British Petroleum Case Study: Home Working & Talent Management

This case study examines the challenges of home working on talent management within British Petroleum (BP). It aims to analyze these challenges, evaluate the importance of talent management in the company, investigate the specific challenges employees face while working from home, and recommend ways to make home working more effective. The study acknowledges the benefits of remote work, such as geographic flexibility and improved work-life balance, but also addresses issues like communication difficulties and decreased socialization. It considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote work, referencing literature on talent management strategies, performance management practices, and the advantages and disadvantages of working from home. The research methodology includes resources, cost considerations, a Gantt chart, a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and a risk register to manage potential issues like financial risk, delays, economic risks, communication problems, and data security. Ethical considerations are also addressed to ensure the research is conducted responsibly. Desklib provides students access to similar case studies and resources.

UNIT 6
MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT - TASK 1
Title: Home Working a Challenge in Talent
Management: A Case Study of British
Petroleum
Student number:
Date:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Explanation of the proposed research topic and why chosen it...................................4
2. Aim and Objectives......................................................................................................4
3. Scope and limitations...................................................................................................5
4. Resources and cost considerations...............................................................................7
5. Gantt Chart, WBS .......................................................................................................7
6. Risk Register................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................10

1. Explanation of the proposed research topic and why chosen it.
The research topic which is being chosen is “Home Working a Challenge in Talent
Management: A Case Study of British Petroleum, Canary Wharf. With the help of this
research topic, it will be analysed that what are the challenges which the employees of
British Petroleum are facing during the home working. British Petroleum is a
multinational company dealing in offering oil and gases to customers at different places
for achieving its objective (London, 2021)
This topic is chosen so that the basis of home working challenge in talent
management within the British Petroleum can be known regarding the employees
performance. For the purposes of this proposal home work is defined as understanding
the talent management that are faced by company while operating its function (Dan and
et.al., 2021). Talent management can be explained as process of managing high skilled
employees in the firm so that all tasks can be successfully completed.
BP has two sites in London such as Canary Wharf and Headquarters in St james
Square and each of the sites is maintained with safety and play important role in shaping
the future of BP. It has contributed to UK economy in 2019, around £9.7 billion,
generated job opportunities of around 90100 and £7.1 billion spent with suppliers.
Furthermore, BP has purchased around 800 suppliers of capital good and services to
increase by 240% in west Midlands (bp’s impact on the UK economy in 2019, 2021).
2. Aim and Objectives
Aim – To analyze Home Working a Challenge in Talent Management: A Case Study of
British Petroleum.
Objectives –
 To evaluate importance of talent management in the company.
 To investigate the challenges in home working for the employees of the company.
 To recommend the ways to make home working effective for employees within
British Petroleum as part of challenge management.

3. Scope and limitations
Scope –The scope of this research project is that the activities and tasks are defined in the
project to frame valuable and precise information which is required within this project
research. The main aim of the research is to analyze home working challenges in talent
management at a British petroleum company in Washington (Abdilahi and et.al., 2020).
This helps in creating the framework for which all the aspects are being analysed and
through this the main aim is being framed which helps in knowing what the home
working challenges are being faced by the talent management of the company.
Limitations –There are certain limitations in the study which are being measured and
this helps in ensuring the various aspects through which they can be analysed –
 The research does not imply the whole study to be effective enough as most of the
parts and aspects are not explained (Hughes and et.al., 2019).
 The research entirely is based on what can be the challenges which are being
faced by a in Washington rather than the phases due to which the challenges have
occurredand may not be representative of the whole company (Collings, Mellahi
and Cascio, 2019).
Literature Review -
Working from Home
According to (Our Work-from-Anywhere Future, 2020), Work from Home is the
model which has offered various benefits to employees and the companies. Workers get
the geographic flexibility, balancing of the work/life better and eliminating commutes.
But apart from this, there are various issues which have been arising such as
communication is being affected, less socializing etc. Covid 19 crises has led to Work
from Home which has helped in overcoming the challenges has avoided the negative
outcomes within the performance of the employees within an organization. This has also
engaged in more working while travelling and has increased the performance by working
flexibly.
As per (Employees working from home, 2020), There are various advantages and
disadvantages of Work from Home among which some are explained as — Advantages

