WWW.IDAIRELAN.COM
THE FLEXIBLE EMPLOYER Increasingly organisations are realising that to retain their best teams and attract that talent, that they need to help people to wrap their working day around their lives, whether it’s working from home
or half days,
acknowledging that people have to do school runs. Flexibility is really important, because when you don’t think you have it, it becomes very stressful and you leave to find something else. Offering leave, whether it’s maternity
leave, paternity leave, adoptive and baby bonding leave and making it okay to take it [is important]. Last year, I took two months parental leave and this month I am taking two weeks parental leave. I’m taking it at a time that is important for me: my daughter did her Leaving Certificate last year and my son is doing his Junior Certificate this year. A lot of people said to me, it’s really good
to see you take the leave, that it’s okay to take it. It’s acknowledging that you should be weaving your work into the rest of your life, not
the other way around, and that’s my
personal philosophy. I think millennials have helped with this. have
They really high standards for
themselves in terms of how they want balance in their lives and they will continue to demand it. As we have more and more millennials in
the workforce–70 per cent of the workforce will be millennials by 2020–that can only be good. They want
their work to be
meaningful, they want to solve big problems, and they challenge you to be a good role model. Through employee surveys they will point out, ‘well you’re saying this, but this is what we are seeing our leaders do.’ They often hold a mirror up and you think, ‘you’re right’.
ALWAYS ASK QUESTIONS In terms of career lessons learned, I wish I had asked more questions, to not be scared to do that and see that as part of learning. I work in a tech industry but I don’t have a tech background so I have to ask a lot of questions and I ask them unashamedly now. I don’t care if it’s a silly question because if
I need to know the answer, I need to know. I probably held back earlier in my career thinking, well that won’t look good if I ask that question. Now I just jump in and I don’t worry about it.
changed. There are so many opportunities for females in engineering, science and technology–it didn’t necessarily feel like they existed 20 years ago. That turned out to be a bad mentor, but it
is key. I always have a mentor, both female and male, informally to give me advice or be a sounding board. It’s key, particularly around confidence and to be a leader, to know what other leaders are doing, and have diversity of opinion and thought.
WORKPLACE CULTURE I think a lot of companies undervalue culture in general and I personally think it’s the bedrock of all work performance particularly
but in promoting diversity–how Grainne Barry
REGIONAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, EMEA, STATS LLC
Gráinne Barry joind STATS as Regional Operations Director, EMEA and head of STATS’
new regional headquarters in
Limerick. She is a co-founder of SportsTech Ireland (a not-for-profit formed to to support and grow the development
of sports
technology companies in Ireland) and is well-renowned in the technology sector, with a strong background in technology, data and software solutions. She previously worked as COO for Salaso Health Solutions, Strategic Technology Director for WebSpirit and COO for
anotherfriend.com.
I’m from Northern Ireland and it has made me very aware of diversity and inclusion from a young age. If you go back to the time before the term ‘diversity and inclusion’ became a thing in the HR and corporate world, you were always aware of it. I remember my first didn’t realise it at
job interview–and I the time–it wasn’t my
gender that was the issue, it was actually my religion. I never had that experience as a female in the tech industry, but I certainly understand how it feels to be viewed at a disadvantage. I had an experience early in my career
where I was told by a career mentor there’s not many jobs for females in technology; this was back in 1989, after I finished a Computer Science degree. The world has totally
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somebody feels within a culture and how able they are to communicate within a culture, and if it allows them to be their best selves. McKinsey research shows that companies that have the right gender balance typically perform 21 per cent better than the industry average and companies with ethnic diversity perform 33 per cent better than industry norms. Diversity is a wider conversation than gender; it’s about diversity of thought and conversation. Culture has to start at the top. We have an unwavering commitment
inclusion and expect all the leaders in the company to build it
to diversity and into the work
environment. Our CEO really has a vision for diversity that is led from the top. They want to embrace creativity and innovation and for competitive advantage. For me I could see the culture at work in our other offices. It’s really interesting in the industry we’re in. Sports technology has a challenge around gender diversity particularly, with the convergence of sports and technology both typically male preserves. For a company like ours to become gender-balanced that is a big challenge so it has to be culturally-led. We’ll ask the question internally: ‘Is there diversity in this conversation?’ When you’re making decisions, whether it’s board level or lower, it’s a simple mantra to add into every conversation.
THE FUTURE OF WORK The future of work and how it is changing means we have a more open attitude to what makes an organisation successful. The real war for talent started probably 10 years ago, so when you find good people you really want to hold onto them. You get people to show up as their true selves at work.
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