The Foreign Direct Investment sector in Ireland has seen a lot of volatility in the market recently, with a number of organisations cutting jobs in a a number of areas, However, the sector still employs over 301,4751 people in Ireland, according to The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Many of the largest companies have been the largest and most progressive drivers of D&I policies in Ireland. Many of their D&I landing pages are some of the best examples of landing pages in Ireland. Here are some of the best examples:
One of the oldest companies on the list, Allianz Insurance was founded in 1890 and was first introduced to Ireland in 1902. The parent company Allianz Partners was formed in 1990. Now employing over 500 people, Allianz is at the forefront of D&I initiatives in Ireland. Here are some of the best parts of their D&I landing page and policy:
Their infographic at the top of the page is filled with statistics about how diverse and inclusive the company is, in terms of the profile of employees and management, regarding age, gender, LGBTQ+, nationality, race or people with disabilities. Allianz International and Allianz Ireland are among the biggest promoters of people with disabilities in sport thanks to their sponsorship of The Paralympic Games. In Ireland, this is a high-profile media campaign featuring the likes of Ellen Keane, Jason Smith and a number of other Paralympic stars. Proving they are putting money behind their Diversity and Inclusion campaign.
In this report Allianz Ireland shows the work that they are doing in Ireland, for example working with organisations such as AHEAD to increase their overall Diversity and Inclusion amongst their apprenticeships schemes. The first employee resource group suggested on their page is their Generations ERG. This gives the company the opportunity to promote themselves to the younger generations in the workforce. The company can also promote what they are doing to older generations in the workforce through their over 50 campaign, throughout the world.
Dell Technologies have been in Ireland since 1991. The company currently employs approximately 4,500 people across 4 sites in Cherrywood in Dublin, Ballincollig and The Ovens in Cork and a site in Limerick. For full disclosure, I used to work on the D&I team in Dell. It was probably the best professional experience of my career. So I may be a bit biassed. But here are what makes their D&I landing pages and policies stand out:
Dell Technologies has a commitment to reach 50/50 gender hiring. To this end, their gender empowerment programmes are featured very prominently in Dell Women’s Entrepreneurship
Network, Releasing Female Potential and their returners programmes for women returning to the workforce. The company are also one of the founding members of CWIT, Connecting Women In Technology, which aims to connect women in the technology space and to increase female school and university students more interested in the technology space.
Dell has a powerful Employee Resource Group’s (ERGs) and they mentioned they have a target of 50% engagement amongst their employees in their ERGs by 2030. A large section of their D&I landing page is given over to their commitment to unconscious bias training. They also describe how the change programme empowers their leaders to have honest and open programmes about their biases and strategies on reducing their biases. Through programmes such as their Neurodiversity Hiring Programme or their assistive technology programmes, Dell eases the anxiety of some people with disabilities, and proves that they are a welcoming and inclusive company.
One of the biggest consumer brands in Ireland Diageo is the holding company of many of the best selling alcohol brands such as Guinness, Rockshore and over 200 other brands. In Ireland they employ 1,500 people directly and thousands more indirectly,
They’re global D&I page focuses on “help create — a more inclusive and sustainable society, shaping a future that’s worth celebrating”. Their video begins with their CEO Barry O’Sullivan describing how their D&I strategy makes employees of Diageo feel
really proud of the impact that they are having, both internally and externally,” Their ERGs champions the sense of inclusion and appreciating the difference amongst people. The organisation specifically mentions that all parents get up[ to 52 weeks of parental leave with the first 26 weeks being full paid. They openly admit that their brands need to do more in the way of gender equality in advertising, in addition to other minority groups such as the LGBT+ community and people with disabilities.
Their list of achievements and accolades in the area is very impressive, receiving awards from the likes of Hampton-Alexander Review for gender equality at board level, Employees being recognised as Empower Ethnic Minority Role Models, or receiving Receives Perfect Score on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index for Fourteenth Consecutive Year
EY Ireland is one of the “Top 4” professional services firms. They now employ close to 4000 people, providing services in Assurance, Tax, Consulting, and Transactions. The company head office in Ireland is in Harcourt Street in Dublin and they have some of the best examples of D&I landing and policy pages I’ve seen, such as:
The D&I landing page on EY’s website has both information on what EY is doing internationally, but also for what EY Ireland is doing here. This is very reassuring to potential applicants who may be from a minority group in employment. In addition to local initiatives, the company also encourages global leaders within the
company to share their thoughts on their particular passion areas within D&I and explain why it is important to them. The company also gives profiles of each of the thought leaders so you can see their other articles.