of WFH - Increase in productivity, Financial benefits, Employee retention has been
improved, Technology is made easier to work with, Convenient working, Less need of
holidays, Motivation of staff has been increased. Disadvantages of WFH are —
Distractions within home, Monitoring of performance is difficult, Problems increase
while development of the staff, mental health is being affected negatively, poor speed of
networks, decrease in the staff morale. Therefore, it is suggested that hybrid working
should be turned on which will enable the employees working both from home and
office.
Talent management
From the view of (Talent management in a post-COVID climate, 2021), investing
in future is one of the strategy that has been used by the company such as they have
invested maximum amount of capital in training and developing skills, knowledge of
employees. Provide them opportunities to learn new things or career development
opportunities that has motivated talented employees to work within the organization.
With context of covid-19, manager has conducted successful talent management through
regular check employees, excessive working hour and sign of burnout. Furthermore, with
covid-19 manager should be sensitive with people need and make efforts to understand
what all challenges that are face by them. Such as provided flexible work arrangement so
that they can easily meet their personal commitment therefore for talent management
employees well-being will be main area of focus for manager of company.
Performance Management
According to (Working remotely: Continuous performance management
strategies to support your employees, 2020), Performance management is scaled up as
effective strategy for the WFH model. And this has accompanied the employees in
performing better. According to the research, 32% of the employees in UK are working
remotely which means that they cannot switch off their personal time. And in the same
research it showed that 18% of the individuals are under surveillance and some 17% of
the individuals have complained about their sleeping disorders. But with good
performance management practices, it can be evaluated that working from home has been
the best practice by far and has helped in increasing the employee morale and
productivity at large scale.

As per (Working remotely: Continuous performance management strategies to
support your employees, 2020), there are various performance management practices
which have been addressed below showing that how employees can increase their
performance within company or organization. The practices are — setting of clear
objectives and goals, providing regular feedbacks, having regular conversations. With the
help of these effective performance management practices, there are ways which helps in
assessing how employees can evaluate and improve their performance by Working from
Home during this Covid 19 crises. Therefore, ensuring that performance management
practices are scaled up higher within organization for employees Working from Home.
4. Resources and cost considerations
Resources –The resources include the time to design and test the questionnaire which
helps in collecting the data for which the research is being prepared and done (Vaiman,
Collings and Scullion, 2017). Important information will be analysed through which the
resources are considered important and through this the main thing which is being
considered is the aspects through which the purpose of the collected resources are being
framed (Dzimbiri and Molefi, 2021). Time is the key issues and shown in the Gantt chart
below
Cost Considerations –In deciding failure and success of the project, cost consideration is
an important element which is being analysed within the research to be made successful.
Cost Consideration is required by the (de Visser and et.al., 2020). This cost structure
helps in making benefits for the company at large scale and initiate the cost factors.
5. Gantt Chart, WBS
Gantt Chart
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Topic Selection 2 days Thu 07-10-21 Fri 08-10-21
Aims and Objectives 3 days Mon 11-10-21 Wed 13-10-21 1
Research Proposal 2 days Thu 14-10-21 Fri 15-10-21 2
Literature Review 5 days Mon 18-10-21 Fri 22-10-21 3

Research Methodology 3 days Mon 25-10-21 Wed 27-10-21 4
Questionnaire Preparation 3 days Thu 28-10-21 Mon 01-11-21 5
Collecting data 7 days Tue 02-11-21 Wed 10-11-21 6
Data Analysis 9 days Thu 11-11-21 Tue 23-11-21 7
Conclusion and
Recommendation 8 days Wed 24-11-21 Fri 03-12-21 8
Final Report 2 days Mon 06-12-21 Tue 07-12-21 9
Work Breakdown Structure –
6. Risk Register

Type of Risk Size of Risk
(High to low)
Planned Mitigation
Measures
Residual Risk
1. Financial risk 2 Manage the finance. Company have to
suffer from less
financial loss.
2.Delay in
completion of
research
1 Starting the research
on time.
Milestone not
achieved
3. Economic Risk 5 Economic risk can be
avoided through
monitoring actual
condition of market,
overall GDP and
employment in
economy. (Whysall,
Owtram, and Brittain,
2019).
Decrease in number
of sales volume of
customers may be
residual risk.
4.Ineffective
communication
3 Communicating
effectively and
significantly.
Improper sharing of
information.
5.Data security risk 4 Protection of data. Data privacy issues.
REFERENCES
Books and journals
Abdilahi, S.M. and et.al., 2020. Exploring the extent to which project scope management
processes influence the implementation of telecommunication projects. PM
World Journal.IX.pp.1-17.
Cuesta, E.P., 2019. Formulation and Justification of the topic chosen. Improving
University Science Teaching and Learning.p.127.

Dan, S and et.al., 2021. Attracting, Developing and Retaining Digital Talent: Empirical
Evidence. In Digital Talent Management (pp. 47-60). Palgrave Macmillan,
Cham.
de Visser, S.J. and et.al., 2020. Integrating scientific considerations into R&D project
valuation. Nature biotechnology.38(1).pp.14-18.
Dzimbiri, G. L. and Molefi, A., 2021. The impact of talent management on job
satisfaction of registered nurses in Malawian public hospitals. SA Journal of
Human Resource Management, 19, p.9.
Hughes, L. and et.al., 2019. Blockchain research, practice and policy: Applications,
benefits, limitations, emerging research themes and research
agenda. International Journal of Information Management.49.pp.114-129.
Ganaie, M.U. and Haque, M.I., 2017. Talent management and value creation: A
conceptual framework. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 16(2), pp.1-
9.
Alziari, L., 2017. A chief HR officer’s perspective on talent management. Journal of
Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance.
Whysall, Z., Owtram, M. and Brittain, S., 2019. The new talent management challenges
of Industry 4.0. Journal of Management Development.
Collings, D. G., Mellahi, K. and Cascio, W. F., 2019. Global talent management and
performance in multinational enterprises: A multilevel perspective. Journal of
management, 45(2). pp.540-566.
Vaiman, V., Collings, D. G. and Scullion, H., 2017. Contextualising talent
management. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance.
Online
Our Work-from-Anywhere Future, 2020 [Online]. Available through:
<https://hbr.org/2020/11/our-work-from-anywhere-future>
Employees working from home, 2020 [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-
employees-working-home>.
Working remotely: Continuous performance management strategies to support your
employees, 2020 [Online]. Available through:

