Not many people realise this, even those who work there, but Capita is fundamentally a group of about 100 small to medium businesses trading under the Capita brand, ran by a group of Accountants at the top level. Some of those businesses are forced to adopt the Logo some manage to avoid the honour. These 100 businesses are all controlled by layers and layers of bureaucracy, with individual business Units, Towers and Divisions, all with management structures and governance rules and regulations which make it very hard to get things done.
They are aware of the fact that they are one of the most promising businesses in the country if they could just get their act together but they just cant seem to work it out. What tends to happen is that management layers will change on a regular basis due to the fact that profits aren’t going up fast enough. The management layers then have political battles or ‘land grabs’ to increase their Empires / chances of success by pulling in profitable business units which creates constant restructures and redundancies. Due to the fact the management layers are constantly changing the restructures never stop, which means that people are constantly at risk. You are most at risk in December, just in time to ruin your Xmas or June, to spoil the summer holidays, which means that people approach the holidays with serious trepidation.
People who are good at their jobs generally leave after the 1st or 2nd round of redundancies, which normally happens around 12 months after an initial acquisition. People who come in and are good at their jobs can quickly get overwhelmed with work because people with high levels of motivation are in short supply 'for obvious reasons'. If you are extremely motivated and driven Capita could be the perfect fit for you to develop your skills and climb the ladder as they recognise and promote talent, the issue is the environment created by everything else that’s going on around you and how long you can cope with it.
Not all business units within Capita are like this, I have been told that some are good places to work and some people who left while I was there did come back but to other roles.
If you are a truly talented sales person Capita will look after you very well and pay you well, but the support you will get from others in the business ‘for obvious reasons’ will make it very challenging to succeed.
These is an honest assessment of my 5-6 years at Capita.
