Press Releases & Announcements

Press Releases & Announcements

Launch of National Workplace Strategy

WORKPLACE CHANGE AS IMPORTANT AS R&D – LAUNCH OF NATIONAL WORKPLACE STRATEGY Speaking at the launch by An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern T.D., of the report of the Forum on the Workplace of the Future, Working to our Advantage (A National Workplace Strategy) Lucy Fallon Byrne, Director National Centre for Partnership and Performance, said:

“Improving the capacity of our workplaces to change and innovate should be given the same priority and support as R&D in order to develop Ireland’s innovation and technology base.  Our domestic innovation base remains weak, despite our success in attracting foreign-owned knowledge intensive industries.

To move from ‘technology takers’ to ‘technology makers’ we need to improve innovation in our workplaces.The Forum has undertaken the first ever-systematic analysis of the Irish workplace and the challenges facing workers, employers and trade unions in a changing economy and society.  This report contains a comprehensive list of recommendations on areas that have a direct impact on organisations and on the lives of workers, including the development of work life balance arrangements, training and lifelong learning, childcare provision and choice, equal opportunities, and improved information and consultation.

This report outlines a national strategy for the development of the workplace of the future, but it is also a guide to best practice for organisations in the private and public sector.

At present the skills and experiences of our workforce are under-utilised because of insufficient employee involvement and uneven investment in workplace training and learning.   This must be corrected by implementing ‘bundles’ of work practices, which are associated with high performance and innovation. These include high performance practices such as team working, information sharing and consultation, employee participation and involvement, training and development, innovative rewards systems including financial involvement, performance management and work life balance arrangements.

Ireland’s rapid transition towards a knowledge economy is illustrated by the growth of employment in knowledge-intensive services, which far outstripped the EU average between 1997 and 2002:

• An additional 300,000 employees with third level qualifications will be required in the period up to 2010
• By 2015 one in four people will be employed in knowledge-intensive professions. With the skill content of virtually all work increasing, lifelong learning must become integrated into the workplace experience.

Overall, Ireland will need approximately 420,000 additional workers up to 2010, with 150,000 of these required from outside the state:

• Workplace policies are now needed to encourage more female participation, at present 20% below that of men, and to encourage older workers to remain at work, as well as a coherent economic immigration policy
• Barriers to women’s participation in the workforce should be removed and practical solutions for the provision of childcare supports and arrangements put in place

In response to the challenges facing workplaces the Forum has made 42 recommendations, which constitute a National Workplace Strategy, with five strategic strands. The strands are commitment to workplace innovation, capacity for change, developing future skills, access to opportunities and quality of working life. Improving our capacity to change includes improving leadership and management capacity and enhancing dispute resolution mechanisms as well as increasing employee involvement.

One of the conclusions of the Forum on the Workplace of the Future is that Ireland can gain a significant international competitive advantage by building on its successful experience of social partnership.  The contribution that partnership-style arrangements can make to more positive workplace relations is emphasised in the Forum’s report. The understanding of partnership-style approaches must be broadened and the development of such approaches encouraged.

The High-Level Implementation Group will oversee the  implementation of the National Workplace Strategy, which aims to translate the Forum’s vision of the Workplace of the Future into reality. The same energy that was invested in Ireland’s economic transformation over the latter decades of the 20^th century now needs to be brought to bear on transforming Ireland’s workplaces for the 21^st century.”

Ends 

For further information contact:

Lucy Fallon Byrne:         087-9088301

Oliver Donohoe:            087-2573799