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The Power of Work-Besties: Building Engaged and Productive Teams

Fostering friendships in the workplace can significantly enhance employee engagement. Creating a positive and supportive environment where individuals feel valued, understood, and motivated; will lead to a happier and more productive workforce. The Impact of "Work-Besties" on Employee EngagementThe notion that having friends at work can positively influence employee engagement may seem intuitive, but the magnitude of its impact is truly remarkable. Research from Harvard Business Review suggests that employees who are happy at work and have at least one close friend there are up to seven times more engaged in their job. This statistic highlights the profound influence that work relationships can have on an individual's motivation and commitment to their work.When employees develop genuine connections with their colleagues, they experience a greater sense of camaraderie, trust, and mutual support. These friendships create a positive work environment, where individuals feel valued, understood, and appreciated. As a result, employees become more invested in their work, exhibiting higher levels of enthusiasm, dedication, and overall job satisfaction. ​The Business Benefits of "Work-Besties"Beyond the personal advantages that work friends bring to employees, organisations stand to benefit significantly from cultivating these relationships. Engaged employees are not only happier in their roles but also 23% more profitable and 18% more productive than their disengaged counterparts. These numbers make a compelling case for companies to actively encourage social connections within their teams.By fostering an environment that encourages meaningful relationships, organisations tap into the powerful synergy that arises from engaged teams. When employees feel connected to their peers, they are more likely to collaborate, communicate openly, and share knowledge, leading to increased innovation and problem-solving capabilities. Moreover, work-besties act as a support system during challenging times, providing emotional support, encouragement, and motivation, which ultimately contributes to higher resilience and job performance.​​The Pandemic's Toll on Work RelationshipsThe Covid-19 pandemic and hybrid working have had a profound impact on work relationships. With many employees working remotely or in a hybrid fashion, the traditional avenues for building work relationships have been disrupted. The lack of face-to-face interaction and the physical separation of teams have made it harder for employees to connect and build relationships. The hybrid working model has also brought new dynamics to work relationships, with teams having to navigate a mix of in-person and virtual interactions. Ultimately, the pandemic and hybrid working have highlighted the importance of intentional efforts to foster connections and build meaningful work relationships, whether in-person or virtually.​​Building Engaged Teams: The Key IngredientsCreating a workplace culture that fosters connection and belonging requires deliberate effort and a genuine commitment from both employees and employers. Here are some key ingredients to consider:Encouraging social interactions: Organisations can organize team-building activities, social events, or provide communal spaces where employees can interact informally. These initiatives create opportunities for employees to get to know each other on a personal level and build meaningful connections. Promoting a collaborative environment: Foster a culture that emphasises collaboration and teamwork. Encourage cross-functional projects, promote open communication, and recognize and reward collective achievements. This approach not only strengthens relationships but also enhances overall team performance.Investing in employee well-being: Recognise the importance of work-life balance and create policies that support employee well-being. Encouraging breaks, offering flexible schedules, and providing access to wellness programs can help foster a positive work environment and strengthen relationships among team members.Lead by example: Managers and leaders play a crucial role in setting the tone for workplace relationships. By prioritising and demonstrating the value of interpersonal connections, they can inspire employees to cultivate meaningful bonds with their colleagues. By creating an environment that nurtures connection and belonging, organisations can harness the power of engaged teams, unlocking their full potential and reaping the rewards of a thriving workforce.​

