Employee Retention up 20% for Shell Energy

• Improved customer
  experience
• Staff retention
  increased by 20%
• Recruitment and training costs
  reduced

The problem

During its rapid growth and with large numbers of call centre staff, a key challenge for First Utility (rebranded to Shell Energy) was employee retention. Staff turnover was resulting in high recruitment and training costs, as well as making it harder to deliver an excellent customer experience.

The solution

Following Shell Energy’s employee survey and based on our Say, Stay and Strive engagement model, we grouped employees into four quadrants:

• Fully Engaged
• Key Contributors
• Unengaged
• Highly Disengaged

By linking this to actual leaver data, we quantified the likelihood of a Fully Engaged employee leaving, compared to a Highly Disengaged colleague. A major benefit was this enabled Shell Energy to model and forecast actual staff turnover levels, by division, based on its WorkBuzz employee engagement survey results. Through regular pulse surveys, it could then track and improve this leading indicator.

Secondly, our algorithms pinpointed what factors contributed to staff turnover the most, helping leaders to focus on those critical areas, rather than simply their lowest scoring questions. Managers were then encouraged to design actions, in consultation with their team, in these areas.

The outcome

John Wrighthouse
Chief People Officer