Capita

If you want a job where you are demoralised, desensitised and removed from life the capita is the place.

I would never recommend any one to work here who has a chance of advancement. My experience started three years ago where I reluctantly accepted a role there.  I had heard that they were not the best company to work for but took the role thinking this it may/could lead to something.  This is what was in th typical day.

- the minute you arrived at you desk you had to log in to time recorder which recorded everything you did, you even had to record personal time (toilet visits, making drinks) which incidently was supposed to be a maximum of 20 minutes a day.  I had a health scar when I was there which prompted the management to monitor me more vigilantly.

- at about 10am we would have a team huddle where we had to explain what our day would involve.

Negative and discouraging management 

- you did not have a personal life when you worked there. As far as the company were concerned you were paid badly, sat in a pod all day, had to account for every minute of the day. 

- every week you were taken to one side, by your team manager, where performance was discussed. Time recorder evidence was also produced which captured your activity and any dips in performance was discussed. Every thing was analysed which gave capita the reason not to pay you if they could.

- very little management encouragement.  You were demoralised right from the start. I made a mistake booking an appointment for a client to see an expert which resulted in it being referred to toxic invoicing and then I was awarded a departmental quality failure.

My mother passed away sadly when I was there.  Capita was initially supportive and the management where reasonably understanding.  However this worn thin with them and when I was reporting absent from work in order to arrange things, their patience ran out and I was informed that I needed to compromise with them.  I should have put in a greviance then with the company.  If you were poorly you would ring in to their absence line to which your manager would ring up to check up on you.  In this event of my mums passing, I told capita that they were not on my list of priorities and not to check up on me.  They did not contact me and needless to say because of their bullying nature at the time, I was signed off as sick.  I then resigned.

There is nothing good about this company and avoid like the plague!!!

Been doing the job of a remote disability assessor for the past 9 months and I must admit it is hard work and I needed to change the way I apply my nursing skills. Coming from a hospital background, I needed to learn to think differently but at the same time apply my clinical skills when doing assessments. Getting approval was hard and the 6 months it took to get it was anxiety inducing as I was also only working part time. But since I liked the job, I invested extra time studying and learning from their feedback on my days off and was able to pass probation by submitting 5 A grade reports. I see the role as an everyday learning opportunity but also find that although it can be stressful especially when speaking to patients, it is also rewarding especially if I am able to get enough information to support their claim. I don't think that the system is trying NOT to give the money but is actually trying their best to give the money to those who can give good information and evidence to support their claim. I find that the difficulties I encounter when assessing patients is, I am not able to get the information I need from them to write a good report so that the DWP can give the money. I find that even if I ask the right questions, I still don't get enough information to support the claim. I understand others who are giving 1 stars, the feedback from our reports can vary, but I believe that in order to succeed in this job, the person applying should look at long haul and is willing to invest time in studying and absorbing feedback on the first 9 months. When I started the job, I told myself, I will give myself 9 months to decide if I will like the job. So far so good. Also, I am able to finish my assessment and reports between 9 - 5. If I have 1 complaint, I do think that we should be paid for the prep time we spend before each call as I normally spend 30 minutes for each claimant (that's 1.5 hours a day) outside my working hours. I still won't leave the job (at the moment) as when I was working in the hospital, I was also staying there for an extra 1 hour each day to finish my work not including travel time. So, for work life balance, I still find this job better as I can work from home, do home activities during my break and able to spend time with my son when he comes home. I also got lucky that I had a supportive manager who understands when I need to take a day off when my son becomes sick. She doesn't micromanages me and leaves me alone as long as I stay on top of my reports and trainings. 

I did not enjoy my time here. I was in a role of outbound calls on behalf of another company. 
To start our training was only 3 weeks, fully remote. It was paid which was a plus, but for the first couple of weeks we weren’t trained on anything really. So our real training was crammed into one week. With very minimal training, we were thrown on calls and no one knew what they were doing. 
Over the next few months the pressure really began to pile on. The customers of a ‘cold calling’ role were really truly horrible, and no support was given to help this. Passive aggressive messages were always being sent, saying they were going to end people’s probations instead of offering any actual support.
Our training throughout the role was minimal, and consisted of someone reading off a work document. No call examples were played off successful sales calls, but ‘bad’ calls were played from unsuccessful calls. I didn’t like this as it felt as though tearing someone else down as an example felt wrong to me. 
We were not given much offline time away from calls. We weren’t able to use the toilet between calls, only on our breaks. So we were dialling all day with only an hour break away from the computer. 
Our rota was 10am-7pm or 11am-8pm but we were expected to still be calling at 6:59pm, meaning we would forever be on a call past finishing time, often ending our last call 7:30-8pm. This was given as time back the next working day so that is a positive. 
The call data was constantly being changed so some weeks it was near enough impossible to do any sales, with this comes pressure from higher ups. We were being listened to all shift ready for us to make a mistake to then be ridiculed for this. No recognition for the good calls and being pulled into meetings for bad ones.
Due to the data we became very burnt out from all the yelling off customers and pressure from above but we were still given nothing to help with this and just told we weren’t trying hard enough. 

