Search results

UK conglomerate Centrica has successfully recruited carers, long‐term unemployed, lone parents and people with disabilities to contact‐center jobs – and tackled assumptions and prejudices head on. Centrica touches the lives of millions of Britons through its well‐known consumer brands such as British Gas, Scottish Gas and the Automobile Association. Its business success depends on being able to understand the changing needs and expectations of its customers.

Tessa McLoughlin, HR business partner at Centrica Energy, explains how, with the help of DDI, Centrica gave its employees and managers the skills and tools they needed to make sense of the people development structures and mechanisms that were in place in the organization, resulting in new and efficient learning and development culture.

This article outlines how Centrica, with a workforce of 40,000 people, approached a project to build a technical competence framework for the managers of Centrica’s group financial operation in 2001. Development took six months and 600 employees were involved. As well as John Matchett Limited which provided the system, consultants Moloney and Gealy were used in the later stage of development to refine the competence headings, descriptors and language into its present form. At first there were problems with the online systems but Centrica’s IT systems were modified and the problems were overcome. The system is constantly being improved, particularly in the links to learning and development opportunities, and the use of technical competences will be strengthened in initial recruitment to group finance vacancies. The whole competency concept has taken off at Centrica and, taking their lead from group finance, the marketing, legal and HR functions are all putting their own frameworks in place.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the policies that helped Centrica, the international integrated energy organization, to win last year's AARP International Innovative Employer award for non‐US‐based employers who demonstrate practices to help employees aged 50 or over.

The paper outlines initiatives in the areas of recruitment, internal communications, employee development, flexible working and health promotion and protection.

The paper reveals that some 36 percent of Centrica employees are over the age of 40, around 15 percent of the company's graduate intake is made up of mature students, and the removal of the upper age limits for entrance to British Gas apprenticeship schemes has resulted in 30 percent of the apprentice intake being over the age of 24. Details the case of a 57‐year‐old man who, made redundant after 45 years as an engineering manager in the shipping industry, retrained as a British Gas engineer at the age of 59.

The paper highlights how Centrica's business case for diversity is built on two principles: the recognition that valuing diversity is the right thing to do for any organization; and the commercial recognition that it makes good business sense.

The paper contends that the impact of changing demographics and social and technological change makes good diversity management and the creation of an inclusive organization an increasingly important part of sustainable business success.

Changes to employees’ terms and conditions must be handled sensitively. Marc Bishop, head of reward and recognition, explains how feedback and communication helped Centrica successfully harmonize its reward offering.

The demerger of British Gas in 1996 was one of the largest restructurings in UK corporate history. This paper focuses on the internal communications challenges of the demerger, including the objectives, strategies and results. It is written from the perspective of an ‘insider’ because the author was a member of the executive team of British Gas, responsible for the external and internal communication in the run‐up to the demerger.

This article aims to draw parallels between literature discussing the benefits of management consultancy and three different role types adopted by consultants to provide an effective training intervention.

Using three case studies, it highlights the way each consulting model has been enacted by 20|20 to support its clients, all of whom are multinational businesses who invest a significant proportion of their annual budgets on industrial training.

The relationship between a consultant training provider and client is critical to the success of any training intervention. Linked to this is an appreciation of the cultural differences to be found within any single client organisation. For some organisations, this difference begins with the way training itself is defined, and even whether it is a part of the wider organisational identity and communications vocabulary.

As this article illustrates, the provision of industrial training is so much more than the ostensibly “tickbox” exercise of simply imparting functional knowledge through a standard set of courseware. Successful training interventions require a cultural approach to be taken in order to achieve their full potential.

Karen is a performance management consultant, trainer, facilitator and coach. Karen has worked in a variety of training, development and leadership roles for over twenty years; including eight years as managing director of PeopleSolve Ltd and 12 years as training, development and culture change manager with the Centrica group. Karen is Chairman of the British Institute for Learning and Development, a non‐executive director of the University of Chichester, and a director of Creative Leaders.

This briefing is prepared by an independent interviewer.

In this interview, Karen Velasco talks about her professional background before being appointed Chairman of the British Institute for Learning and Development (BILD), highlights the vision of the BILD, and gives her thoughts on the new developments occurring within the field of learning and development.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

Learning and development departments constantly have to change their priorities to fit with the changing economic climate. Drawing on her professional experience, Karen Velasco offers advice and guidance to L&D professionals on how to remain competitive in new markets, whilst still addressing the needs of their employees.