<https://www.clearreview.com/working-remotely-continuous-performance-
management/>
Cherry Point Refinery, 2021, [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.bp.com/en_us/united-states/home/where-we-operate/washingto
n/cherry-point-refinery.html>.
bp’s impact on the UK economy in 2019, 2021, [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.bp.com/en_gb/united-kingdom/home/who-we-are/bps-impact-
on-the-uk-economy.html>.
Talent management in a post-COVID climate, 2021, [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.hrdconnect.com/2021/02/11/talent-management-in-a-
post-covid-climate/>.

Annex 1. Ethical issues approval form
It is very important that your research is carried out in an ethically acceptable manner. Please
indicate how you will be addressing relevant ethical issues concerning your research. If you
tick No for any of the questions, please provide an explanation of how you intend to address
this issue at the bottom of the table.
Yes No N/A
The research
participants
The research will not involve children under 18 or adults with
known health, mental or social problems
The research will not cause physical or psychological harm to
any participant or other person

The research will not involve any payment, gift or
inducement being given to anyone

The research will not involve any actual or potential conflict
of interest

The research will not involve withholding relevant
information or misleading participants

The research will not give rise to any potential risk of harm
or distress to myself

The research
process
I have already obtained permission from a responsible
individual in the chosen organisation in order to carry out my
primary research there and/or to use other data and facilities


in connection with my research1
I will seek and obtain written informed consent from all
participants before conducting interviews or focus groups

I will provide adequate information for participants in a
questionnaire survey so that they can make an informed
decision whether or not to participate

I will ensure participant data, including recordings, is treated
confidentially and stored securely during the research
project and is destroyed once my final module result has
been confirmed

I will preserve the anonymity of, and information about,
informants unless they give their express permission in
advance

I will not name any individuals in my project(s) where this
may potentially cause them harm or problems

I will respect the right of participants to withdraw their co-
operation without notice or reason at any stage

Use and publication
The findings from my research will be used solely for the
purposes of the project(s) on this module and will not be
used for any other purpose without the written approval of
DGHE and the organisation which is the subject of the
research

I will not publish my final research or use data collected
during the research project without first gaining the written
consent of DGHE and the organisation where the primary
research was conducted

Honesty and
integrity
I will act at all times honestly and in such a way as not to 
1
?

reflect discredit on the college, its staff or students; and not
to cause distress, embarrassment or unpleasantness to any
party whether before, during or following contact with them
I will not make up my results: all my data will be collected by
me and be presented honestly

I will cite sources correctly and not plagiarise other authors’
work

Signature of Applicant:GEORGIANA MARIANA PREDA
Full Name of Applicant: GEORGIANA MARIANA PREDA
Student ID number:01012780
APPENDIX TWO
EMAIL FROM MANAGER APPROVING RESEARCH
Manager
Sir,
Subject: Approval of research related to talent management.
I have received your request related to approval of research pertaining to talent
management. So, it is notified to you that you have been granted approval to pursue
research related to talent management of our company. Furthermore, if you required any
type of help and support so it will be provided to make research successful.
Thanks and regards
APPENDIX THREE
Record of Supervisor Meetings
There are several meeting held to gathered sufficient information pertaining to
challenges context of talent management face by British Petroleum. Following is their
record:

Such as
 Why is talent management important for company
 What strategies are used by firm to retained talented employees
 Feedback of employees related to effectiveness of talent management is recorded.
Meeting One – 20.10.2021
Meeting one has been held on 20 October 2021.
What was discussed?
Challenges related to talent management that are face by British Petroleum of
Washington has been discussed in the above research. Furthermore, in the meeting it was
discussed related to way research will be made, what all resources will be required, roles
and responsibilities of each and every individual in the research. So that there is no
confusion, at the same time it has discussed ethical and moral principles that researcher
has to follow while conducting research.
What was agreed?
It was agreed to focus on different strategies such as providing good wages to
employees, better work environment in order to retained highly talented employees
within the firm. It was also agreed to visit the library and update the work to include all
necessary and relevant information related to the study. Moreover, set has been taken to
run a grammarly check to edit the work so that there is less mistake in the work.
What I did?
Gathered information pertaining to talent management through making use of
secondary resources such as books, journals and articles. At the same time, complete the
draft so that it can be review in the next meeting likewise, The draft for two meeting is
being completed for effective completion of the study related to challenges of talent
management face by British petroleum.