Capita Consulting ditching more than a quarter of its workforce 45 days after consultations with consultants

It has been a bad week for the UK jobs market and Capita has just added to the unemployment stats by ditching more than a quarter of its Consulting division, sources close to the company have told The Register. The Consulting business was officially launched in mid-December but we believe Capita began filing its ranks from …

[macjules]

Did they ever need those numbers?

Given that they only started the consultancy recently was there ever actually a need for that number of staff, or was this typical Capita behaviour, i.e. be like the Civil Service and build the roof before the foundations have been laid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Did they ever need those numbers?

The consulting business was basically a merger of existing consulting organisations Capita acquired. Technically Capita has been in this market for a while (doing quite nicely). The formal lauch of a consulting organisation was in January, but a lot of the people in it have been in the business for decades (the business of consulting, not Capita). Not that this really matters anymore.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not that this really matters anymore.

Knowing whether they have a tendency to mismanagement or not would be of value to future employees and customers.

[Arthur the cat]

What do you call Capita shrinking by 25%?

A good start.

[dave 81]

Re: What do you call Capita shrinking by 25%?

If only it was across the whole of crapita. And even then, no enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What do you call Capita shrinking by 25%?

I find it hilarious when people lose their jobs too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What do you call Capita shrinking by 25%?

nononono, you got it all wrong again, it's a BIG OPPORTUNITY for them, and by letting them go, they've been allowed to demonstrate their full potential in creative and targeted job-seeking skills. Moreover, I'm positive Capita will be not just happy, but EXCITED to work with them in the future, by offering market-competitive rates and employment conditions that reflect the currently dynamic labour market environment situation circumstances.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What do you call Capita shrinking by 25%?

"I find it hilarious when people lose their jobs too".

They're (ex) management consultants, so their role was to recommend sacking other, productive people.

[Snorlax]

Re: What do you call Capita shrinking by 25%?

I find it hilarious when people lose their jobs too.

I think the irony is lost on you...

[Anonymous Coward]

AIrcrew redundancies willbe far higher than reported so far

As well as the UK airlines we have a significant number of UK nationals working in the Middle East at Emirates, Etihad and Qatar all having large number of UK nationals on staff. These peoples visas are linked to their jobs so they will lose residency rights and need to return to the UK.

Unfortunately my own daughter has been caught up with this and will be returning to the UK shortly after 6 years in the Middle East, with a far lower than expected termination package, no recourse to public funds when she returns and little hope of obtaining employment in the near future.

[Snorlax]

Re: AIrcrew redundancies willbe far higher than reported so far

... no recourse to public funds when she returns

And rightly so.

Sorry to hear about your daughter’s unemployment by the way.

[eionmac]

Re: AIrcrew redundancies willbe far higher than reported so far

Sorry about your daughter's problem. It will be tough for her due to much smaller job opportunity now any where in world.

However I was told when starting as an Ex Pat, "Put aside at least 30% of gross salary/remuneration against day you are 'persona non grata' or firm cuts staff or business". A number of my colleagues did the same, we did not live up to 'spending ex pats' style.

Also some invested this in homes (houses) in UK as ultimate bolt holes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: AIrcrew redundancies willbe far higher than reported so far

will be returning to the UK shortly after 6 years in the Middle East, with a far lower than expected termination package, no recourse to public funds

Pay no tax offshore for 6 years, and expect the taxpayer to support you? Hmm.

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Re: AIrcrew redundancies willbe far higher than reported so far

To be fair, the OP acknowledged that lack of access to public funds, I didn't read the comment as a complaint per se, more of a 'challenging times ahead for <reasons>' kind of thing.

ymmv of course.

[sniperpaddy]

Re: AIrcrew redundancies willbe far higher than reported so far

Plenty of jobs available for vegetable picking, now that the damn foreigners are kept out.

[Blofeld's Cat]

Er ...

"... getting good traction in certain verticals such as cyber and justice ..."

My first thought was "they're building Robocop", but then I realised that "ED-209" was a much more likely project.

"You now have 15 seconds to comply."

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Er ...

The spec was for Robocop, what they'll get is "Danger! Will Robinson"

[Boris the Cockroach]

Re: Er ...

And they'll charge the taxpayers for 14 ED-209s .....

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: Er ...

The spec was for Robocop, what they'll get is "Would anyone like any toast?"

