Scott Godridge is Head of Services, Public and Experience at Capita. After joining the organisation over 10 years ago, he’s grown his career here with the help and support of the people around him. We’ve been chatting to him about his experiences and how it now feels to be helping others to follow their aspirations.
When I first started, I heard a lot about the way Capita promotes people internally and is really there to help each individual grow. I’ve been at Capita for around 12 or 13 years now and that’s something I’ve experienced for myself too, within my own career and my team members. I started out as a 1st Line Analyst. Through the guidance and support of my Line Manager, Simon, I’ve then progressed through to 2nd Line Analyst, Team Leader, and Service Desk Manager to where I am now.
Leading on the front-line
In my role as Head of Services, I manage the IT support teams, who support end customers in the public and private sector. Every time my team interacts with a customer or another part of Capita we have a vast impact on people’s lives. So we have a huge focus here on treating everyone we speak to in a way we would want to be treated ourselves.
I really feel like we’re helping everyday people – especially with our public sector work – whether that’s within the NHS or the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). These external bodies are vital services within the community, so it gives my team and I great pride to support them.
Stepping up to new challenges
I think Capita is adapting and changing in the right way. To be a part of that and to be able to lead my teams through this change is exciting. Being a leader presents all kinds of challenges, especially with the fairly recent switch to working from home. We need to make sure that people have all the tools and training they need to do their jobs. I think this is especially true for new starters and it must be very hard to start at a company where the majority of people work from home. So we’ve put together an extensive and ever-growing new starter check list, to make sure they have the equipment and training they need at the start. We assign them a mentor who they can lean on, and we set up regular team meetings and one-to-ones to cover that initial probation period. We’ve really adapted and changed how we work to meet the challenges of working from home and we can see it’s making a difference with newly on-boarded employees.
Supporting others to bring their best
Now it’s my turn to support, coach, and mentor new and existing team members. I think communication is the most important tool a manager can have. I have an open-door policy, which I hope allows individuals to open up and share ideas. During the review period, I try to ask probing questions, to get a real sense of what each employee actually wants to achieve and how I can help them. Then it could be that I can either use my network to open up possibilities for them, or I can make sure they have the tools and skills they need to achieve their goals. As well as helping individuals grow and develop, I try to delegate tasks and give people extra responsibility. It can really offer them an opportunity to grow and push themselves.
I’m also a big believer in looking after your wellbeing. Personally, I make sure that I wake early (having a one year old helps), to get a workout in with weights or go for a run. Socially, the team often meets for a coffee and walk round the block or go for a drink. We even did a climb up Snowdonia for charity once. And Capita is supportive of our wellbeing too. I also think the Wellbeing hub is very good. It’s an online resource for all employees, with access to the Wellbeing Network and our Employee Assistance Programme. It houses information, guidance and support around physical, financial, mental and social wellbeing and hosts sessions on a range of wellbeing topics. I’m always promoting it to my team to make sure they know what support is available.
Looking ahead to the future
My line manager has been such a huge support and really encouraged me to progress through Technology Software Services. I couldn’t have got here without the coaching, mentoring and developing I’ve had to take through each role and on to the next. Having a clearly defined career plan to work towards has added that extra encouragement and commitment from Capita that I needed, to know I was being looked after and my motivations were being met. I really can’t praise Capita and the support structure here enough. There’s so much opportunity to progress and I’d encourage anyone who’s considering a role at Capita to go for it.
Right now, I’m happy in the position I’m in. I’ve only been doing it for a year and there’s still a lot to learn, but I’m sure with the right guidance, support, and tools I’ll be ready to take on whatever the future holds.
