Eolas future of work report sep 2021

Future of work and connectivity report

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future of work and connectivity report

Consolidating change in the new normal Catherine Corcoran is Head of Consulting with RSM Ireland, who have a demonstrable track record of supporting the public sector over the last 20 years. Making Remote Work is a significant strategy which will require both strategic planning and operational excellence to succeed. In this article, Catherine speaks to the need to consolidate and build on changes already enacted with two RSM colleagues taking a deeper dive into salient pillars underpinning effective delivery of remote work: people and technology.

Early 2020 saw not just the onset of Covid-19 but the onset of a period of substantial and unprecedented workplace change. Change that was imperative and immediate. Change that required agility and speed of play.

Change that was heretofore almost unimaginable was implemented with minimal forward planning.

The types of immediate challenges the public service faced were: • the requirement for critical containment activities, such as contact tracing, through widescale redeployments;

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• the need to address the limitations of existing technology with the imperative to facilitate remote working; • the temporary suspension of public services which previously required presenteeism until, where possible, an alternative was conceived. The need for continuous planning to manage increasing backlogs was an

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on-going requirement; • a requirement to enable a significant proportion of the 335,000 strong public sector workforce commence remote working; and • the need to manage hundreds of geographically dispersed “home offices” across the country.

These were significant challenges requiring changes that may heretofore have been unimaginable. Solutions were found to make things work. The public service galvanised itself around the ‘greater good’ bringing out all that is good about Ireland and its citizens.

As we, hopefully, move towards a more stable period the challenge for the public sector is how to effectively consolidate and harness the substantial goodwill and changes that have been affected using a systematic and measured approach, one that works.

On the 15 January 2021, the national remote working strategy Making Remote Work was published by the Department

of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

This is built on three pillars, each with core elements summarised as follow: 1. Create a conducive environment: a right to disconnect and to request remote work, health and safety and review of tax or financial incentives.

2. Develop and leverage remote work infrastructure: the establishment of hubs and reenergising the National Broadband plan.

3. Build a remote work policy and guidance framework: creating a shared vision in the sector to promote collaboration and conducting ongoing research on remote working.

All pillars are underpinned by enabling conditions such as mandating the norm for 20 per cent of the sector to work from home/remotely and ensuring equitable treatment of remote and office-based workers.

The challenge for public service organisations lies in organising their operating models to respond to the

Barriers such as: • lack of visible leadership support and buy-in; • maintaining a common purpose or vision;

counterproductive “subcultures” or sentiments of “us/them”.

A tall order, and one that requires careful and orderly planning. Now is the time to harness and consolidate all the

• effective communication where employees are dispersed;

achievements to date, and a good

• early identification and management of resistance or employee relations;

key enablers of change – people and

starting point may be to consider two technology. Graham Murphy, Senior

future of work and connectivity report

requirements of Making Remote Work and the ‘new normal’ it aspires to.

Similar to any large-scale organisation, the sector requires guidance from central government to promote approaches aligned to long standing sectoral fundamentals such as consistency, fairness, probity, and impartiality. The challenge will be for organisations to implement this in a way that is consistent with the delivery requirements specific to each of these organisations. Anticipating and overcoming barriers will be a central tenet of successfully embedding change.

Manager with RSM and Terry McAdam, • maintaining momentum and energy in the transition period; and

RSM Consulting Partner comment

• avoiding development of

overleaf.

further on these two areas below and

Consolidating change — the people factor Graham Murphy, Senior Manager in Consulting at RSM, takes a deeper look at a selection of some of the salient people considerations in consolidating changes required to support a remote operating model.

People were critical to the early response to the pandemic and will be equally important in the successful delivery and implementation of 2021 strategy Making Remote Work. To have an effective remote working model, organisations will need to proactively create a conducive environment, supports and systems. There are a multitude of factors to consider, here we focus on four.

• Strategic workforce planning: There is a huge opportunity to harness workforce planning in a very strategic way to ensure the right people, are in the right place at the right time as we design our new normal.

• Culture: creating mechanisms which ensure espoused organisational culture endures across geographically dispersed workforce.

