Census Jobs

piglet1485

Hi,

I'm new and looking for advice.

I've just received my final confirmation on the census job and i was just reading the term and conditions. I know that i'm suppose to take my accrued annual leave at the end of the 4 weeks but i have a wedding to go to on the 16/4. I did mention in my telephone interview and they said it was fine but i didn't mention that i would be going on the fri and not returning till the Sun. I can work Fri morning and Sun afternoon when i get back but not at all on the Sat. Does anyone know if this will be a problem?
Any advice would be appreciated.

thanks in advance.

olias

No, it won't be a problem, just let your coordinator know. Rather than take it as leave, you will probably be better to make up the hours throughout the rest of the week.

Olias

NonGeographicalMan

piglet1485 wrote: »

I've just received my final confirmation on the census job and i was just reading the term and conditions. I know that i'm suppose to take my accrued annual leave at the end of the 4 weeks but i have a wedding to go to on the 16/4. I did mention in my telephone interview and they said it was fine but i didn't mention that i would be going on the fri and not returning till the Sun. I can work Fri morning and Sun afternoon when i get back but not at all on the Sat. Does anyone know if this will be a problem?
Any advice would be appreciated.

As I understand it they give you several days worth of Collection locations to do at one time and they only check up on you in terms of whether you have done them and got the forms in by the next time you see your Manager. You only see your Manager once every few days. Therefore its up to you how you manage your time day to day as long as you get the total forms collection done.

However as a former election canvasser over many years the only golden rules you should not break are not calling on someone's front door before 9am or after 9pm. Whilst Capita indicate 2pm to 9pm as a preferred door knocking time I think that's purely because statistically a few more pensioners who have been out shopping in the morning etc will be home after 2pm on a weekday. However the difference with the morning on a weekday will be very small before 4pm (when loads of mums with kids who have short hours jobs arrive home with them). Both Saturday and Sunday are normally very good times to catch people at home outside the peak summer months but my election experience is that lots of people are away between Good Friday and Easter Monday as they go off canoeing in Wales or holidays abroad or visiting relations etc. The Royal Wedding and Easter double bank holiday scenario means this will be an even bigger problem than normal this year over those 11 days.

That is you will simply get a much lower strike rate in terms of people being at home and especially over the weekend (since its mainly working people who will take the long overseas break at what will be an expensive time for flights and acommodation) and over this whole 11 day quadruple bank holiday period. Somebody really should have thought of this when they sent the chaseup dates on which Census Collectors will be working.

To be honest I can't for the life of me think why its cost effective to use Collectors in person as the initial chaseup strategy. I am sure that a reminder card via Royal Mail and pointing out how easy the online option is would get the bulk of those who are late to complete their return without a doorstep visit. And I reckon a third and more terse sounding reminder two weeks after that would do the trick with most of the remainder. This is the strategy sensibly used by electoral registration departments at local councils in order to keep their costs down. If the census pursued such a strategy I reckon they would only need 25% of the collectors they are hiring.

Oh dear I seem to be talking myself out of a job but then nothing to lose as I haven't been offered one by Capita!

olias

Yes, but what you are failing to realise with your suggestion, is it relys on that most elusive of traits, common sense. And as we all know, that has been bred out of government departments and other large organisations a long time ago!

Olias

NonGeographicalMan

olias wrote: »

Yes, but what you are failing to realise with your suggestion, is it relys on that most elusive of traits, common sense. And as we all know, that has been bred out of government departments and other large organisations a long time ago!

In part its a pre internet strategy since pre internet when most forms were posted back the gap between receipt of form (which all go off to a central address remote from the local collection operation) and their entry might be a long time. But now all the internet forms can be ticked off the moment they are filed and those still submitted on paper can be processed more quickly as there will be far less paper forms to key in.

I suspect this is also a New Labour strategy (especially stupidly de-involving local councils from something that they had years of expertise in) as it involves awarding a large valuable contract to that most important New Labour croney (Capita) and the deliberate wasting of money in order to bankrupt the country so that the Conservatives cannot put it right and those who lose their jobs etc will then try to reek revenge by voting Labour back in only for the situation to then get even worse (in a Japanese economic stagnation kind of a way).

andyroberts1967

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

As I understand it they give you several days worth of Collection locations to do at one time and they only check up on you in terms of whether you have done them and got the forms in by the next time you see your Manager. You only see your Manager once every few days. Therefore its up to you how you manage your time day to day as long as you get the total forms collection done.

