Capita’s job-matching system, quick fingers and automated processes
I have recently spoken to an interpreter who works for Capita/ALS. What I have learnt is their online job matching system is like a marketplace where you need to have quick fingers to secure better-earning jobs. You may as well forget about jobs allocated according to qualifications, experience or proximity to venues.
No one is trying to find the right match for any jobs. If Linguist A living in London is quick enough to grab the first available job, which, let’s say, is in Carlisle, and then Linguist B from Birmingham gets the next available job that happens to be in Bristol, if this is their “efficient” way of booking professional interpreters, then I am going to walk as far as I can from the area of legal interpreting.
In the past I used to get bookings mostly from local Courts because they knew I lived in the area and could save them money on travel time and expenses, because they knew I was reliable and never let them down and we were having a good and longstanding business relationship. Trustworthy interpreters now seem to have been replaced with tired faces of unknown people crossing the country every day, and by an automated system which was supposed to have resolved administrative inefficiencies and get the best suited jobs to the right people.