10 Ways to Improve Your Wellbeing At Work (Workplace Wellbeing Day 2023)

​Maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be a challenge, but it’s essential for your overall wellbeing and productivity. There are many ways to improve your wellbeing at work, and you don't need to make drastic changes to your lifestyle. Here are 10 ways to improve your wellbeing at work this National Workplace Wellbeing Day (Fri 28th April 2023):Take regular breaks: It's important to take breaks throughout the day, as it allows you to recharge and refocus. Try to take short breaks every hour, and take a longer lunch break to give yourself time to relax and recharge.Stay hydrated: Drinking enough water throughout the day is crucial for your wellbeing. Dehydration can lead to fatigue, headaches, and other health problems. Keep a water bottle at your desk and sip water regularly throughout the day.Get up and move: Sitting for long periods can be harmful to your health. Try to get up and move around every hour, even if it's just for a few minutes. You can take a walk around the office, stretch or do some exercises at your desk.Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness is a powerful tool for reducing stress and improving your overall wellbeing. Take a few minutes each day to practice mindfulness meditation or deep breathing exercises to help calm your mind and reduce stress.Eat healthy snacks: Ideally avoid snacking between meals if possible, but if you are snacking choose nutrient-dense snacks that contain a good source of protein - some nuts paired with fruits, and vegetables. Make sure to avoid sugary and processed snacks.Prioritise tasks: Prioritising tasks can help you manage your workload and reduce stress. Start your day by identifying the most important tasks that need to be done, and focus on completing them first.Set boundaries: Setting boundaries can help you maintain a healthy work-life balance. Be clear about your working hours, and try to avoid checking work emails and messages outside of these hours.Connect with colleagues: Building positive relationships with your colleagues can improve your job satisfaction and overall wellbeing. Take the time to connect with your colleagues, whether it's by having a chat over lunch or attending social events.Learn new skills: Learning new skills can help you feel more engaged in your work and improve your job satisfaction. Look for opportunities to learn new skills or take on new challenges at work.Take care of your mental health: Mental health is just as important as physical health, so make sure to take care of your mental wellbeing. If you're struggling with stress, anxiety, or other mental health issues, don't hesitate to seek support from your employer or a mental health professional.​Small changes to your daily routine can make a big difference in your overall wellbeing and productivity. Try incorporating these 10 tips into your daily routine, and see how they improve your work-life balance and wellbeing.

The Remote-Work Rebound: Hybrid workforce grows by two-thirds, remote workforce down by 54%

The ​Talent Leaders Pulse Report was commissioned by Sigmar Recruitment as part of Talent Summit 2023.​"The power dynamic between employer and employee is rebalancing after two years of hyper competition, with early signs of a shift back to office. The fallout of remote working has seen employees pitted against employers as we look to sustain flexible working practices and settle on desired places of work. We are witnessing the remote work rebound, with twice as many workers now working a hybrid model over full-time remote. The hybrid workers now make up 51% of the current workforce, while the remote workforce has reduced by 54% within the last 12 months. This reflects employers’ sentiment that 87% of employees do their best work in a hybrid model.”, says Talent Summit founder and Sigmar CCO, Robert Mac Giolla Phádraig.​Talent Summit 2023 Employment Survey Highlights at a glance:Hybrid WorkHybrid workforce grows by two-thirds, remote workforce down by 54% as employees spend more days in office.2023: 51% working hybrid (30% in 2022), 25% full-time remote (44% in 2022) and 24% in-office (26% in 2022). Of the Hybrid workforce more time is spent in-office over the last 12 months: 81% work 2 days or more in 2023 compared to 74% in 2022.Tuesday (68%), Wednesday (78%) and Thursday (67%) are the most popular days to be in-office with Monday (18% ) and Friday (8%) being the least.Employers believe employees do their best work, working a hybrid model (87%), followed by in-office (11%) with full-time remote (7%) considered the least productive model.​Headcount2023 set to see the largest reduction in headcount in the last 5 years with 18% of employers expecting a reduction this year. 62% expect an increase and 20% expect their headcount to remain the same.​HR PrioritiesThe Top 5 priorities for HR for 2023 show competing priorities creating a confusing labour market: (1) retention (2) labour costs (3) recruitment (4) sustaining a dispersed culture (5) performance management.​Pay63% of employees expected to receive a pay rise of 6% in 2023 (the lowest % pay rise in 6 years)​READ THE FULL REPORT​The current labour market is a confusing one and 2023 looks set to be challenging with many contradictions at play which in turn is creating a tug-of-war of work on four main fronts:Workforce: Employers are looking to balance workforce reduction, employee retention and continuous recruitment needs at all once; Work practices: The need to offer individual flexibility to all employees is often at odds with the collective need for greater productivity;Workplace: Work is shifting back to the office with the hybrid workforce spending more days in office and as employers believe employees are least productive full-time remote;Labour Costs: The rise in the cost of living is driving employee salary expectations yet at the same time employers are tightening budgets with economic uncertainty on the horizon.​Commenting on workplace, Mac Giolla Phádraig adds: “The workplace has been the topic of conversation since the pandemic and employers have polarised preferences. The intense competition for talent the last two years has seen employers who favoured in-office, soften their view as employees demanded greater flexibility in a hyper-competitive labour market. As that demand recedes, those employers find their voice once more, albeit veiled in language around performance and challenges around sustainable work practices. The flexibility offered to employees now seems to be rebounding to more days in office.” READ THE FULL REPORT​​ABOUT THIS SURVEYThe Talent Summit Pulse Survey 2023 was commissioned by Sigmar Recruitment as part of Talent Summit 2023. This is the sixth year the study has been conducted, measuring the pulse of Talent Leaders on a range of Talent Topics. 244 talent leaders from across Ireland took part in the study, comprising of senior executives responsible for talent decision making within their respective organisations, ranging from CHROs, CEOs HR Directors to Heads of HR functions such as L&D, Recruitment, Organisational Development and Performance Management.Europe’s largest HR, work and employment conference, Talent Summit 2023 will take place in Dublin’s Convention Centre on Thursday, 9 March, 2023, welcoming 1500 guests.www.talentsummit.ie​

