Capita Scores £440 Million Armed Forces Recruitment Deal
The company will take over the army recruitment process and deliver the supporting ICT platform
Capita, one of the UK’s leading business process outsourcing companies, today signed a 10-year deal with the armed forces, set to transform the way they recruit officers and soldiers.
As part of the £440 million Recruiting Partnering Project (RPP), one of the largest contracts of its kind in the industry, Capita will provide an IT recruitment platform for the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force. It is expected to deliver benefits in excess of £300 million for the forces and will release over 1,000 military recruiters back to the front line.
Private recruitment
Under the contract, army will retain ownership of recruitment policy, entry criteria and assessment standards. Capita will provide the information and communications technology platform to underpin recruitment for the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.
Capita will work with a range of partners, including advertising agency JWT and recruitment company Kinexa, which will supply the automated recruitment and selection solutions, and provide the necessary data to monitor and drive performance of the ICT platform.
According to the defencemanagement.com website, the army has been looking to outsource recruitment since 2008.
“We will bring our extensive resourcing experience to the Army and tailor it to provide a modern approach which will improve contact between recruiter and potential recruit, reduce the time and cost to enlist and reduce training wastage,” said Capita chief executive Paul Pindar.
“This initiative will increase the number and improve the quality of recruits joining the Army. The contract covers the entire recruiting and selection process for both the Regular Army and the TA, and will transform the way the Army recruits its officers and soldiers,” commented Colonel Neil Polley, RPP Project Manager.
However, not everyone is enthusiastic about the deal. “The armed forces will view this with dismay,” said shadow armed forces minister Kevan Jones in February, when Capita was selected as recommended supplier for the RPP. “The Tory-led government is privatising recruitment, which breaks a vital and traditional link between regiments and the army with its recruits,” he told Defence Management Journal.
Capita will support the existing recruiting model from March 2012, and is expected to implement a new delivery model in a year’s time.
How well do you know your web browsers? Take our quiz!
