Opening Address by Minister Devins at the National Workplace Strategy Masterclass, Royal Hospital Kilmainham

Theme: “3-D Thinking for Workplace Innovation – Engaging Employees for Competitive Advantage”.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to be here today to open the NCPP’s 2008 National Workplace Strategy Masterclass. The theme of this year’s event is “3-D Thinking for Workplace Innovation – Engaging Employees for Competitive Advantage” and it is a valuable opportunity to discuss this key component of Ireland’s national innovation framework.

The importance of the innovative capacity of business has never been greater in order to remain competitive in today’s volatile markets. And our ambition to become among the best in the world at innovative thinking has never been stronger. While innovation has traditionally been seen as technology-led, it is today seen in a broader context. This Government has a clear goal to promote and support innovation across all areas.

Policy Statement on Innovation In Ireland

Earlier this year, the Tánaiste and I launched a document called ‘Innovation in Ireland’, which forms our first policy statement on innovation. The policy statement sets out 10 key policy areas that underpin Government’s approach to promoting and supporting innovation and also identifies opportunities where innovation can be better exploited. Crucially, it recognises workplace partnership as one of the 10 critical components that must be nurtured and grown. It also highlights the progress we have made so far in areas such as linking education and research with industry, the deepening of a culture of lifelong learning, the fostering of industry networks and clusters that are such fertile ground for innovative thinking and practices. By putting innovation at the core of our policies, competitive advantage and productivity can be increased in the face of growing global competition. I believe that we must continue to play to our strengths by continuing to tap into our innate ability to build relationships and to foster innovative partnerships and business networks both at home and abroad. Innovation is as vital to the services sector as it is to the manufacturing sector and I see evidence of an eagerness now in the newer sectors to embrace innovative approaches.

Workplace Innovation

Innovation also cuts across all areas of business from consumer-driven innovative products and services to developing new business models, new organisational structures and skills for innovation. Workplace innovation, which we are very usefully focussing on here today, is without a doubt a key component of our national system of innovation. Workplace innovation is a vital means of unlocking talent and know how. I firmly believe that the quality of Irish workplaces and the levels of innovation and change in them are critical to Ireland’s ongoing transition to a more dynamic, highly skilled and knowledge economy.

Employee Involvement and Partnership in the Workplace

Involving and engaging employees in the workplace means being “open to change and open to partnership”, in the words of the NCPP’s recent public awareness campaign. It is about embracing change and turning it to our advantage. Employee involvement has been shown in various studies and research to improve a wide range of organisational performance including communications, management/employee relations, workplace adaptability and organisational effectiveness.

I believe that the provision of information and consultation is a key contributor to high performance and it is this Government’s policy to encourage improvement in information and consultation of employees in enterprises as a means of improving competitiveness and the development of a greater sense of partnership at the level of the enterprise.

Workplace partnership is not about just processes and structures though, it is about building a culture of openness and trust based on communication and consultation with employees. It involves developing performance-management and reward systems that encourage learning, risk-taking and team-working. These should not be quantified as costs but should be viewed as smart investments.

Social Partnership Transitional Agreement

In this country, we have seen the benefits of partnership at national level over the past two decades and I would like to formally congratulate the social partners on reaching a national agreement earlier this month under what were very challenging circumstances. While it still has to be ratified, I believe that the formulation of the new Transitional Agreement is a credit to the focus and determination of the parties involved. I think it is speaks volumes of their commitment to be proactive in very challenging times and to take responsibility for the difficult decisions required to keep this country on track economically and socially. I sincerely hope that their respective constituencies will support the hard-won terms of the Transitional agreement and I look forward to its ratification. The new Transitional Agreement will provide continuity and certainty for the Irish economy, a certainty which is vital for deepening innovation, achieving strong competitiveness and creating jobs. It will provide the necessary strong protection for employment standards, while also providing a much-needed boost to enterprise.

The new Agreement specifically recognises the importance of innovation and the management of change to ensuring Ireland’s competitiveness and it sets out a range of commitments to support the change effort. The NCPP will continue the important promotional, advisory and research work that it has been pursuing to date to support workplaces in embracing change and innovation.

National Workplace Strategy

All of the key principles of supporting workplaces in this task are outlined in the National Workplace Strategy. The Strategy is not only a blueprint to transform Irish workplaces into 'workplaces of the future', but can also serve as part of the solution to the very challenging economic situation the country now finds itself in. As the research commissioned by the NCPP and the Equality Authority into High Performance Work Systems in large companies found, the deployment of strategic HR management and partnership practices, as well as equality and diversity policies and flexible work systems in the workplace can add as much as 15% to a firm's productivity rate - in the study, this was found to be equivalent to an extra €45,000 per employee per annum in additional sales revenue.

Workplace Innovation Fund

That is why the Government has put the Workplace Innovation Fund in place. The Fund helps Irish firms improve their productivity and performance through greater levels of employee involvement and engagement. My Department channels funding through Enterprise Ireland which, working in conjunction with the NCPP, targets support under the Fund for companies that seek to improve their competitiveness and productivity by introducing new organisational processes, practices and arrangements. The new Transitional agreement commits Enterprise Ireland and the NCPP to expanding the number and range of companies availing of the Fund. In addition, my Department is directly supporting the social partners through the Workplace Innovation Fund in building their own capacities to progress the National Workplace Strategy.

A crucial message that I think we should take from this conference today is that a fully innovative approach comes about as a result of building a capacity for partnership-led change. The Government and the social partners have confirmed their support for this approach in the new Agreement.

Conclusion

In terms of Government efforts to build a knowledge economy it is people and not technology who create value from knowledge. Therefore it is vital that these efforts be based on the principle of “investing in people”, that is a partnership approach to developing and transforming our workplaces.

While learning from good practices elsewhere and benchmarking ourselves against the best in the world is important, we also have the dynamism and the confidence to generate our own ideas and innovations. Our strategies on skills, science, technology and innovation will, I believe, provide a framework in which we bring the skills of the future into today’s workplace.

I would finally like to congratulate the NCPP on bringing together such a promising agenda for this Masterclass session. I know that this is the latest in a series of Masterclasses organised by the NCPP and the programme for this morning looks as interesting and innovative as one would expect to find at a forum on the theme of workplace innovation. I hope to enjoy some of the creative events planned throughout the session and I wish you all a stimulating and inspiring morning.

ENDS/IP63