Organisations will need to have deliberate planned interventions to inculcate and sustain their culture.

Management should think about making values more visible, introducing mechanisms to promote a culture of conversations, and ensuring organisational inductions truly embed new starters into that culture.

• Policies and procedures: ensuring these align with, and support, a remote work operating model whilst not compromising on longstanding sectoral values. People policies and procedures are a foundation of ensuring organisations function with consistency, fairness, and impartiality of utmost importance within the public sector. There is a huge body of work now in assessing all policies and procedures and their appropriateness for remote working

including new policies aligned to emerging codes of practice (such as the right to disconnect). Similar will apply to procedures. It is here that many barriers may emerge as it becomes difficult to find ‘one size fits all’. Introducing successful change may necessitate consultation and compromises, both internally and externally, but are more achievable if proposed changes deliver benefits to all.

• Capability/skills development: ensuring organisations are equipped with the right skills, expertise, and capability to thrive in remote environments which requires both new skills but also reinforcing the old.

Managers may require development on the nuances of remote work including inclusive leadership. All employees with remote elements of their role will realise the benefit of development in areas such as personal effectiveness, resilience, presentation skills and communication skills. Other areas of awareness, such as cybersecurity and data protection, will remain vital to safeguarding business operations. 4

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Delivering the new normal will mean that organisations will need a deep understanding of the composition of their workforces. This should be achieved through critical assessment of individual roles, business units and departments for their suitability for remote work and the form of remote work. Done properly, this may also identify barriers to overcome including ineffective processes, sub

optimal technology, skills or learning gaps.

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Consolidating change — the technology factor Terry McAdam is a Technology Consulting Partner at RSM, who considers two technology factors which are both of strategic and operational importance for public sector organisations in delivering a remote operating model.

future of work and connectivity report

The technology resources of the public sector have, in general terms, underpinned a very successful transition to remote working over the past 18 months. New and existing services have been delivered to citizens, via both traditional and new operating models and channels. Two key areas will be vital to consolidating change across the public service: • Data security: the recent data security issues experienced by the HSE has reinforced for us all the importance of securing both the personal data of service users and the commercial data of the state. The trust earned by public sector bodies with the wider population through excellent service delivery and constant and quality communication can be rapidly undermined if people are fearful that their data could be compromised online. It is vital that public sector organisations develop a dynamic IT security strategy which aligns and supports the wider organisational strategy, IT strategy

and annual service plans. This document should feature integrated actions to identify and mitigate the evolving risks to data security which arise from many sources. These include infrastructure, application and business model change and the unwanted interest of external and, often, international entities seeking to profit or cause disruption via accessing the data of state agencies.

The creation of such a security strategy will require investment in the risk mitigation strategies identified.

However, the impressive digitalisation of service delivery within the public service can only continue if service users, staff and business partners remain assured that the risk of loss or unauthorised publication of their personal or commercial data is highly unlikely.

• Common application architecture: since the advent of the pandemic and the forced migration to remote working, the pace and quality of service delivery to users, and indeed

the speed of development of new services, has been greatly influenced by the quality of interaction and collaboration between public sector bodies, their staff, their suppliers, and the end users of services. The importance of such communication and collaboration will only grow in the future. It may be beneficial for the public sector to adopt a common set of standards and applications to support such critical activities. For example, at present, it is common for public sector organisations to utilise a variety of remote working tools to support data sharing, video calling, project management or to develop web presences, which can vary considerably in terms of interface and functionality. The adoption of a small set of common applications and standards across the public sector may facilitate collaboration and project/service delivery and create a less complex environment within which public servants, suppliers and service users can all collaborate.

Consolidating change requires an integrated approach Making Remote Work is an ambitious, progressive, and exciting proposition for the public sector. Undoubtedly, there are limitless opportunities and benefits in achieving same but not without challenges which will co-exist alongside barriers that will need pro-active management.

My colleagues Graham Murphy and Terry McAdam have commented on some critical considerations for organisations to consider across the pillars of people and technology.

Naturally, these pillars overlap with the

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strength and effectiveness of our technology being inextricably linked to the capability and skills of our people.

We are not proposing people and technology should be the sole focus.