Talent Summit 2023

​Founded at the height of the financial crisis, Talent Summit is now one of the biggest events of its kind in Europe. Sigmar CCO and Talent Summit Founder Robert Mac Giolla Phádraig talks about this year’s event, HR trends, and why the tech slump is an opportunity for indigenous firms. (Featured in The Currency)---The Currency is media partner of Talent Summit. It will be producing a series of podcasts with executive and thought leaders in human resources participating in the event. The Currency’s podcast stage is sponsored by Employee Financial Wellness a financial education and advice company supporting Talent Summit. For the full line up, tickets and more visit www.talentsummit.ie----​Robert Mac Giolla Phádraig remembers founding Talent Summit back in 2011, when unemployment surged to more than 10 per cent and the country was on the brink of economic collapse.Mac Giolla Phádraig, who had co-led the management buyout of recruitment firm Sigmar just two years earlier, decided to launch National Employment Week as part of a not-for-profit effort. The aim was to connect employers who were still hiring with the tens of thousands of people who were losing their jobs amid Ireland’s economic implosion.“The idea was to set up a job activation initiative,” Mac Giolla Phádraig said. “Unemployment was peaking, and we just wanted to do something to help.”Twelve years later the event has transformed into Talent Summit, making March 9 this year an important date in the Human Resources calendar. Between 1,500 and 2,000 HR professionals attend the summit, making it one of the biggest events of its type in Europe. There are 35 speakers from around the world scheduled, ranging from Evelyn Doyle, the head of people and culture at Patagonia, to Eddie Wilson, the chief executive of Ryanair. A smaller basecamp event takes place the day before for 100 chief people officers from Ireland and overseas.During Covid-19 the event became virtual before returning to being in-person last year. HR had changed a lot during the pandemic.“People really wanted content,” Mac Giolla Phádraig said. “They were trying to figure out what was next for people strategies.”The other thing they wanted to do was convene and network. “They hadn’t been together for two years,” he said. “The conference is about the experience as much as the content. That’s why this year we’ve gone for a whole new look and feel that is flexible and open-plan for delegates.”The VHI will be operating a wellness experience, whileThe Currency, with the support ofEmployee Financial Wellness, is operating a podcast corner. Comedian Joanne McNally is closing the event at an evening reception.Mac Giolla Phádraig, the chief commercial officer with Sigmar, says that putting together the programme for this year’s Talent Summit gave him a unique insight into the challenges and needs of HR leaders.“I think it’s a very confusing labour market right now,” Mac Giolla Phádraig said. “The challenges have been largely talent-led the last two or three years. We’ve seen unprecedented levels of churn in the market with the fallout of remote working all of which is talent driven – it was all about the shortage of talent and how to retain it.“But this is now changing as the economy gets tougher. We’re seeing a lot of contradictions which is the theme of this year’s conference which is the tug of war of work.”He added: “Employers and employees can have opposite priorities. Before there was the swing of power from employer to employee but now it is moving back to the employer quite a bit.“At the same time, flexibility is going in the direction of employees and not necessarily for employers.”​New opportunities and leadershipAccording to Mac Giolla Phádraig, the future of work could be thought about in a simple way: “You have a workplace, a workforce, and then work practice. Work practice is what enables and facilitates both workplace and workforce to collaborate and deliver the product or service.“The burning challenge right now is to make sense of how you can maybe be reducing your workforce, but still have pressure to recruit, while retention remains your number one priority, all under increasing cost pressures. That’s a very confusing message to manage, and a confusing strategy to execute.”Mac Giolla Phádraig said this was a big theme of the conference, not just for tech companies but also for other sectors that may be considering job cuts. The chief people officers of two of Ireland’s best tech unicorns, L. David Kingsley from Intercom, and Stephanie White, from Fenergo are both speaking at the event on how they see the HR market for tech.“We want to drill into, with them, where lies the opportunity in the current market?” Mac Giolla Phádraig said.He added that another theme of the conference was leadership development with Lise Render Nielsen from Lego and Leah Hollander from NASA among the speakers.“When you think about the talent supply chain,” he said. “You buy talent by recruiting it, you borrow it by taking on temporary or flexible people or bot it by automating processes.“Or you can build it. Building your own talent pipeline has been less focussed on in recent years and probably underinvested in, so we’re looking at what you can to increase that.”Mac Giolla Phádraig recalled the story of how President John F Kennedy visited NASA for the first time in 1962: “As he toured the facility the President met a janitor, and asked him: ‘What is it you do here?’ and he replied: ‘I’m helping put a man on the moon.’ That is being purpose driven. With the HR director of NASA we will be taking a deep dive into the driving force behind that level of purpose-driven followship and how it drives discretionary effort, the holy grail of performance.”Many technology companies, he said, had relied on a “seven-star kind of office experience” as a symbol of their culture, but now it is all about mission. “When tech companies lost that competitive advantage of the office experience they doubled down on a deep sense of purpose, their nobility in solving major problems and trying to create a kind of family feel by supporting their people’s wellbeing and so on,” Mac Giolla Phádraig said.“But we’ve had a bit of a wake up call and maybe people feel (because of redundancies) that employers aren’t family, performing well trumps wellbeing and many of their causes are a little less noble perhaps.”“When decisions are made based on the profit and loss account a business can lose its soul somewhat. I think a lot is being played out right now and it will be interesting to see where we end up over the next 12 months.“The golden handcuffs of share options were one of the main challenges in headhunting tech talent for companies who are in growth mode. But as valuations plummeted last year, we saw them change to bronze handcuffs.”​People power“Talent Summit has become of the largest HR conference series in Europe.”Employees, he said, were more prepared to move, and this offered more opportunities to Irish-owned companies and startups to hire good people. “It isn’t all bad news, as indigenous tech and earlier-stage companies can now get access to international talent based in Ireland,” he said.Inflation was putting pressure on employers to increase pay, but again there was tension as the jobs market was not as buoyant as it was. “It’s another tug of war,” Mac Giolla Phádraig said. “Some employers are saying ‘We can help and support you with your financial well-being, but our job isn’t to match inflation.’ It is up to the talent market to decide who wins or loses in these battles.”Traditionally, the route to becoming chief executive officer is often via becoming chief financial officer or chief operating officer first. Talent Summit however is talking to two of Ireland’s most respected  CEOs – Eddie Wilson of Ryanair and Noel Keely of Musgrave – who both came from a HR background. “The answer to the financial crisis was very much the CFO,” Mac Giolla Phádraig said. “The Chief People Officer was the answer to the people crisis and really came to the fore during the pandemic, and they’re still there.”“We’re starting to see how the perception of that function and its impact has changed,” Mac Giolla Phádraig said. “There is a new trend of the CPO moving into the CEO role, so that’s why we have two former heads of HR who have made that journey talking about this.“A lot of the problems to be solved in business are to do with people. HR has a really big impact on organisations especially when they are undergoing transformation. That’s why chief people officers are becoming of ever greater importance as leaders in companies.”​Wanting something moreIn September 2022, the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard gave up his ownership of the company to a trust dedicated to fighting climate change. Head of People and Culture Evelyn Doyle is going to talk about the impact this has had on Patagonia.“She is going to talk about what it means to be a ‘for planet’ business – what challenges it has brought, and how they create a unique sense of purpose and belonging in their company. Not every company is going to go as far as Patagonia but I think it has ideas that a lot of HR leaders can adopt, and help them to think about impact in a greater way.”The Talent Summit also has a panel discussion on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) with speakers Laura Matthews from Bank of America and Joe Creegan from Zurich. “We want to understand what ESG means to different people in the room?” Mac Giolla Phádraig said. “In any talent decision – hiring, retaining, leading – it is about winning hearts and minds.“We want to explore the conversation not just between the employee and the employer but also the customer and society. There is a lot of talk about this, and some of it is window dressing.”He added: “We want to talk about how to create real, material, impactful strategies. HR leaders really showed up for their teams during the pandemic, but now the call to action is what impact can they have on society and making the planet a better place.”Talent Summit aims to combine access to the best HR executives, as well as thought leadership.Dave Ulrich, an author of over 30 books and one of the most influential people in the world in HR, is delivering a keynote speech on “Unleashing human capability for stakeholder value.”“Dave is the godfather of modern HR,” Mac Giolla Phádraig said. “The current HR model is the one he developed and what he is going to talk about is remodelling it post the pandemic. He will be sharing his latest thinking on what we need to do to be more competitive and how HR can have greater impact on all stakeholders.”Ireland, Mac Giolla Phádraig said, had shown it could attract the best companies and talent but it couldn’t afford to be complacent. “We have been a great home for multijurisdictional companies for over 30 years,” he said.“We do have challenges like housing and the cost of living, but we also have an innate sense of storytelling that can build and lead teams. Talent Summit has become of the largest HR conference series in Europe, and we want to make HR better and give Ireland a voice as a great place to work and build a business from.”The Currency is media partner of Talent Summit. It will be producing a series of podcasts with executive and thought leaders in human resources participating in the event. The Currency’s podcast stage is sponsored by Employee Financial Wellness a financial education and advice company supporting Talent Summit. For the full line up, tickets and more visit www.talentsummit.ie

