Ireland’s growing economy is forcing employers to find new ways to attract and retain good staff. In the ensuing battle for talent, US multinationals are at the vanguard.
Sun Life is a good example. The global financial services organisation opened a base in Waterford in 1998 with a team of just 12 people. Last year, it cut the ribbon on a 418sq m (4,500sq ft) expansion that will see employee numbers rise from a current level of 330 to 400.
Its growth here has been supported by close links the company has fostered with third-level institutions.
“Graduates in Ireland are a key source of talent,” says Edel Spillane, human resources director at Sun Life in Waterford. “One of the ways we are able to leverage that is through our engagement with local third-level education providers such as Waterford and Carlow institutes of technology, as well as with University College Cork and the University of Limerick.”
Close ties with the institutes of technology in particular ensure graduates come out of college “industry-ready”, she says.
“We lend the expertise of our executives to review course content and also to provide guest lecturing. Technology is changing every day so we need our graduates not to be learning tech skills that will be obsolete within a few years.”
‘Soft skills’
It isn’t only about technical skills, however. “We are looking for soft skills too from a leadership perspective. An institute of technology course shouldn’t only provide technical skills, so we look to see what the colleges can do in such areas as personal development. What we’re really trying to see, especially in the STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] subjects, are graduates that have developed not just tech skills but that can show personal engagement and social skills too.”
The provision of such “all-rounders” benefits not just US multinationals but indigenous sector employers too, she points out.
But what does it offer? Sun Life’s flagship internship, the Rotational Leadership Development Programme, is a global initiative that sees top-notch graduates take up temporary placements at its offices around the world, over a three-year time frame.
“If you are going to devise a graduate programme, it should be a really well structured one where people have the opportunity to be stretched. In ours they get to engage at a really high level, with VPs and SVPs,” she says.
“If you’re looking to attract, engage and retain top talent, you have to afford them top opportunities for development too.”
Sun Life’s commitment to lifelong learning is facilitated by its Global Learning Centre, a full educational platform delivering continuing professional development via online courses
“Our ethos is such that 70 per cent of employee learning should come from on-the-job coaching, 20 per cent is personal learning, which people can undertake via our Global Learning Centre, and 10 per cent is classroom-based training.”
It’s not enough just to have facilities, staff must be supported to use them.
“Every year, our people get to devise their own personal development plan. We can see that career development and career planning is hugely important to employees these days. When you’re aiming to attract top talent, CPD is critical to retaining them. This is particularly the case with Millennials who, at interview, will ask you ‘How are you going to develop and support me, what opportunities to develop can you offer me?’” she says.
That’s a fact Wendy Murphy, LinkedIn’s HR director EMEA region can attest to. “When a new hire comes in to us, we tell them about ‘transformation’. It’s about accepting that there may not be a job for life anymore but we will help you transform yourself both personally and professionally during your time here,” she says.
Online training courses
As part of this ‘transformational’ remit, Linked In last year bought Linda.com, a provider of online training courses.
“It’s a solution that offers thousands of online courses and it has been really successful. Talent is our number one operating priority but life is so jam-packed, what we wanted was to find a way that people can do this on the bus, or for half an hour after the kids have gone to bed. Because we know it can be too hard to commit to a three-night-a-week evening course.”
The desire for talent is something Catherine O’Flynn, a partner in law firm William Fry’s Employment and Benefits Department, sees first hand as part of her role in the firm’s foreign direct investment team.
“I meet a lot of the US multinationals coming in here and what we’re seeing is that employers in general are having to step up to the mark. Recruitment is very buoyant at the moment and Millennials have many different notions about employment, including being less likely to stay in one place and not having as much loyalty as before.”
From an employer’s perspective, employee engagement is crucial. “Most US companies here will measure employee engagement on a regular basis, either by formal survey or through a more informal approach – with team leads simply asking their team on a Friday afternoon ‘What can I do to make things better for you in the workplace?’,” she says.
“A huge part of this is about providing CPD for employees. Development needs to be invested in employees from day one.”
The traditional trope is that indigenous employers, many of whom are SMEs, see training as a cost rather than an investment. Their fear, historically, was that by training someone up, they were training them up to leave.
That may be less the case in the indigenous sector now but it couldn’t be further from the truth for the US multinationals operating here. “They know that if you invest in people, they engage with you.”
Talent the trump card for US investment
The recent US presidential election results have given rise to fears that US businesses may be discouraged from establishing operations overseas. Lower corporation tax in the US could, potentially, make it difficult for Ireland to compete for foreign direct investment.
Not necessarily so, according to Mark Redmond, chief executive of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland.
“The key reason why the Ireland/US business relationship has been so successful is down to talent. Every single business leader I deal with has called it out as a key ingredient. Yes, there are other important factors, such as cost competiveness, access to the EU, economic certainty and tax, but we commissioned a Red C poll on the matter and 70 per cent called out talent as a top issue,” he says.
Ireland’s approach to business is well-aligned with that of the US too. “We have a ‘can do’, solutions-oriented approach and a nimble and agile workforce. Plus there is a creativity that I think is in the Irish DNA.”
On top of that, we have an international talent pool. “If you go into any multinational here you will find people from all over the world, dealing with people from all over the world. We value diversity. Irish people are now in the US, helping shape US companies’ global strategies, plus Irish companies now employ almost as many people in the US as US companies do here. The two-way relationship has never been as strong as it is today,” he says.
“What’s more, president-elect Trump is a businessman, and one who has already invested in Ireland. The Irish/US relationship has been great for the US and I don’t think that is going to change.”
