Future ways of working

Remote working has transformed our lives, and for the better reckons Rachael Quinlan, head of employee experience at CluneTech, the Irish-headquartered group of global tech companies such as TransferMate and TaxBack.

“Pre-Covid we were fully on site globally. In terms of flexibility, we didn’t have any. It was something the team was pining for though, because we knew we were losing staff due to long commutes,” she says.

“Because we do a lot of work in the Asia Pacific region, when Covid hit there we got foresight around how serious it would be. Consequently, we were one of the first companies in Ireland to send staff to work from home.”

By August 2020 it was so successful that it was adopted wholesale. “We did a video call with staff and told them this is here to stay. Even now, we are not interested in a mass return. We are happy for our staff to work in a way that works for them,” says Quinlan.

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Most CluneTech staff now work remotely. “We took the opportunity to renovate our HQ in Kilkenny. Pre-Covid it was rows of desks and not reflective of the global tech company we are. Now it fosters and encourages collaboration. We have space for those who want to work there. We want people to come in and do the things they can’t do at home, such as meet up,” she says.

“Decisions about hybrid working are made at team level. Some teams will come in, say, on Tuesdays, for others it might be once a fortnight, once a month or on an ad hoc basis. They decide,” she says.

“It works really well. The feedback we get on wellbeing and flexibility has soared,” she says.

It has continued to add flexible work options, launching a “summer flex hours” scheme which enables staff to work up extra time off. It introduced “life work” days, paid half days off “so people can get their bits and bobs done, like getting the car to the NCT, without eating into hard-earned annual leave,” she explains.

Flexibility has paid dividends. “Our trust levels are up, and staff have become our advocates,” she says.

At DIY retailer Woodie’s, new technology is supporting inclusive recruitment practices.

The company, which employs 1,500 people across 35 locations, has introduced Sapia.ai, an AI interview system that helps it identify talent, ensure diversity and provide a better candidate experience.

The company receives more than 35,000 job applications a year, mainly at entry level, so the first benefit is efficiency, says Woodie’s head of HR David Nally.

Not having to sift through CVs frees store managers to “run the business, lead teams and focus on customers”, he explains.

Applicants are taken for a “Facebook-style chat” with five simple questions. They can answer at the time and place of their choosing, which helps those uncomfortable in interview situations.

“The system ignores personal characteristics, such as who you love or where you worship, and instead scans against a competency framework linked to our brand values,” he says.

As such it ensures “blind recruiting”. Those who score highly are moved on to a human recruiter. “It’s a very seamless process which for the candidate ends with either a job offer or feedback,” he says.

But what makes it “even more powerful” is the role it plays in supporting diversity, he adds. Sapia’s reports allow management to track candidate characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and cultural background, to see if particular cohorts are falling out along the full recruitment process, as a way of reducing the risk of unconscious bias.

It works. Before it was introduced in 2021, 70 per cent of Woodies’ hiring was of white males. It is now hiring 1½ times more women.

“We are representative of national demographics and that’s good because we need to be representative of the community we serve,” he says.

“We are now recruiting twice as many LGBTQ+ colleagues as we were before and, though we still have work to do in relation to disability, we are recruiting twice as many disabled colleagues. What’s more, our Great Place to Work data shows us that as we have become more diverse, we have become more inclusive too.”