Salary Guide 2023

IT Market Overview 2023

​IT Jobs Market 2023According to a report released by Eurostat, employment in Ireland in NACE category J62 (Computer programming, consultancy, and related activities) reached almost 120,000 at the start of 2022, increasing from 80,000 as recent as the end of 2019. The market is now moving from what was an unsustainable level of demand for technology talent to a more sustainable level- ensuring the market remains highly competitive. Whilst there has been news of layoffs in SaaS Technology companies, traditional industries such as Finance, Banking, Fintech as well as Life Sciences/Biopharma continue to hire at rapid rates, ensuring the market is still holding strong. Employers across multiple sectors (particularly Fintech) are still hiring highly skilled tech talent and are now more open to candidates relocating from Mainland Europe. Onboarding and Aftercare remain highly important as candidates are still prone to receiving multiple offers due to high levels of competition.  Download our 2023 IT Salary Guide for Ireland​Areas of DemandSoftware engineering remains the most highly sought-after skillset, with a particular focus on DevOps, Java, Python, .Net, React and Angular Js. With the continued rollout of digital transformation projects across Irish businesses, QA also remains in high demand. This move towards automated processes has allowed employees within heavily manual positions to upskill in areas such as SDET and RPA. Within an uncertain marketplace, businesses continue to be data driven; choosing to lean on their analytics teams where possible. Data Engineering appears to be the role highest in demand within this vertical, closely followed by data science. With the continuation of a hybrid working model, infrastructure remains as important as always. Most Irish based companies are choosing to move towards a serverless environment, which means there is a high demand for Site Reliability Engineers, Systems engineers, Cloud Engineers as well as technical support specialists at all levels. Ireland has a rich talent pool for executive level talent within IT, ranging from Software Engineering Managers to CTOs. With the continued pattern of new market entrants on the FDI side, these positions remain in high demand.  ​Competitive PackagesTo ensure competitive advantage, employers must offer base salaries, benefits, and perks in line with the market expectations or else risk losing strong candidates from recruitment process. In terms of monetary benefits, healthcare remains the most highly sought from candidates post-covid times followed closely by pensions. This could be linked to a heavier focus on financial security for the future.  An interesting development of late, is the increasing number of companies using sign on bonuses to secure new hires- We expect to see this continue throughout 2023 as companies fight to retain current employees and attract new hires. To maintain a competitive advantage, employers also need to be mindful of employee experience.Individualized experience proposals given to candidates or employees may be beneficial for employers to remain competitive in:CollaborationEquity in cultural experiences for remote/in-office workersEmployee well-being How employers handle these elements will ultimately determine how successful employers will be in the battle for talent.  Demand for Remote WorkHybrid working policies are now the most popular model offered to permanent employees, with 85% of our clients offering 3 days in office/2 days remote working. With the balance in the tug of war for talent shifting more in favour to the employer, companies are now addressing WFH policies on a more individual basis rather than a blanket policy. Flexibility for fully remote work appears to be offered however to candidates in the most demanded areas, with the caveat that they are based in the Republic of Ireland and will travel to the office on an ad-hoc basis when required. This may reverse as job security heightens as a priority in a tough economic climate. ​ContractorsBusinesses are continuing to look to Contractors to