Not down to luck

Prior to the growth of the past 10 or 15 years, Ireland’s economy was known more for its failures: high unemployment, high emigration and the loss of skills producing a general malaise. But the Celtic tiger clawed back to become one of Europe’s  economic powerhouses. The question is whether they have the home-grown talent to sustain it. By Katie Pattullo.

There are many reasons to visit Ireland for the discerning visitor. It could be the lure of rolling countryside or picturesque taverns inhabited by Samuel Beckett look-a-likes, pint of Guinness in hand. For others it could be a pilgrimage to the home of their musical heroes ranging from U2 to the more traditional sounds of The Chieftains. But how does Ireland sell itself as a reputable and profitable landmark to global multinationals, for the benefit of the organisations themselves and for Ireland’s homegrown talent?

Ireland’s population has increased by 12 per cent since 1995 and unemployment has dropped from nearly 20 per cent in the late 1980s to four per cent. The country has progressed from a stagnant agricultural economy to a booming high-tech powerhouse – now referred to as the ‘Celtic tiger’.

One of the reasons the labour force has grown over the last couple of decades is due to a huge increase in the participation of women in the workforce; coupled with a high level of Ireland’s emigrants of the 1980s returning home to ride the tiger. And over the last five or six years the major influx of labour has been from Eastern Europeans, bringing with them a range of new skills. This has contributed to Irish businesses becoming more diverse, creative and innovative workplaces – helping Irish organisations in their bid to attract like-minded talent.

So, far from being a country where the pace of life is slower, Ireland is a country under pressure. Garry Goldsmith, practice lead of talent management at the Dublin-based offices of Hudson told Talent Management Review: “Large American multinationals and manufacturing plants are rationalising their businesses, perhaps looking for cheaper areas to operate; and the economy is moving towards becoming more knowledge-based. Ireland will find itself having to compete for higher value jobs, putting a lot of pressure on the nation’s workforce.”

But to the outsider, Ireland is thriving and it’s not just the city of Dublin, currently rated as one of the 20 most expensive cities to live in the world; the more provincial cities of Galway, Cork and Limerick are all exciting cities that have attracted major investment from abroad. Cork, for example, is a base for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, an organisation that has recently announced its intention to reinvest in the city, not as a manufacturing plant but around its capability in research and development (R&D). One of the reasons for this is Ireland’s strong reputation for producing well-qualified and talented graduates. Another major factor is the need for these global pharmaceutical companies, in a bid to speed up the time taken to get a drug to market, to sustain their R&D around the clock.

So perhaps Joe Macri, former managing director of Microsoft Ireland, was off the mark when he was quoted, quite controversially, as saying that the sole reason multinationals remain in Ireland is because of the low corporate tax rate of 12.5 per cent. But if this is the case then Ireland needs to grow its indigenous companies and entrepreneurs to sustain economic growth. It is this leadership that is required to drive Ireland’s talent retention.

Goldsmith adds: “The biggest issue for talent managers in Ireland over the next five years is going to be around developing the leaders of tomorrow. With senior teams currently being relatively mature, the pipeline of leaders coming through is a critical issue.”

This is one of the biggest challenges for Ireland’s HR managers: demographics. The babyboomers are getting older. The figure across Europe is that by 2010, 45 per cent of the workforce will be 55 or older. In Ireland, however, there is a lag to that trend, the population is, as a whole, younger. Nevertheless, the numbers of those working will eventually fall and Ireland will see competition from other European countries for their graduates.

James Joyce once said: “If Ireland is to become a new Ireland she must first become European.” But with European leaders trying to emulate the Emerald Isle’s turnaround of fortune, perhaps it should be the other way round.