Ireland Inc - Still open for business

With all the negative publicity about Ireland Inc, it is easy to forget what Ireland has going for it at the moment. In an attempt to bring some positivity into the discourse I am going to argue why we should be optimistic about the future.

Ok, so everyone is going to suffer higher taxation and less money in the pocket over the next few years. However we can be thankful for the job the IDA has done and continues to do to bring Foreign Direct Investment in to Ireland, particularly from the United States. Ireland’s low corporation tax is one of the key drivers for companies to choose Ireland as their EMEA headquarters, but there are a number of reasons why they decide to stay here once they have come.

These include a growing competiveness due to the economic adjustment that is taking place reflected in reduced salaries and property prices. Salaries have reduced between 5-20% over the last 2 years and commercial property by a staggering 55%. Cost of living has also dropped, with consumer prices dropping by 1.7% in 2009.

Ireland has some of best people in the world. So what does that mean?! We are highly educated with sought after skills and technical knowledge that other countries simply can’t compete with. Feedback from the international business community is that businesses in Ireland have a strong work ethic and high productivity in comparison with other nations. Irish staff have also proved to be adaptable and flexible in testing times. In addition, we have a diverse workforce of many different nationalities with different language skills, which mean we are able to support European operations from Ireland.

Ireland is seen as a leader in promoting the green agenda and protecting business interests by having strong intellectual property protection.

Over the last 10 years Ireland’s infrastructure has undertaken an immense overhaul. We now have a road network to be proud of and finally, a second terminal at Dublin airport.

And there’s more…Of the worlds top 10 ICT companies, 7 chose Ireland as the hub to base themselves. We have 16 of the world's top 20 pharmaceutical companies operating here and over 50% of the worlds top banks have chosen Ireland as a base.

As long as Ireland’s Corporation Tax continues to be competitive at 12.5% we have a lot to be positive about. The multinational companies will continue to employ hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland, and provide capital and employment when times are tough. A few steps back, maybe, but we’ll stride again.

A career in recruitment for grads - how to get from 300 to 8!

We recently participated in the graduate careers day in the Smurfit Business School. I really enjoyed having a chance to chat with the students about their career hopes and expectations. The main reason we were at Smurfit was to talk to students interested in a career in recruitment and to tell them all about our grad programme and what Hays has to offer. We had six grads start with us recently and three of them had completed master’s degrees in Smurfit. We thought we might get a head start on next summer’s grad intake.

The day was a great success. There were four of us in attendance from Hays. Myself, our marketing exec Caroline Kelly, business manager Sean O’Kane and trainee consultant (Smurfit Graduate Siobhain Smyth). I’m certainly glad there were the four, because there was a lot of attention around our stand and it wasn’t because of free sweets! We were providing something a lot more useful: advice on CV preparation, interview preparation tips and sharing our market knowledge. The advice went down a storm.

It was fantastic to meet so many young people with lots of potential and enthusiasm and for me the best thing about the day was getting a chance to speak to the students about a career in recruitment. I started with Hays over ten years ago and love the excitement and challenge of the industry. For some it was the first time they’d considered recruitment as a career and for many after speaking with us they realised that it was a career that ticked all the right boxes for them: best-in-industry training, excellent career development opportunities, a world leader in our field in 25 countries. But most importantly the role of a recruitment consultant is one that truly gives you a fantastic well rounded grounding in business.

Our grad programme this year has already been a great triumph. We had six talented trainees start with us in August and they are doing fantastically well. Right now we are in the process of selecting another eight ambitious individuals to begin their career with us in January 2011. We’ve had an amazing response, hundreds of cvs and I’ve personally spoken with nearly 100 of these individuals. So what can you do to improve your chances of going from one of 300 applicants to being one of the final 8? What will make you stand out?

Top Tips

• Always know what you’re applying for. I found that some people I spoke with weren’t quite sure of what it was they’d applied for – obviously not good! So don’t blast your cv around to any job that has “grad” in the title.
• Make sure your cv is relevant for the job and of high quality and supply a cover letter for every job, it really makes a difference.
• Don’t assume. Do your research on the job. Too many people I spoke with thought that recruitment was solely a HR job and hadn’t properly researched and considered all the other aspects to the role.
• Enthusiasm: You need to convince us that you are committed to the job as a career and are excited about it, enthusiasm goes a long way.

The challenges of business transformation

I recently attended an American Chamber of Commerce event at the very impressive new terminal two at Dublin airport. It was fascinating to hear different organisations views of change. How they become aware it is required, how it’s managed and finally how they ensure it becomes part of their culture once they have been through the process.

The speakers, Dr Neil Boyle of MSD Human Health, Joe Cronin & Tim Mulcahy of Kelloggs, and Vincent Wall of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) had some really interesting points.

• Should they share objectives with their customers? If so, how?
• What methodology should they adopt? How should they decide this?
• If they took a modular approach, how do they manage risk to ensure that business continues as usual?
• Should they utilise existing staff to manage change and how do they backfill these positions? Or should they engage with external consultants to assist?
• How do they ensure that review of the projects happens properly and the learnings are implemented?

From a personal perspective having gone through a Business Transformation programme with Hays over the last 2 years, I can only conclude that there are no hard and fast rules when approaching transformation.

I think that it is important that everyone involved in a project is aware of what success looks like and that there is a methodology in place that everyone understands. I believe that the biggest challenge that most organisations face is getting the transformation to become permanent once the project has been completed. Furthermore, it’s important that a business is continually critiquing itself and looking to improve processes and the more experience you have of doing this, the better the process of business transformation will become. One last observation is that it is very easy to take your eye off the ball when your business is in a growth phase, when in fact this may be the best time for business transformation.