fill gaps in their teams in tandem with permanent positions; a trend we foresee continuing throughout 2023. An interesting development in the market is that it is no longer just large organisations leaning on contractors. SMEs are also now tapping into the contractor talent pool as a way of supplementing their workforce- especially now that permanent salaries appear to be on par with contractor daily rates due to market inflation. ​We particularly foresee an increase in demand of contract roles across Cloud, Data and Development.Outsourced IT functions also appear to be on the rise for more commercially focused IT positions (Business Analytics, Project managers) as well as infrastructure support. ​Increased RatesAs a result of the increase in demand, due to several variables ranging from talent availability, higher levels of competition, perceived instability of the IT market portrayed in the media as well as a somewhat limited talent pool, contract rates have been on the rise and will continue to increase in 2023.It is now common practice for a contractor to ask and receive rate increases when their contracts are up for renewal. Recruitment and retention therefore remain high priorities for companies using contractors. Remote WorkWith organisations now comfortable with remote work arrangements, the market has opened up to all areas of Ireland. A noticeable trend has arisen for IT Contractors based in the regions who are now being able to work for large multi-national organisations in their own cities whilst receiving the same rates of those based in the capital.This has therefore resulted in daily rates within regional areas of Ireland to be on par with those of in the major cities.All-in-all, we are optimistic about the IT Contracts job market in 2023 with plentiful opportunities across infrastructure, development and data in particular. ​​IT Salary Guide 2023Download our 2023 IT Salary Guide for Ireland

Adie McGennis Wins Lifetime Achievement Award

​We are delighted to announce that our founder and CEO, Adie McGennis has been recognised for his remarkable career, personal and professional standing, and in particular his achievements over his twenty-year tenure as Sigmar’s CEO. On Friday at the Employment & Recruitment Federation Awards, hosted at The Shelbourne Hotel, Adie was presented with the James Kilbane Lifetime Achievement Award. Our Sales & Marketing team were also the winners of the “Best in Practice – Sales & Marketing Recruitment” award on the night. Beginning his career in recruitment in the 90s with Interstaff Recruitment after a brief stint in London, within a few short years, Adie became Managing Director of Marlborough Recruitment. It went on to become the largest recruitment agency in Ireland and the first Irish professional services company to be listed on the stock exchange. In 2002, he left to help set up Sigmar Recruitment and since then, Adie has built Sigmar into a thriving, global company that has won over 60 awards. Adie is the ultimate servant leader; humble and sincere, measuring himself by the leaders he creates and not by his own achievements. His ethos has undoubtedly shaped Sigmar’s culture and purpose. Commenting on Adie’s achievement, Frank Farrelly, COO of Sigmar Recruitment said:“I am absolutely delighted that Adie has been recognised by the Employment & Recruitment Federation. Adie is one of the most recognizable and well-liked recruitment professionals in Ireland.  In a career spanning over 30 years, he has made numerous lifelong friends and he has been one of the most collaborative and helpful people to many in the industry be they colleagues, competitors or members of the ERF.  He truly embodies the spirit of this award and I am delighted to see him being awarded by his peers. Through Adie’s leadership, values, and entrepreneurial spirit, Sigmar has continued to grow and evolve as a business and will continue to do so! Thank you Adie, for all that you have done! Huge congratulations on behalf of all team Sigmar!”​ Find out more about Sigmar’s story here. Find out more about the Employment & Recruitment Federation Awards here. ​

