Corpra

Client: BP

PROJECT: IST FLEXIBLE WORKING

BUSINESS NEEDS:

BP’s IST division, which is the company’s trading function, was consolidating its City operations by relocating to Canary Wharf.  The division which employed 1,800 people was fast expanding and by the time of the relocation it was unlikely to be able to accommodate all their staff. Recruitment was also a factor as other trading markets began to recruit more staff and BP could not compete purely on financial packages offered to employees. The third driver was the need for the front office to climb the value chain and spend more time with clients in a consultative role.

CORPRA’S ROLE:

Corpra was asked to look at the opportunity for introducing new ways of working as a means to satisfying these three needs. Corpra interviewed the senior managers and operational managers to gain an insight into the business and its critical success factors. It was also a chance to measure the appetite for introducing new ways of working and the impact this would have on the division’s operations and any constraints on early adoption/implementation. Corpra also identified a number of cultural issues that would need to be taken into considerations if new ways of working were to be introduced successfully.

OUTCOMES:

Given the complexity of trading, its dependency on real time and connectivity, flexible working was not deemed to be an option for the main trading functions. However, there were a number of opportunities to introduce new ways of working in non-trading functions such as the Digital Business which was not dependent on real time and required less connectivity. The front office which was the customer interface was able to become more nomadic supported by roaming technology. Other support functions also had the potential to work more flexibly. It was agreed by the senior managers that flexible working could certainly be used to improve the staff proposition. Corpra identified that BP was using space capacity as a tool to limit departmental recruitment. Therefore flexible working could not be introduced until a control mechanism on recruitment was put in place.

CLIENT’S FEEDBACK:

"Thank you for your enthusiasm and energy in delivering the brief. You grasped IST remarkably well and your findings will set the scene for the business."