HR practices in Ireland 2023

Conducted in conjunction with the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, our report explores the latest insights on the challenges and concerns of the people profession in Ireland.

The past year has been challenging for organisations and people professionals, amid high levels of global uncertainty and inflation. Understanding how organisations and people professionals responded to these challenges, and their future plans, enables the profession to benchmark their practices and improve their impact.

Our 2023 survey explores the visibility and impact of the profession, key priorities and challenges, and how these are being dealt with. It looks at how new ways of working are being implemented, the impact on culture and productivity, along with the attention on wellbeing, inclusion and sustainable people practices.

Key findings and recommendations

Skills shortages

Accessing key skills in the Irish labour market remains the key driver of the people agenda in many organisations, as 90% of survey respondents experienced skills shortages in the past year.
A new priority emerging this year was leadership development, identified as the skill area of greatest concern in relation to attracting and retaining employees.
For five years, the HR practices in Ireland survey has identified weak line management capacity and capability as a constraint to implementing successful HR practices, and this needs to be addressed to deliver a strategic approach to human resource management.

Recommendations

Analysis of future skills requirements needs greater attention, matched with increased upskilling effort to reduce skills gaps.
nvestment in leadership and people management skills is immediately required to build capability to lead and retain employees.

Employee turnover

2023 is the first HR practices survey to identify the way the cost-of-living and housing crises are changing employee behaviour, contributing to increased employee turnover. They emerged as key drivers for employees to change jobs and are contributing to mental health issues.
Despite organisations having a range of employee wellbeing initiatives in place, and the topic appearing on senior leadership’s agenda, heavy workloads and burnout within the workforce remains evident, impacting both employee turnover and mental health.

Recommendations

Implement pulse surveys to identify the profile of employees at most risk of leaving, and the drivers of their behaviour. Take action based on the survey findings.
Review reward benefits to ensure they are targeted at employees’ immediate needs.
Implement financial wellbeing measures to help deal with rising costs and accommodation supports where necessary.

Hybrid working

Ways of working have yet to settle down since the pandemic and access to remote and hybrid working continues to grow.
Hybrid working has been driven by team needs, most commonly resulting in employees working two or three days on-site and the remainder from home.
Some of the difficulties of operating in this environment are now becoming clearer, and this survey found increased challenges in dealing with work culture, wellbeing, managing performance and innovation.
For many organisations, culture is in need of a reset in 2023, and greater focus is due to be placed on the employee experience, use of social gatherings and anchor days as tools to address this.

Recommendations

Recognise that remote and hybrid working needs ongoing evidence and testing to embed effectively.
Train and support managers to operate effectively in a hybrid world.
Refocus the organisation’s culture to realign with future ways of working.

Sustaining the impact of the people profession

The visibility of the people profession remains high, driven by influencing the strategy and direction of their organisations, putting strong emphasis on business partnering and adding value.
Use of technology to support the work of the function is increasing slowly, and transformational change and people analytics remain key development areas.
The sustainability agenda is growing from a people perspective, and particular attention was given to employee wellbeing, enhancing employee voice and participation, and fostering diversity and inclusion.

Recommendations

Sustain the alignment of people priorities with organisations’ priorities to maximise the impact of the profession.
Ongoing development, particularly in digital transformation, is critical to maximise the benefits of technology in delivering HR strategies and services.
Upskill employees on sustainable HRM practices and provide appropriate leadership on addressing the issues organisation-wide.

Line managers

To keep good people practices alive, the contribution of line managers is crucial. But a lack of time and weak devolution of responsibilities have resulted in large gaps in line manager engagement over the last five years.
With leadership development emerging as a key organisational and HR priority for 2023, now is the time to take action to address this.

Recommendations

Put metrics in place to demonstrate the impact of line management on employee performance and retention and agree future priorities and practices.
Diagnose key skills gaps and invest in building leadership and people management skills.
Define how best to devolve HR practices and support managers in their people management responsibilities

HR practices in Ireland 2023

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