Sigmar's Difference Day: Saplings Special School

​Following on from 10 of our staff raising €42,775 on the Paris2Nice cycle, over 40 of us descended on Saplings Special School, Kilkenny to take part in our first-ever Difference Day, to put the money raised into action. Our goal was to help transform the outdoor areas of the school to enhance the environment for the children and teachers of the school. A total of 5 projects were carried out on the day including building 2 outdoor classroom spaces, new seating and planters, painting the playground area and constructing a fence to make the front area of the school safe for the kids.There was lots of hard work but the fantastic principal Sandra, her staff and the wonderful pupils of Saplings kept spirits high throughout the day. It was extremely rewarding when the team were able to reveal the completed projects to some of the teachers, parents and pupils at the end of the day. Their reaction made all the manual labour worth it!A huge thank you to Difference Daysand Outdoor and Spaceswho helped us bring this project to life! It was an absolute privilege to be able to undertake it.​

The Benefits Of Contract Work

​The jobhunting period can at times feel quite negative, and many people will be put off contract work as they know they have a date where they will be out of employment after the role expires. Also, jumping between different industries in quick succession can prove a challenge for the Wallflowers in this blogs audience. However, Contract work does have benefits that should not be overlooked both to the short and long-term trajectory of your career. Here are a number of reasons why you should accept contract as well as some added benefits you may not have considered.Make ConnectionsThe nature of contract work dictates that unless you’re offered a permanent position, you will be moving between places of work every 6 - 12 months. The benefit of this, is that you are likely to become acquainted with many business leaders, executives, CEOs, and industry experts along the way. This will prove invaluable as building your contact list of reputable business leaders will provide new connections, long lasting business relationships and an impressive list of references for your next employer to contact. In a world where a person’s experience in the field can be the deciding factor in being chosen for interview, having connections to add to your credibility will only ever benefit your applicationFind your job passionIt is not uncommon for young professionals to work a variety of roles before settling into a more permanent fulfilling role. This method can provide a multitude of valuable experience, references, and insights into the nature of the industry. Contract work is a good way to dip your toe into the pool of the industry and find out if you are best aligned with the culture and work involved in the industry.SalaryContracted roles will get you better pay. They offer a higher basic salary in lieu of a benefits package. You can make your experience really work to your advantage. Employers are typically willing to pay you generously, providing you meet their requirements, if you solve their problem or need quickly. Employers tend to really value experience, since they want to bring onboard someone who can jump right in and hit the ground running.Faster EmploymentNow this of course does not cover all contract work, and you shouldn’t apply for a contract position assuming you’re going to be accepted by 9:30 and start work at 10:00. However, the creation of a contract role may have resulted in a sudden urgency and vacation that needs to be filled, so the onboarding of contracts does move faster than permanent roles.More FreedomAs you are not bound by the standard contracts of the business, you have more negotiating room when discussing hours, pay and location. You may have been brought into the contract role to assist with a sudden influx of work, therefore If you can assure your employer you will complete the work, you can choose working hours that fit for you, which can provide more time out of work for looking at more roles, building your professional profile and networking.In ConclusionThere are many business professionals who have built there who career around contract work and it’s not too hard to see why. Contract work offers more flexibility, better pay, more variation, and greater chance of networking and building a profile within the industry. Understanding the process and careful planning can ensure you are never out of work for lengthy periods of time, and with the flexibility contract work offers, you can use any free time to plan ahead once your contract expires. If you are keen to build your professional CV, build strong industry connections, gain experience and entertain a higher pay, contract work is definitely worth your time