It is a pleasure to be here with you this afternoon at this, the 22nd Annual Conference of the European Association of Personnel Management. Our hosts, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), are to be commended for bringing such a distinguished array of contributors to Dublin for this, Europe’s most prestigious HR event.
The theme of your conference – the European Workplace of the Future – is one that is particularly relevant. In the global knowledge-based economy, we increasingly recognise human talent and creativity as the key resource – and the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. How we unlock and further develop this talent and creativity in our workplaces has become the crucial organisational issue of our time.
We are living through an era of accelerated social and technological change, to which workplace innovation is a necessary response. In addition, research shows us clearly that the value of new technologies in the workplace cannot be unlocked by simply bolting them on to established ways of doing business. It is now accepted that as many as nine-tenths of the issues in technology-enabled change are about embracing new ways of doing things – new work practices, new skills, new channels of communication, and new organisational structures. Our approach must therefore be characterised by a shared willingness to look beyond arrangements designed to cater for the needs of the past.
It is clear that the issues around the management and development of people have never been more important. It is therefore appropriate that I take this opportunity to acknowledge the key role of the European Association for Personnel Management (EAPM) and its constituent organisations. And it is fitting, too, to note the phenomenal membership growth being experience by our hosts, CIPD Ireland. We know the future lies in our people, and you offer us the insights and techniques with which to realise their potential.
Economy and Jobs
It is also a good time to be visiting Ireland! Growth forecasts are up. Real GNP growth has been averaging 5.7% per annum since 1997. And for 2005 and 2006, it is estimated that real GDP will grow by at least 5%. Employment conditions are strong.
Unemployment, at 4.3%, is half the EU average, while long-term unemployment at 1.5%, still remains historically low. Inflation is at the Eurozone and EU average, and our public finances are healthy.
I am fortunate that I can list off a string of growth numbers that provoke envy among many of my peers across the world. Let me assure you that they are the result of careful planning and hard work, and that we are by no means complacent. However, what is particularly welcome in Ireland’s case has been the extent to which significant improvements in net income have been paralleled by sustained employment growth – from 1.38 million at work in 1997 to 1.9 million today. The economy has managed to generate a highly virtuous circle of growth in output, incomes and jobs.
I believe that economic success is best measured by a country’s ability to create and sustain employment and opportunities for its people. Of all our policy achievements, I regard our record on job creation as ranking among the most significant.
However, if the last decades were about employment creation, the present focus of concern for employers and employees is the quality of that employment.
This is why your focus on the workplace of the future is so important.
Social Partnership
I should take this opportunity to point to one particular source of innovation, which has served us extremely well in Ireland. I refer to our social partnership model.
As a society, we have rejected the outdated and false proposition that we must choose between economic success and social progress. The reality is that both must be integrated. A growing economy cannot be sustained without social progress – which means a better educated and healthier population in a fully inclusive society – and social progress is in turn dependent on a dynamic and successful economy.
Successful social partnership requires realism on all sides, especially about the need for change – at the national level and at the level of the individual enterprise. Our social partnership model can continue to be successful, and will have my continuing support, if it faces up to the requirements of ongoing change, and radical change when that is necessary.
National Workplace Strategy
It was in the context of seeing partnership as the engine of change that the new National Workplace Strategy, “Working to our Advantage”, was developed.
You will already have heard about this initiative, which I launched recently, in some detail this morning from the Director of our National Centre for Partnership and Performance, Lucy Fallon-Byrne.
A point I would emphasise is that this strategy is the result of almost two years of research, analysis and consultation with employers, employees, trade unions and Government at the Forum on the Workplace of the Future. It is a strategy, which recognises that innovative and dynamic workplaces will need to value their employees as the ‘thinking core’ of the organisation – harnessing their ideas and talents, and maximising opportunities for innovation and creativity.
