Poland Gdańsk
Manager’s Profile
Agnieszka Zygner
CEE Shared Services and Outsourcing Directory
General Manager Capita Polska Capita Polska Kraków and Łódź Parent Company: Capita plc, London, UK.
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Please provide a few sentences about what your company is doing in CEE? Capita Polska is part of Capita plc, UK leading provider of business process management and integrated professional support service solutions. Capita Polska was established in 2011 and in 2016 merged with SouthWestern, creating an organization with over 800 employees and two Centres in Kraków and Łódź. The Krakow site offers high-end professional services including back office support for: Regulated Businesses Insurance & Life and Pensions, Employee Benefits, Contract Management and Legal Process Outsourcing, Admin and Finance Support for Real Estate, Learning Services, Recruitment & HR services, Procurement Services, SAP specialists for Group Systems, Finance Shared Service for the Group, Assets Services, Transition and Transformation professionals. The Łódź site specializes in multi-lingual contact centre services serving to Clients across Europe as well as F&A activities for Irish Clients.
is a place for a so-called ‘High-end Intelligent Outsourcing’. The services that we offer are quite complicated and advanced, requiring professional knowledge. Capita’s intention is to expand those services in the next years. Do you provide external services to unrelated companies? We provide external services to some unrelated companies mainly from Regulated Insurance Sector that operates across different geographies. These transitions and the services provided have been a success story and brought high value to the clients
Employee Issues. How has this changed in the last 1-2 years, and what are the likely employment issues expected during the next few years. People matter the most in our business. We have plans for future growth, increasing our team size. Therefore, we constantly train new leaders in Leader’s Academy program, we identify talents and invest in the best ones. It is very important for Capita to give opportunities to our employees in the first place and promote them internally. We put a lot of attention to Generation Y. Young people are very ambitious and the most important for them is the chance to get a professional training and have career growth but also possibility to maintain the ‘work-life balance’. Biggest surprises about operating SSC centre? Positives: Very positive and constant support from Central and Local governments. Clear and transparent approach on grants and incentives. Improvements needed: Government incentives such as MASP/ SEZ connected with staffing levels may be both helpful and troublesome when over time market requirement or business environment changes. Labor law is very restrictive especially in contractor staff, flexible employment and working hours’ regulations. Simplifying the employee vetting process. Closer cooperation with universities which should create new faculties or programs responding to the current needs of BPO/ SSC sector.
Explain why your company set up operations in the specific city and any specific factors that influenced the company’s decision: The decision to set up Capita Kraków Business Centre was made after thorough analysis of various potential locations in CEE region. Poland and specifically Kraków was chosen by Capita’s Board due to several factors such as very proactive Foreign Investment Agency and Investor Services who supported access to government and EU incentives. Another significant advantage of this location is a large pool of highly qualified personnel, fluent in foreign languages as well as the largest number of graduating students per year, among CEE countries. Additionally, location and ease of travel from the UK play a favorable role in the decision as Krakow is only a 2-hour flight from the UK Headquarters. How will you develop in the next 2-3 years? Over the last 3 years Capita in Poland has grown intensively. The initial captive business model servicing mainly Capita entities in the UK has evolved into a BPO service provider with a unique offering to internal and external companies. We constantly convince our clients that Poland
Ensure proper government support. Identify location best suited to your business model. Hire people with the right skill set.
Specific cost savings that your firm has achieved? The key reason our clients decide to bring their services to Poland is price arbitrage, however the more high-end services are selected, the more savings will be achieved. Also, high quality staff and smaller teams can obtain bigger results - hence the savings. High-end SAP roles transitioned last year to Capita Polska, brining 50% savings to clients in recruitment fees.
not only in commercial terms but also in quality improvement. Considering such motivation we are keen to grow further these types of services as this is where highly qualified staff is best motivated. 3 specific bits of advice to other firms considering setting up SSC/BPO operations in CEE:
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Agnieszka joined Capita Polska in August 2014 and since then business has grown by 70% YoY. This achievement was possible thanks to strategic financial and employment management and fulfiling the site’s capacity with advanced professional services. Agni has previously managed her own company, based in Italy, providing strategic and commercial support for organizations expanding into international markets. Prior to that Agni fulfilled various roles in IBM Poland, Italy and USA
2017