Capita today announces it has been awarded a contract extension with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to continue to deliver the recruitment service for the British Army.
The two-year contract extension is worth £140m and will start in March 2022, when the current 10-year contract was due to end. Under the original contract the MoD had the option of extending Capita’s contract, which the company has now successfully secured.
Capita works in partnership with the Army as the Recruiting Partnering Project (RPP) to attract, source and select officers and soldiers. Under the contract, Capita will deliver technology and digital improvements to the recruiting systems and processes, as well as continuing to provide the existing recruitment services.
In particular, the software that underpins the end-to-end recruiting service for Army personnel, the Defence Recruiting System, will be migrated onto the Azure Cloud to provide a better candidate experience, faster response times and enhanced functionality.
Other service improvements and technology advancements include investment in robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, improved data and analytics, and digital technology, including information chat bots and digitalised medical records.
RPP successfully achieved 100% of the 2019/20 recruiting year target for regular soldiers ready to train, and regular direct entry officers; at the same time, reserves recruitment achieved 95% of the annual target, the best performance since the contract began. Applications to join the Army are at a five-year high and the conversion rate of people applying and beginning training is up by a fifth from 2012.
Capita expects that maintaining these high levels of service performance over the extension will ensure that the recent recovery in the contract’s profitability and cash flow is sustained.
Jon Lewis, Capita’s chief executive officer, said:
“We are delighted that the British Army has chosen to extend our recruitment contract.
“This marks another important contract renewal for Capita this year, as we continue to transform the business.
“The award of this extension is testament to the trust and strong, partnering relationship we have with the Army and the Ministry of Defence, and to the major turnaround of our service delivery.
“We look forward to building yet further on our partnership with the Army as we continue to innovate and ensure that the service has access to the skills it needs.”
Lieutenant General Tyrone Urch, Commander Home Command, said:
“Thanks to the British Army’s strong partnership with Capita, applications to join the Army hit a five-year high this year.
“The conversion rate of applicants to recruits is up by a fifth from 2012 and we’ve achieved 100% of the target of soldiers being recruited, ready to train.
“We are committed to attracting a talented, bright and diverse cohort into the Army, and we look forward to continuing to work with Capita to further strengthen our excellent recruitment programme over the coming months.”
