British Gas

As one of the UK’s leading gas suppliers, part of the British Gas vision is a commitment to delivering the highest quality services and expertise. This is achieved on a daily basis by its army of engineers based in five regional centres.

Customer care is at the heart of service centre operations. Any staff absence within the service division impacts directly on customer service levels, causing last minute changes to scheduled service appointment times. In the past, the attendance management reporting system had weaknesses that affected the accuracy and consistency of the data it produced.

In tandem with an organisational restructure, British Gas was keen to improve its attendance management. Having heard FirstCare discussing the issue of employee absence on national television, British Gas investigated outsourcing its attendance management to a specialist. Following a competitive pitch, FirstCare was appointed to implement a six-month pilot scheme at the British Gas Stockport service centre during 2006/2007. Following its success, FirstCare’s Attendance Management system was rolled out to all remaining UK British Gas service centres between 1 January and 29 February 2008. FirstCare now manages attendance issues in all five British Gas service centre sites, for over 6,900 service engineers, (compared to the trial figure of 1,764). By the end of June 2008, the service will be extended to all office staff, taking this total to over 9,000 staff.

Outcome:

• Reduced absence levels ensure customers experience fewer cancelled or re-scheduled appointments
• Early absence reporting enables British Gas to plan and schedule more effectively in relation to staff absence and their return to work
• FirstCare’s flexible approach suits British Gas’s workforce and culture
• FirstCare’s real-time reporting and analysis enables British Gas managers to become much closer to attendance issues and address problems early on
• The service reduces the administrative burden on managers
• Customers enjoy greater flexibility in relation to appointment times
• An organisational restructure coincided with the introduction of FirstCare’s service; together they have contributed to an improvement in the delivery of customer service KPIs
• Combined with restructure outcomes, the Stockport centre went from having the highest absence levels in the country to the lowest over the trial period
• Absence reduction can be equated to a saving of approximately one day of time, per engineer over 18 months

“We are impressed with the bespoke service that FirstCare has created for us. It continuously evolves to suit our needs.”