
Page 1: Introduction
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In the past, many people would expect to undertake the same job for the whole of their working lives. However, today it is widely recognised that individuals will be involved in a process of lifelong learning and career development throughout their working life. This may involve making changes to their chosen career path as well as taking on more responsibility.
British Gas is a British-owned...
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Page 2: Organisational structure
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Having the appropriate structure is vital for an organisation or business to meet its aims and objectives. A business may be structured by:
functions - activities such as customer service, marketing, operations, finance or IT
location - where regional divisions of the business take responsibility for a specific function or particular products, whether locally, nationally or...
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Page 3: Roles and responsibilities
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At operative level within British Gas there are hundreds of apprentice engineers taken on each year. It also offers many places through its graduate development programme. The apprentice role is often the point of entry to British Gas. An apprentice has an operational role and will therefore appear at the lower level of the British Gas hierarchy. Apprentices need a minimum of 4 GCSEs at grade C or...
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Page 4: Management
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Theorist Henri Fayol identified a good system to help managers work effectively. Fayol proposed that the five key functions of management are:
planning
organising
commanding
co-ordinating
controlling.
Within British Gas, each individual operates as a member of a team. The head of a team is a team manager who has a range of supervisory duties. These include monitoring the performance...
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Page 5: Developing skills
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In many cases an individual who started at British Gas as an apprentice, trainee or qualified engineer or electrician can advance to become a service manager. Career progression may eventually enable them to become a operational manager. Operational managers have more responsibilities than the service managers. As such, the operational managers are responsible for making strategic decisions.
To...
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Page 6: Conclusion
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British Gas is structured in a way that focuses its activities around its customers’ needs. The organisation has divided its operations into a range of business units each with employees at a variety of different levels.
Operatives focus on providing front-line skills and meeting the immediate needs of customers. They work as a member of a team and are supervised by a service manager to...
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