The turnover rate was very high, people leaving all over, new starters which would then leave again. They’re weren’t many long standing members of staff as most people left quiet quickly. 
I’d been in sales near enough 6 years at this point and left sales all together to go back to retail due to how this job made me feel day in day out. 

Even though the pay was low the commission was good if you were on track for it.
 

Call buddy... where all incoming calls are monitored and your quarterly review is linked to your performance on call handling. If you do badly in your quarterly review, you don't receive a pay rise. Plot twist. Capita refuse to train you to effectively handle calls so you are doomed to fail and Capita pocket the cash. 

You only get a pay rise / bonus if you get a 2 up on your review. Only managers can get 1s so you'll never get that and to ensure we will never get a pay rise, Capita brought out a new grading and now it's virtually impossible to get a 2 either. 

Productivity tool kit: how management watch how often you go and drink cups of tea... and if your department, which is short staffed works hard to cover the ever increasing work load thus increasing productivity, somehow management think you can stand to loose someone to less a less productive dept? ??. Refusing to allow you to take time off to deal with sick kids even unpaid... you have to pay back the time to the great god of the productivity tool, even if that's impossible due to childcare constraints, but legally you are entitled to it.

Hiring of useless management staff. Back to work interviews performed in the middle of the office where personal medical information is discussed for all staff to hear. Feedback from interviews given publically. Staff positions not advertised yet suddenly a personal friend/family member in situ.

There is no chance for career development unless your face fits and you brown nose your way to the top. It is a place that lacks hope and is why the staff turn over is so high. Offers to improve it, scorned and ignored. It encourages a culture of bullying which the management avoid by not fully investigating and insinuating threats to sack members of staff who wish to pursue it further. 

It's depressing, despondent and dire. You are trapped Everyone is looking for other jobs and congratulate you on being lucky enough to escape.

I absolutely look back on my 6 years with capita fondly! I consider my colleagues there to be friends and overall had a great time. There were challenges within the team as there often are but I felt well supported by management. The culture of training and learning was great. It's a great place to work if you like working on continuous improvement schemes, sinking your teeth into new projects and problem solving recruitment issues. 

Progression opportunities within Recruiting Group  (Army Careers/Capita contract) are limited however, and the salaries are nowhere near competitive. Work was being done to increase the salaries of staff whilst I was there but there were several blockades to getting a pay increase, i.e. if you had promoted within the last 6 months, you were not entitled to a pay increase along with the rest of the company despite the fact you are doing more work and have more responsibilities. Appraisals also come with links to potential salary increases and so the budget for the year is really what dictates how many people can achieve an A grade, rather than whether you met the criteria for an A grade. The result was that, with limited spaces allocated for A grade employees, if there were lots of great employees (and there were) then those going above and beyond, working overtime, taking on extra projects, were given the same C grade as those who just turned up, did the bare minimum and went home.  This doesn't incentivise going the extra mile and actively discourages people from pushing themselves within the company. 

Overall I would say it's a company worth working for but definitely not for the money or benefits.

The previous review of the 1st of April I disagree with.  They refer to being good at the job if you have specific skills.  This is not a skilled job.  It is primarily about data gathering and time management.  The so called "skill" comes in from doing the assessments and reports in the least time possible.  There is a huge turnover of staff and those that are there for any length of time are those who have learned how to finish their reports in rapid time and have the afternoons off, with the new starters wondering - how is this done and is this ethical.  I would suggest for anyone thinking about going to this job, read the negative reviews as they are on the whole, accurate.  Do not resign from an NHS job to go here.  It is a stressful job, with long hours, an audit team who can be condescending and no job satisfaction.  They do break you in gently with fun training and you start with one assessment/report per day, but once you are up to three assessments/reports a day, that is when the pressure kicks in.  Assessments can easily be in excess of two hours especially with interpreters involved.  So if you have three assessments of two hours, you still have your three reports to write.  Additionally you have amendments from the audit team coming through, again more time.  Then you have "prep" to do which involves preparing for new assessments by reading medical reports etc.  Again, more time.  I know plenty of the new starters that were doing all hours to keep up, including weekends.  As mentioned, those that last the distance are those who can cut the corners.  I'm a conscientious health professional and just could no longer associate with this job.   

