2. Building Capacity for Change

Introduction

Empirical evidence arising from research conducted during the Forum on the Workplace of the Future suggests that Irish workers are generally very well disposed to change. This view is supported by IDA Ireland, citing IMD international benchmarks. However, the National Workplace Strategy highlights that this potential for change remains largely underutilised. Unleashing the full innovative and competitive potential of Ireland’s public and private sectors requires a greater focus on developing the capacity for change at enterprise level. The Strategy highlights several issues that underpin the capacity of stakeholders at enterprise level to respond effectively to change. These include:

The challenge of building this capacity at the enterprise level requires the support of the policy and supports systems of the State and the Social Partners.

Workplace Partnership as an enabler of Workplace Innovation


On 1 January 2007, the National Economic and Social Development Office Act (2006) came into operation, placing the National Centre for Partnership and Performance on a statutory basis. Also in January 2007, the NCPP's new Strategy, Irish Workplaces – A Strategy for Change, Innovation and Partnership 2007–2010, was launched by An Taoiseach. This strategy focuses much of the work programme for the National Centre for Partnership and Performance on supporting the objectives of the National Workplace Strategy.

Points of Contact

Enterprise-Led Training Initiatives and Partnership


The National Workplace Strategy commits to supporting networking activities and formal training provision for enterprise-led training initiatives and partnership agencies seeking to promote workplace innovation and change. Significant investment has been made over the recent period in funding provision to enterprise-led initiatives including Skillnets and Accel.

In the public sector, progress continues to be made in relation to workplace partnership in the health and local government sectors. Both the HSNPF and LANPAG have agreed joint management – union protocols on handling significant change through partnership. These protocols are supported by customised training programmes aimed at management, union representatives and employees.

Further Information

 

Leadership and Management Development in the Private Sector

The National Workplace Strategy identifies particular challenges in the private sector for indigenous organisations and SMEs. The development of management skills for private sector firms is being addressed through initiatives including:

Workplace Innovation Fund – specific new strand under the Productivity Improvement Fund which targets, among other things, the development of a better skillset among those in a leadership or management position in SMEs.

Productivity Improvement Fund - supporting training and development activities which build the management capability in the company. The objective of the Fund is to support such training as a measure in the development of the company's export growth and/or productivity. The training is targeted at the CEO/owner manager and persons in the company who have responsibility for the management of a resource.

FÁS One Step Up – the Competency Development Programme provides funding through the European Social Fund, National Training Fund and Exchequer Funding. The budget for CDP in 2007 is €39 million, targeted at training programmes for between 25,000 and 30,000 participants. Included in this provision are a number of courses targeted at management skills. 

FÁS Excellence Through People has incorporated a new assessment criterion of Leadership and People Management. 

Skillnets fund a wide number of enterprise-led training networks that provide a range of courses for leadership and management development. 

Accel is funding a number of projects focussed on the development of management skills. A diploma course in Quality Management: Lean Systems and a Masters Course in Strategic Quality Management are being developed and implemented by the Enterprise Research Centre of the University of Limerick in collaboration with industry representatives including large Multinationals such as Dell, EMC and Johnson & Johnson; Small and Medium Enterprises including Shannon Coiled Springs, AIL and Ari Services; and a number of industry-led networks including SNS, ICBE, ISQSH and the Court of Experts. 

Points of Contact

Leadership and Management Development in the Public Service

In the public service, progress is being made in open recruitment in the Civil Service, as provided for by Towards 2016. Recent open recruitment campaigns run by the Public Service Appointments Commission have targeted staff at Principal Officer and Assistant Principal management grades, to facilitate the recruitment of staff with the necessary range of skills and experience required by a modern public administration.

The Department of Finance continues to oversee a number of third and fourth-level programmes for public sector organisations. Strategic human resource management (HRM) capacity is crucial to supporting organisational change, and there have been some important developments in this regard. The Department of Finance has published a policy paper on HRM in the Civil Service, and has introduced a new Civil Service HRM Certificate Programme lasting 20 days over 9 months. This programme will be run over the next three years, seeking to upgrade the HRM capacity in the Civil Service. In addition, the Civil Service Training and Development Centre (CSTDC) continue to provide a wide range of education and training options for leadership and management development, as well as an ongoing series of information seminars on ‘Modern HR Policies for a Modern Civil Service’.

Points of Contact

Employee Information and Consultation

The Employees (Provision of Information and Consultation) Act 2006 came into operation on 24 July 2006, and represents a significant development in terms of building capacity through employee involvement. The Act is applied to undertakings with 150 or more employees from 4 September 2006, then to undertakings with 100 or more employees from 23 March 2007 and finally to undertakings with 50 or more employees from 23 March 2008.

In March 2007 the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment published an explanatory booklet on the Act. This booklet is designed to provide general guidance on the act to employees and employers in non-legal language, and sets out the provisions of the act in a clear and user-friendly way.   
A series of projects in relation to the Act are being developed and rolled out by the Social Partners supported by Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the NCPP (funded under Strand II of the WIF – see page 15). In addition, the Labour Relations Commission is progressing the development of a Code of Practice for implementation of the provisions of the Act.

Points of Contact

Employee Financial Involvement

In January 2007, the Taoiseach launched a report by the National Centre for Partnership and Performance called Improving Performance, Sharing the Gains. As mandated in Towards 2016, the report contains new guidelines on EFI for employers, unions and employees, and represents an approach to the practical implementation of EFI in Ireland, agreed by the Social Partners. The NCPP Strategy commits the Centre to a communications and education role with employers around the issue of employee financial involvement. This work will be supported under Strand II of the Workplace Innovation Fund.

Points of Contact

Dispute Resolution

There has been significant progress in the development of actions and initiatives designed to support the public dispute resolution machinery’s continued capacity to prevent and resolve employment related disputes in an effective, fair and expeditious manner. The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) has launched a Mediation Service, which became fully operational during 2006 and has received renewed backing by the LRC Board.

The LRC will shortly publish a significant report entitled Employment Dispute Resolution and Standard-Setting in the Republic of Ireland, which is a joint study by the LRC, the NCPP and Queens University Belfast on Building Capacity in Dispute Resolution and Avoidance.

Points of Contact

 

 

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