A commitment to diversity and inclusion

Two of the key trends in US companies at present are a heightened focus on learning and development in order to meet skills challenges and a much greater commitment to diversity and inclusion.

“We are seeing a much greater emphasis on diversity and inclusion in companies in Ireland generally,” says Trayc Keevans, global FDI director with professional services recruitment company Morgan McKinley. “It is maybe not happening as quickly as with our US counterparts, but it is changing. We used to be siloed in the gender space when it came to diversity but that is changing as well. However, despite continuing efforts in areas like STEM, we are still not seeing enough women coming through. But there is a willingness there and diversity is now high on board agendas.”

She points to initiatives which are meeting with some success. “We have seen a number of gender-blind campaigns which are making a difference. Organisations are taking names off CVs during the recruitment process and this is having an impact. Employers are seeing the benefits of diversity and companies are more successful when they have females on their boards and at senior level. But retention is an issue in a male-dominated environment. If there is not a cluster effect, it impacts on women’s willingness to stay.”

Fionnuala Meehan, vice-president and head of Google in Ireland, says she is very hopeful for the future, but believes there is still a lot of work to do. "Many of Ireland's tech multinationals are led by women and that reflects the great strides we have seen in Ireland on gender equality," she says. "There is no silver bullet to gender equality in the workplace but what we are seeing is lots of incremental change. Some of that is societal and initiatives in the workplace play a huge part too."

Google has two specific focus areas for 2018. “The first is developing future female leaders and helping identify how they can progress their chosen career path – we recently held our first Compass Leadership Summit for current and future female leaders from organisations across Ireland. Secondly, we’re focused on developing and promoting the role men need to play in gender equality. Getting men involved is key and that is being more widely recognised by organisations such as the 30% club and others.”

Keevans reiterates that diversity is not limited to gender. “The other trend, if you can call it that, is that we are seeing more diversity of thought. There is a move away from just getting the fit right for the existing culture of the organisation and there is a recognition of the need for people who bring different perspectives and ways of approaching issues.”

Approach to learning

The design and approach to learning is changing, according to Mary-Liz Trant, executive director for skills development with Solas, the State further education and training authority. “Learning is becoming much more just-in-time than just-in-case now,” she says. “It’s not so much about three-year degrees any more, it’s more about small pieces of training and upskilling. We in the public sector have to catch up with that and get our heads around it. It’s about lifelong learning, flexibility, learning as you go and as you need it. But how do you engage with that in a responsive way?”

She believes this will require people to be trained in digital learning technologies. “We have to make sure that learning makes full use of the technologies that are out there and use all of the tools to deliver fantastic content. We have to ensure that graduates from courses are really confident in using technology. Private-sector training and development for employees can be a few steps ahead in that respect and the challenge for the public sector is to be aware of the changes that are happening and to be geared up for them.”

Increased collaboration between the third-level sector and US multinationals is another trend in skills pointed to by Trayc Keevans. “One of the key things with US multinationals is that they are hiring for jobs here that haven’t existed in this country before,” she says. “One of the real successes for Ireland is the way the third-level institutions have worked with industry to create courses and content driven by the needs of business. This gives FDI companies confidence that a talent force can be built here where it mightn’t have existed before.”