Centrica to cut 1,300 jobs as 90% of customers go digital

For HR professionals, Centrica’s latest restructuring is a textbook case of digitisation’s downstream impact on headcount. With call volumes down 20% year-on-year and a 14% reduction in customer operations staff planned, the numbers illustrate how swiftly a stable workforce can be hollowed out by technology—raising urgent questions about retraining, attrition management, and the employee value proposition in traditionally high-churn roles.

Centrica, the parent company of British Gas, has announced plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 1,300 roles over the next two years, as part of a broader transformation of its customer service and support operations. The move comprises 500 cuts already announced last month and an additional 800 roles now being targeted, representing a 14% reduction in the company’s customer operations headcount. The company frames the actions as a response to a fundamental shift in how customers interact with energy providers, with average phone calls falling by 20% year-on-year and around 90% of customers now using digital channels for support.

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The company frames the actions as a response to a fundamental shift in how customers interact with energy providers, with average phone calls falling by 20% year-on-year and around 90% of customers now using digital channels for support.

The cuts will fall heavily on contact-based roles, with around 500 positions in customer operations eliminated, plus additional reductions in offshore outsourced support. Group support functions will also be streamlined for greater efficiency. Notably, Centrica says it will use natural attrition—not replacing staff who leave or retire—to absorb a portion of the reductions, which softens the headline but still signals a significant downsizing of its traditional customer-facing workforce.

Chief Executive Chris O’Shea framed the overhaul not as retrenchment but as reallocation. He emphasized that the company is “creating an awful lot of jobs” and is growing, but must reflect changing customer behaviour. This aligns with Centrica’s multi-year transformation programme aimed at modernising operations and improving commercial performance. The scale of the digital shift is stark: a 20% drop in call volumes in just one year means a smaller, leaner support team can handle queries, provided digital self-service tools are effective.

From an operational perspective, the plan carries both risk and opportunity. Reducing human contact points might lower costs but could harm customer satisfaction if digital channels fail to resolve complex issues—especially for vulnerable customers who may still rely on phone support. Centrica appears to be betting that the trend is irreversible and that investing in automation and AI-driven chatbots will yield a sustainable competitive advantage. The 90% digital adoption rate cited by the company suggests the transition is already well-advanced, but the remaining 10% of customers—often elderly or digitally excluded—may find themselves underserved.

The job cuts come as the UK energy sector faces political pressure over high bills. The article also notes O’Shea’s welcome for the planned October 1 VAT cut on energy bills, which will save a typical household £45 a year, though he advocates for more targeted support in the long run. This context underscores that Centrica is operating in a delicate environment: it must show cost discipline to support margins while avoiding reputational backlash from public-facing layoffs.

For the wider industry, Centrica’s move may be a bellwether. Utility companies across Europe are digitising customer service, and similar headcount reductions are likely to follow as call volumes decline. The shift to smart meters, apps, and AI assistants is reducing the need for human intervention. However, this creates a societal challenge: the loss of relatively accessible, entry-level jobs in areas like contact centres, which could exacerbate regional employment disparities.