FTFY - No Charge, well maybe a beer if you are buying.....

[steviebuk]

Re: Er ...

Always found it funny that they bought out a test system with live ammo inside it. But I guess the live ammo was a plant?

[TheFurryCircle]

Re: Er ...

My first thought was that John Lewis was talking complete and utter bollocks...

[hoola]

Revenue Below Expectations

So things go into meltdown because revenue is below expectations. Surely profit (or loss) is the more important figure?

It is no use having stonking revenues a 1Bn if you are losing 20p on every pound.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: Revenue Below Expectations

It is no use having stonking revenues a 1Bn if you are losing 20p on every pound.

As the old joke goes "What we lose on the margins we'll make up on the volume."

[Robert Grant]

A source told The Reg that Consulting was meant to gel with the other units, but claimed in reality it had become "another silo of people with their own relationships, it's not joined up." The source said multiple divisions still talk to the same customers at different times about the things they are trying to sell.

Why do companies never learn? Some exec charmed this through on how amazing it'd be, got a promotion to carry it out, and now can safely blame Covid, instead of their successor (or the minions). I get it's hard to know whose plan to follow sometimes, but this one seems pretty obviously doomed to be yet another silo.

[DJV]

CEO John Lewis

Shirley, he's heading up the wrong company...

[Nursing A Semi]

Puzzled

So, if you sack 25% of the people who normally spend their days telling other companies to sack 50% of their people, is this a net employment gain or loss?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Puzzled

A net gain. In all sorts of ways.

[YetAnotherJoeBlow]

Crapita

Every time my eyes see Capita, my brain still sees Crapita.

"EasyJet confirmed it is laying off 1,300 crew and 727 pilots"

727 pilots or, seven hundred twenty seven airplane pilots... :?

[Scott 53]

Re: Crapita

The 737 pilots were laid off some time ago

[First Light]

Re: Crapita

Me too, but this is solely due to reading El Reg comments!

[Snorlax]

Let me wipe a tear from my eye

...A tear of laughter.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people

[Anonymous Coward]

Workforce? Really?

They've scraped 1/4 of the turds from the surface of the cesspit and they want a medal?

[Pascal Monett]

"Regrettably this will result in a number of job losses"

Even more regrettably, none of them will be in management.

[Disk0]

Well well well

Let the schadenfreude begin. Suggested lines of conversation with the laid off include:

"Having trouble keeping a job guv?"

"Aren't you ashamed, to be dissappointing your manager like this"

"So I guess that means you're not economically viable then"

"Didn't give it a 110% then eh"

"Your career is going great I see"

"Maybe next time try being motivated"

"So what is your excuse to be asking for handouts?"

"You know, you should have been adding value to the company."

"Jobhopping is like, so over"

"Have you considered learning a skill?"

And of course "Why did you get yourself fired?"

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, the joys of lockdown

During lockdown our own people from the Olive Oil business (aka HR) have been quietly making people offers they couldn't refuse. It is pretty comical when someone drops of a Teams chat, or when someone you word(ed) with sends you an unexpected LinkedIn request. At the virtual water cooler, I suspect we will have to start having a daily roll call along the lines of "I have no intention whatsoever of being out of the office tomorrow."

And then there's the super exciting sales forecast. Those larger jobs will have to come in exactly the right order, at the exact right timing for those who remain to stand a chance of delivering.

[Anonymous Coward]

IR35 coming Home To Roost

I bet capita was one of the consultancies pushing for the IR35 implementation.

Now some of their ex employees can join us “Zero Rights Employees” in this brave new world.

I do feel sorry for them it is really bad out here.

Still HMRC still declare a big win.

Still not to worry Indian consultancies are hiring around 500,000 to cover the UK so all good there.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: IR35 coming Home To Roost

Hey, I bet it wasn't. The consultancy business has only been going since January this year. They barely had a position on anything before this hit.

[Imhotep]

Who Talks This Way?

"getting good traction in certain verticals such as cyber and justice..."

I guess that explains the tread marks on the bodies.

[Allonymous Coward]

While I'm sorry for anyone who loses their job, I can't help but feel any business with "Capita Consulting" in the title probably deserves to go down in flames.

[PAULPRY]

I worked for one of the firms they hoped to compete with, and also for Capita. IMHO Capita never would have stood a chance in competing with the big boys - it would be like Arsenal versus your local pub 'B' team.