We should also be clear that the National Workplace Strategy marks only the beginning of a process of workplace development here in Ireland. It might be worth noting that its implementation will be designed to cover critical outcomes in five key areas:
Improving workplace innovation: by increasing the take up of “bundles” of practices, which create the conditions for innovation and lead to high performance;
Improving our capacity for change: by improving leadership and management skills, harnessing the talents and ideas of employees, enhancing our dispute resolution mechanisms and continuing to develop a more proactive role for trade unions;
Developing future skills: by dramatically improving opportunities for learning in the workplace;
Improving access to the workplace: by removing barriers to participation for key groups including women, older workers, immigrants, and people with disabilities; and
Improving the quality of working life: to attract and retain more people at work as our economy continues to grow and as the demographics of our workforce changes.
Employment Rights Procedures
It might also be appropriate to touch briefly on the issue of employment rights procedures.
It is clear that a well functioning labour market is critical to the twin aims of economic and social prosperity. That means a market where appropriate worker protections are in place and where there is an appropriate mix of redress, arbitration, mediation and advisory bodies.
The body of legislation – both domestic and European – which impacts on our workplaces is now significant. In Ireland, we now have 25 Acts relating to employment rights and industrial relations, and eight separate bodies to oversee them. This is to say nothing of amending legislation and the various Statutory Instruments. Whatever chance practitioners have of navigating their way around this maze, the average citizen has very little.
This is why I am prioritising:
The introduction of a simplified approach to streamline the work of all the employment rights bodies;
A reduction of the number of Acts through consolidation;
Simplifying the language wherever possible; and
Providing user-friendly guides and information to help people.
I must stress here that the objective is not in any way to reduce workers’ rights or protections. Rather, our aim is to help the public and the expert practitioner to decode the system. This will help them to have a better appreciation of their rights and the means of redress and dispute resolution open to them.
It may not sound like very glamorous work, but it is very important. It has become clear that putting in place an improved employment rights’ system – covering both rules and bodies – can make Ireland a better place in which to work and employ people.
I believe that this domestic process of consolidation should be matched at EU level – where much of the legislation affecting the world of work now originates. Progress in this area would make an important contribution to the renewed effort to realise the ambitious targets contained in the Lisbon agenda.
European Union
I am also keen to take this opportunity to turn to a much wider issue – that is, my firm belief that Ireland’s place is at the heart of the European Union.
The commemorative events in Moscow earlier this week serve as a timely reminder that the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ending of the Cold War, and the reunification of Europe have given our continent an unprecedented opportunity.
The 460 million citizens of all 25 Member States can work together to develop a social Europe based on shared values and common objectives. Collectively, we can seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of a globalising world, particularly the rise of the Asian economies.
The biggest success of Ireland’s EU Presidency, which continues to have an impact throughout the European Union, is the agreement on the draft Treaty establishing the European Constitution. The ratification and subsequent implementation of that Constitution is now one of the key priorities for Europe.
Last year, I spent a great deal of time, in my capacity as President of the European Council, talking to my EU colleagues about their concerns. These discussions, which covered not only the European Constitution, but also economic and social issues, confirmed my view of the striking synergies that exist between the European agenda and our own domestic agenda.
What is also striking is the key role of vision and leadership in shaping the way forward in the new Europe – leadership which must come not just from Government, but which must be shown too by business, by unions and by non-government organisations alike.
The European Constitution, unlike all of the Treaties it replaces, sets out clearly what the citizens of Europe stand for and what their values are.
It reflects the Union of values to which all Member States subscribe, namely: respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights.
In my view, a vote on the European Constitution is not a vote about the dry details of institutional organisation, decision-making or particular EU policies. It is, instead, a vote about the kind of EU that we want to have. A vote for the European Constitution is fundamentally a vote for common values, common objectives and the nature of the society we want to create in the unified Europe. It is a vote for the role we want Europe to play in the wider world, a role that reflects the most cherished values of European society.
Conclusion
I have no doubt that these values are ones that will underpin and permeate your deliberations during these proceedings on the key issues of workplace adaptability and innovation in the new Europe.
I wish you all the very best in those deliberations, and hope that the visitors among you will enjoy your stay in Dublin.
Thank you.
ENDS