EY Ireland publishes their yearly Gender Pay Gap report which highlights their commitment to the employment and equal pay status of women in the workforce and they also have statistics for other minorities in the workplace as well. In addition to organising events around women in the workplace, they also sponsor events in the area such as the Pride Festival and highlighting the importance of celebrating their multi-cultural ethos within the group EY Ireland previously hosted an event called In Motion for a number of years, which celebrated and raised awareness of employees with disabilities in the workplace. They firm has also signed up to The Valuable 500 campaign of putting disability hiring on their agenda, and interviewed their founder Caroline Casey for an internal webinar.
Recently the firm held a webinar with assistive technology firm Texthelp about 3 ways disability inclusion in hiring can benefit your business. EY Ireland’s where many of the senior leaders in the organisation promoted it over LinkedIn.
One of the largest real estate businesses in the world Frank Knight’s headquarters is in London, but they operate in 487 offices across 53 territories, managing deals at the highest levels.
Frank Knight’s global D&I landing page begins with a very strong opening statement from Will Beardmore-Gray, Senior Partner & Group Chair and why it is important to the firm. They then have examples of some of the initiatives that they have started as part of their Employee Resource Groups
One of the most impressive parts of their D&I page is the number of associations they have with organisations in the D&I space. These organisations tie into the ERG strategy to amplify their message and bring in outside knowledge to improve the D&I knowledge within the company
According to their website Hubspot is a “HubSpot is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform that connects everything scaling companies need to deliver a best-in-class customer experience into one place. Our crafted, not cobbled solution helps teams grow with tools that are powerful alone, but better together”.
Hubspot have been in Ireland for more than 10 years, employing 1,000 people.
Hubspot have been recognised for their commitment to diversity and inclusion by their promotion and range of their ERGs. Particularly their Pride, Women@work and Parenting ERG, which includes, bring your kids to work days, family outings days and events within the company with experts in certain areas of parenting.
The company also invests in programs such as Returners Programs, initiatives on hiring people with disabilities, such as partnerships with Ahead and investmentment with training and understanding with The Irish Centre For Diversity and Inclusion.
The company has won awards in the D&I such as Best Place in Ireland to work and The Diversity at Work awards
Finally, Hubspot openly admits that their work in the area of D&I is not complete, it is always evolving and they are always looking to improve their knowledge and experience in the area.
Since opening in 2010, LinkedIn has grown its workforce from 3 to almost 1200 people in the space of 13 years. Although there has been some layoffs at the company in recent months, their D&I landing page and hiring policy remains strong:
Each section of their D&I landing page has either an appropriate image or videos featuring some of their staff or the initiatives that they run.
This makes the page more interactive and engaging than other D&I landing pages. LinkedIn is transparent in their reporting of their D&I goals. Beside the link to the report they have a video of their Chief People Officer and their Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging to explain how they have not only achieved their objectives, but dramatically exceeded these objectives in their hiring of diverse candidates to their field
LinkedIn has been awarded Best Places for LGBT Equality, Most Ethical Companies
Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion and all of these awards are visible on their D&I landing pages. LinkedIn also has links directly to their Life@LinkedIn social media pages, where potential employees can see the kinds of activities that take place in the company and get a sense of the company culture, see if it matches their values.
Microsoft came to Ireland in 1985. The company now has more than 2000 employees in its European Headquarters in Leopardstown in Dublin. Microsoft has always been at the forefront of technology and accessibility. However, they run a number of different programmes for a range of D&I initiatives:
An example of D&I in action is Microsoft Technologies “Tech For Good” initiative. This included bringing school going children to their Dreamspace hub in their Leopardstown Campus in Dublin or investing in initiatives that drive inclusion for students in schools in lower socioeconomic areas.
According to this research from Hays Ireland, more than 50% of employees want to see their company invest in more training around D&I. Microsoft proves their commitment to this by investing in training throughout the company around D&I. Not only does Microsoft have 9 ERGs it also has more than 50 communities. The communities allow employees to find their tribe or they can become allies for others. In addition to philanthropic pages with. The company also mentions additional programmes such as apprenticeship programmes, digital skills programmes and programmes for social and economic inequality.
One of the leading banks in the world, State Street has been operating for more than 40 years. In Ireland, State Street has been operating for more than 25 years and employs close to 2000 people.
State Street’s global D&I landing page begins with a very strong section on the values in D&I that they embed in every part of the organisation.
They then have data on the number of employees that have taken unconscious bias training that month, the amount in dollar terms of senior subordinated bonds underwritten by Black- and Latinx-owned firms that they have invested in and the dollar amount of production they have spent that they have obtained from diverse procurement businesses.
The company is open about their DE&I goals they are setting and creates reports around how these targets are coming along. This can be seen in tandem with their 24 Employee Resource Groups and some of the awards that they have won in the area. Before the company then outlines what it is doing in terms of racism and inequality, pay equity and female empowerment