HUMAN CAPITAL ADVISOR BRIEFING · ISSUE 7 · JULY 2026
A monthly briefing for consultants and transformation advisers on what's happening in your clients' sectors, plus the Human Capital Intelligence to take into the room. Built on Deltabase data covering 5,500+ companies and 11M employee reviews.
Editor's note
Half-year results season put workforce change at the centre of Energy & Utilities. Centrica deepened its retail job cuts, BP proposed new reductions under a new chief executive, and Shell reported more progress on structural costs. Each client is at a different stage of transformation, and our culture data shows they are carrying very different levels of employee goodwill into the second half.
Phil Spratt, CEO & Co-Founder, Deltabase
The month in three
1. Centrica deepens its retail job cuts
What happened: On 23 July, Centrica reported first-half pretax profit of £672m, against a £43m loss a year earlier, while adjusted EBITDA fell 18% to £737m. In its retail business, including British Gas, it is cutting 1,300 jobs, 800 more than first planned and 14% of the customer operations workforce.
The Deltabase lens: Centrica enters this round with improving sentiment. Its Employee NSS rose from +3.7% in 2024 to +10.0% in 2025.
Client angle: Protecting recent culture gains through a larger restructure is a specific, winnable brief. Lead with the data that shows what is at stake.
2. BP proposes 700 non-frontline cuts
What happened: Reuters reported on 30 July that BP plans to cut about 700 non-frontline roles, roughly 8% of the 8,500 such roles in its production and operations business. BP confirmed role reductions are being proposed. The changes follow a restructure under CEO Meg O'Neill, who took over in April, cutting BP's segments from three to two.
The Deltabase lens: BP's Employee NSS fell from +10.5% in 2024 to +5.5% in 2025, and Supportive Leadership fell 15.5 pts to −28.8%.
Client angle: A new leadership team restructuring an organisation where leadership sentiment is already falling needs support on communication and manager capability, not just on design.
3. Shell keeps cutting structural costs
What happened: Shell's second-quarter results on 30 July showed adjusted earnings of $9.8bn and cash flow from operations of $21.4bn, with a further $3bn share buyback. Structural cost reductions now total $5.8bn since 2022, including about $700m in the first half of 2026.
The Deltabase lens: Shell's sentiment improved through its cost programme, from +17.0% to +18.1% in 2025. Purpose rose 18.9 pts to −50.9% and Agility & Bureaucracy rose 16.1 pts to −66.7%.
Client angle: Long-running cost programmes do not have to erode culture. Shell is a useful outside-in reference point when clients assume they must.
Stat of the month
+18.3 pts: National Grid's 2025 improvement in Employee NSS, to +27.5%, the largest among nine Energy & Utilities Top 100 companies. The sector median edged down from +10.5% to +10.0%.
| Company | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|
| National Grid | +9.2% | +27.5% | +18.3 pts |
| Shell | +17.0% | +18.1% | +1.1 pts |
| Centrica | +3.7% | +10.0% | +6.2 pts |
| NextEra Energy | −5.9% | +3.2% | +9.1 pts |
| BP | +10.5% | +5.5% | −5.0 pts |
| Southern Company | +15.3% | +2.6% | −12.7 pts |
Source: Deltabase Culture data, Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2024–2025. Sector median across BP, Centrica, Chevron, Duke Energy, ExxonMobil, National Grid, NextEra Energy, Shell and Southern Company (Energy & Utilities Top 100 companies with 100+ reviews in each year).
Spotlight: BP vs Shell
Shell widened its lead over BP in 2025, rising from +17.0% to +18.1% while BP fell from +10.5% to +5.5%. Leadership is where they diverge most: Supportive Leadership improved at Shell to −8.9% but fell 15.5 pts at BP to −28.8%. Both improved on Agility & Bureaucracy, and BP's Empowered score jumped 31.8 pts to −7.7%, well ahead of Shell's −33.3%. Shell leads on Work-Life Balance, at +36.3% against +28.0%. BP's mix of rising empowerment and falling leadership support shows where its restructure will need most help.
For your client work
- When a utility client announces customer-operations cuts, benchmark against peers that improved in 2025, such as Centrica and National Grid.
- During leadership transitions, put Supportive Leadership at the centre of the change plan and track it through each phase.
- Use topic-level evidence to show sceptical boards that cost programmes and culture gains can coexist.
Walk into every pitch with the people data already in hand. Advisers use Deltabase to benchmark culture, talent and workforce trends for any client or target in minutes. See how it works →
Sources: AJ Bell (23 July 2026); Global Banking & Finance Review / Reuters (30 July 2026); Energy-pedia (30 July 2026); Deltabase Culture data.