A typical day at work consisted of answering telephone enquiries to customer and solving their queries. Follow health and safety rules, use good house keeping at all times. 
As I was deployed to many departments over my employment I was trained on many different systems. Not given enough training then expected to answer calls.
Throughout my career at Capita I learned to have empathy, listen, solve, and relate to customers, making them feel that they were valued as people not just another voice at the end of the phone. To be a good team player and share best practice knowledge. To protect customers information by following data protection rules at all times. 
Management at Capitia are hit and miss, some have a click if your'er not in that your life can sometimes be unbearable. Although I have to say I have had managers that would do almost anything to help you.
Capitia is like any other business out to make money, no matter what. Read into this statement what you wish. 
The hardest part of the job is being chained to your seat and headset for your entire shift apart from breaks. Not having enough information training. Having to pass on queries that you were not able to deal with to other departments, therefore not getting job satisfaction as you would not know the outcome. 
A thankless job in most cases 
Going home, pay day, and the friends that you make. Without your mate the job would become almost unbearable.  
I would not recommend a friend to work there.

I have worked for capita for almost 2 years as a disability assessor and in my experience they are a fantastic place to work for and I have never fully understood the bad reviews they get. I think the reason this job gets bad reviews most of the time is because it is a hard job which you need specific skills to get good and competent at! The training is excellent and thorough, and you have constant access to support. I have the best manager who is understanding, approachable and friendly. I work within a great team of people who all support and uplift one another. You need to have good typing and writing skills for this job, you need to be able to manage change and implement that change in your work, you need to have good assessment skills and be personable and friendly so you can give users a fair and comfortable assessment, and you need to be able to meet targets which is really easy when you have the skills mentioned and know what you are doing. Capita are promoters of mental health and are supportive of those who are neurodivergent also which is something I have never seen in a work place before. So yes you will struggle if you don’t have the right skills but if you do, you will excel in this job role and find it a happy place to be. This is a job that is harder at the beginning whilst you are learning a new way of working but soon becomes second nature and highly rewarding 

The hardest part of the DA role is after the initial training and you're in the job for the first 6-9 months, you do spend extra time outside of the 9-5 learning the ropes, reading up, amending your work, referring to resources and seeking guidance and support. But you're learning a new job, why wouldn't you need to put in the hard work? you need to be flexible and accommodating in the beginning as you are learning new skills, new knowledge and the policies and protocols that surround a very complex service, and it does take time for some people to grasp, myself included, but I worked hard, put in the hours and now I have a job that I can do well, I most definitely finish within my 9-5, I have an excellent manager who is a great communicator and willing to be very flexible. The company provides as much support and coaching as you need, and I availed of plenty along the way. It doesn't suit some people because it is very different to hands on clinical practice but it does suit others and enables a flexible work-life balance especially for those with family commitments. I would definitely recommend Capita as a company but the actual job role itself may not be for everyone.

I'd say as my first proper call center job it was good as it was from the comfort of my own home, I worked on the plusnet contract as a tech advisor which was great, the wait between calls was reasonable and there was plenty of help from colleagues to answer questions most of the time. 

We moved over to the EE contract and it went downhill from there. All managers transitioned with their teams which made them unqualified for the role, we were told it isn't a sales role but we were non stop bombarded with sales techniques and promoting on every call, even if the customer didn't benefit. There was not enough support from managers. i had 2 managers who were always in meetings and did not find time to interact with their teams which was fine for me as an introvert but I imagine someone who is outgoing would appreciate the time together as a team. The systems for EE were terriby slow and buggy, would take at least 30 seconds of waiting between clicks and this was never fixed, paired with the kind of customers we had (Pay as you go) were not the most understanding and we would receive abuse all the time.  At least payday was always on time but the bonuses were unreachable. How are you going to sell to someone who has no money? Kind of silly.

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