Workplace trends to watch

Flexibility, flexibility, flexibility

While the Right to Request Remote Work Bill continues to wend its way through the legislative process, many Irish employers are already well ahead of the law. The near overnight switch to remote working following the announcement of the first Covid lockdown proved conclusively that remote workers can be just as or more productive than their workplace-based counterparts.

As a result, companies across almost every sector including the top professional services firms, technology giants, law firms, banks, telecommunications providers, broadcasters and other media outlets and many more are developing hybrid models for staff to work part of the time in the office and part remotely. Many of them are also offering full flexibility allowing the employees to decide how much time, if any, they want to spend in the office.

Not only are these organisations benefitting from a happier workforce and productivity gains, they are also gaining an edge in the talent war.

Reskilling, upskilling, and rightskilling

Generation Z, those born this century, and their forerunners in Gen Y who were born since 1990, have indicated a marked preference for organisations which invest in their personal and professional development. Organisations have also woken up to the need to constantly upskill, reskill and rightskill their employees as they seek to keep pace with rapidly-changing customer needs and the emergence of disruptive new technologies which expose them to competition from unexpected or even unknown quarters.

Thousands of companies across Ireland are now members of the 70 Skillnet business networks funded by Skillnet Ireland which provide skills training tailored to the discrete needs of companies in different sectors.

Equality and diversity

Most large organisations now have highly developed and enlightened diversity and inclusion policies. These include workplace committees to look after the interests of LGBTQ+ people, those with disabilities and from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. There is also a strong focus on gender balance, with particular efforts being made to improve female representation in senior roles and C-suites.

Organisations with these policies in place benefit from the better decision-making which diversity of thought brings. They are also in good shape to comply with the gender pay gap reporting legislation which is now in force.

Sick pay

There have been some murmurings of discontent in relation to the proposed introduction of statutory sick pay in Ireland. This is being brought in on a phased basis, rising from three days this year to 10 in 2025. It will be payable at a rate of 70 per cent of current daily pay subject to a maximum of €110 per day.

While this may represent a breakthrough for this country we should look at Sweden if we want to see what best in class looks like. There, people get paid 80 per cent of their daily pay by their employer for the first 14 days of illness, subject to a maximum of €77 per day. That may appear low by Irish standards, but when you take into account the fact that the state takes over the payments at the full rate for another year and it only drops by 5 per cent after that you can see why it’s best in class.

Swedish unemployment benefits are equally generous and this is seen as one of the key reasons behind the country’s vibrant start-up culture – going to work for an early-stage company isn’t perceived as being very risky.