However as a former election canvasser over many years the only golden rules you should not break are not calling on someone's front door before 9am or after 9pm. Whilst Capita indicate 2pm to 9pm as a preferred door knocking time I think that's purely because statistically a few more pensioners who have been out shopping in the morning etc will be home after 2pm on a weekday. However the difference with the morning on a weekday will be very small before 4pm (when loads of mums with kids who have short hours jobs arrive home with them). Both Saturday and Sunday are normally very good times to catch people at home outside the peak summer months but my election experience is that lots of people are away between Good Friday and Easter Monday as they go off canoeing in Wales or holidays abroad or visiting relations etc. The Royal Wedding and Easter double bank holiday scenario means this will be an even bigger problem than normal this year over those 11 days.

That is you will simply get a much lower strike rate in terms of people being at home and especially over the weekend (since its mainly working people who will take the long overseas break at what will be an expensive time for flights and acommodation) and over this whole 11 day quadruple bank holiday period. Somebody really should have thought of this when they sent the chaseup dates on which Census Collectors will be working.

To be honest I can't for the life of me think why its cost effective to use Collectors in person as the initial chaseup strategy. I am sure that a reminder card via Royal Mail and pointing out how easy the online option is would get the bulk of those who are late to complete their return without a doorstep visit. And I reckon a third and more terse sounding reminder two weeks after that would do the trick with most of the remainder. This is the strategy sensibly used by electoral registration departments at local councils in order to keep their costs down. If the census pursued such a strategy I reckon they would only need 25% of the collectors they are hiring.

Oh dear I seem to be talking myself out of a job but then nothing to lose as I haven't been offered one by Capita!

I do hope you are offered a job by Capita by the way, I didn't realise until just now that you hadn't, and I can see why you must have been more than a little frustrated seeing me as a full time worker getting a second full time role. Fingers crossed for you!!

olias

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

it involves awarding a large valuable contract to that most important New Labour croney (Capita)

Now there is a man speaking the truth!!!!!!

Olias

jacko909090

Can I just point out that Capita aren't 'running the Census' - ONS (office of National Statistics) are responsible for the Census data collection. Capita are only involved in the recruitment and the HR side of things. As ONS have many, many years of experience of undertaking research I am sure they have done lots of planning regarding the best use fo staff time in chasing non-returns.

ItsMe

katie125 wrote: »

Excellent News ItsMe definitely seems to pay off calling them as I am sure alot of people are going to hear nothing otherwise. Keep in touch and we can swap notes on the rest of the process hopefully positive ones fingers crossed.

Hi Katie125, I've been working my way through the e-learning on and off today and all's been fine until now when I've got to the Doorstep Routine section of the Interviewer training bit and it's all gone wrong. The pictures don't load, and the bits you are supposed to click on don't load. Where there are questions to answer I don't get the chance to answer them, it just shows both messages as if you answered right or wrong. So I'm learning some things from the answers but there's a lot I can't see. Did you face any problems like this? Is there anyone to contact or shall I press on (I can click next) and hope for the best?

NonGeographicalMan

jacko909090 wrote: »

Can I just point out that Capita aren't 'running the Census' - ONS (office of National Statistics) are responsible for the Census data collection. Capita are only involved in the recruitment and the HR side of things. As ONS have many, many years of experience of undertaking research I am sure they have done lots of planning regarding the best use fo staff time in chasing non-returns.

I think you meant to say that "technically" or in strict legal terms ONS are running the Census. Regardless of that in all other practical terms Capita are actually running it this year.

Capita have advertised the jobs, Capita have messed people around by keeping them hanging on and not getting back to them, Siftability is I'm quite sure a Capita proposed idea and Capita have employed the training staff who are training the Collectors and Interviewers as far as I am aware.

So the only respect in which ONS is running the show is in designing the census questionnaire and in possibly deciding how many Collectors etc were required in each area. Although I'm rather inclined to believe that this was perhaps also outsourced to Capita too.

If ONS in conjunction with local councils were running the show as before then they wouldn't have annoyed so many people. It is the thoughtless processes of Capita who treat potential staff like they are just another production component on the assembly line that can be disposed of at will that has so badly upset people. Also Siftability was an annoying exercise as it was all about making sure that you would stick to hitting your targets and wouldn't be comparing notes on how much expenses you were claiming etc. Again a typically Capita inspired approach I would suggest. They clearly weren't concerned if you cared about people and they clearly expected you to carry on door knocking even in the pouring rain or even if being taunted by a group of local youths given the slanting of the eight answers to some of the individual Siftability questions.

One only has to look at how much worse the BBC complaints process has been in the 15 or so years that Capita have been running it to see that bean counting is usually at the forefront of their concerns and that the quality of the customer experience is usually the very least of their concerns.