Trish Duncan, people director at Capita, often works remotely from her home in the countryside near Aberdeen. “I can stick my head out of my front door and be looking at cattle and fields and deer and the cat next door,” she says. Before the pandemic, she would split her time between working remotely in Scotland and travelling to Capita’s bustling London or Mumbai offices. “It was a fantastic mix,” she says.
The option for flexible and remote working like this is one of a number of changes Trish is helping to make at Capita, as she wants to bring it in as a long-term option for more employees at the digital services firm.
It’s Trish’s job to help shape the future of the company as it goes through a transformation partially sparked by the demands of the pandemic. “Last year was a year that everybody wants to forget [due to coronavirus],” she says. “But at the same time it did allow us to reflect and think about what we can do differently going forward.”
Capita ran focus groups on ways of working and wellbeing to find out what employees want most from their roles; it found that what people really wanted was flexibility in their contracts. “That came out loud and clear,” she says. “So we’ve implemented a hybrid contract, allowing folks to do a combination of office and home time,” she says. “The new contracts give flexibility, which I think is super positive.”
Every employee has different circumstances and preferences, says Trish, and she wants everyone to feel they can work in a way that’s best for them. “What’s right for one person isn’t right for another,” she says, and the new flexible contracts have this idea built into them.
Trish, who has worked in human resources (HR) for about 25 years, first came to Capita two and a half years ago. It was the people that initially drew her to work at the company, she says. “It’s a dream team of people that I really like and trust and admire,” she says. “I think we’re all hard working, transparent, open and honest, with a good sense of humour. I feel like I can be myself around [my colleagues] and no idea is off the table.”
It’s the people that make a company, Trish believes, and it’s this value that drives her to want to make changes that benefit employees at Capita. As well as creating more flexible contracts, the people leadership team are working to improve career paths. “We’re looking at things like our career path frameworks, and our talent reviews,” she says. “Giving people a better idea of how they can move forward and their development plans.”
The transformation Trish is helping to shape at Capita is also about simplifying the company and making it easier for clients and employees to understand and represent the firm. “We’re changing a number of divisions and streamlining roles,” she says. “We’re still in the depths of the transformation journey and we’re going through a big period of change. It’s interesting, challenging and sometimes a bit scary.”
Trish, who spent several years working in the oil industry before joining Capita, says she thrives in fast-paced, dynamic work environments, where you have to adapt and be flexible in order to keep up with a changing landscape. So working towards transformation and change suits her well.
“It’s exciting and it probably [matches] my personality a little bit,” Trish says. “The oil industry has been my typical background and it’s very up and down, very cyclical, fast paced, with lots of change. I enjoy some of the pace of that and at Capita it’s no different in that sense.” Some of Capita’s core values are ingenuity and collaboration. “That kind of style suits me,” she says. “I joined because they live and breathe the values.”
Another perk of the role for Trish is its international nature. “I’ve been lucky to be able to travel quite a bit through my career to different locations in the world – everywhere from places in India, to Venezuela and the United States,” she says. “It gives you a richness to different people, cultures, and backgrounds.”
However, Trish says she’s always happy to come back home to Aberdeen, where her heart truly lies. “I’m a country girl at heart,” she says.
For many people her role sounds like a dream set-up – splitting your time between Scotland and London, leading on a fast-paced transformation for a global company, all with a view of fields and deer outside your window. Trish doesn’t disagree. “With Capita I have a nice mix,” she says. “It’s the best of both worlds.”
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