To realise and successfully operationalise remote working a holistic and integrated approach is needed across all business pillars and areas.

This will include functional areas (such as corporate services, marketing, finance) but also coherent approaches to activities such as business planning and strategy development.

Whilst the pandemic will, hopefully, subside to enable a return to this new normal, it is evident that all sectors are just at the beginning of journeying on heretofore untravelled paths.

T: +353 (0) 1 496 5388 E: ccorcoran@rsmireland.ie W: www.rsmireland.ie

future of work and connectivity report

Defining the skills needed for the future of work A new report aims to define the skills that the workforce of the future will need in order to adapt to how the world of work is changing.

A survey of 18,000 people across 15 countries performed by McKinsey Global Institute has attempted to define the skillsets that will be most relevant as the future of work evolves and identified 56 foundational skills that “will benefit all citizens and showed that higher proficiency in them is already associated with a higher likelihood of employment, higher incomes, and job satisfaction”.

The research states that no matter the sector a worker is employed in, they will benefit from having a foundational set of

skills that “add value beyond what can be done by automated systems and intelligent machines”, “operate in a digital environment” and “continually adapt to new ways of working and new occupations”. Using four main skill groupings (cognitive, interpersonal, selfleadership and digital), the 56 foundational skills were then broken down into 13 groups.

The research found that high incomes were “strongly associated with proficiency in the four skill groups where overall proficiency levels were lowest

among respondents” and that digital proficiency in particular was associated with higher incomes, a respondent with high proficiency across the digital skills named was 41 per cent more likely “to earn a top-quintile income than respondents with lower digital proficiency”. The four skills with the strongest association with high income were found to be work-plan development, asking the right questions, self-confidence and organisational awareness.

THE FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS OF THE FUTURE Cognitive • Critical thinking • • • •

Structured problem solving; Logical reasoning; Understanding biases; and Seeking relevant information

• Planning and ways of working • Work-plan development; • Time management and prioritisation; and • Agile thinking

• Communication • • • •

Storytelling and public speaking; Asking the right questions; Synthesising messages; and Active listening

• Mental flexibility • Creativity and imagination; • Translating knowledge to different contexts; • Adopting a different perspective; • Adaptability; and • Ability to learn

Interpersonal • Mobilising systems • • • •

Role modelling; Win-win negotiations; Crafting an inspiring vision; and Organisational awareness

• Developing relationships • • • •

Empathy; Inspiring trust; Humility; and Sociability

• Teamwork effectiveness • • • • • •

Fostering inclusiveness; Collaboration; Motivating different personalities; Coaching; Resolving conflicts; and Empowering

Self-leadership • Self-awareness and selfmanagement • Understanding own emotions and triggers; • Integrity; • Self-control and regulation; • Self-motivation and wellness; • Understanding own strengths; • Self-confidence

• Entrepreneurship • • • •

Courage and risk-taking; Energy, passion, and optimism; Driving change and innovation; and Breaking orthodoxies

• Goals achievement • • • • •

Digital • Digital fluency and citizenship • • • •

Digital literacy; Digital collaboration; Digital learning; and Digital ethics

• Software use and development • Programming literacy; • Computational and algorithmic thinking; and • Data analysis and statistics

• Understanding digital systems • • • •

Data literacy; Cybersecurity literacy; Smart systems; and Tech translation and enablement

Ownership and decisiveness; Grit and persistence; Achievement orientation; Coping with uncertainty; and Self-development

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future of work and connectivity report

Rethinking communications services Reflecting on the lessons of the past year, Garrett Blaney, Chairperson of ComReg, observes that the pandemic has caused us to reflect on the value and criticality of electronic communications services and how, for example, they were central to all the remote working that has happened over the last year and a half. There has been a 60 per cent rise in the volume on the networks, with an immediate rise of 15 per cent on day one. “It has not been a blip but a continual rise. The trend of increasing traffic on the networks was a trend before the pandemic, which greatly accelerated,” observes Blaney.

In response to the crisis, ComReg supported the increase in volume by quickly releasing spectrum capacity as the pandemic took hold. The electronic communications regulator has also been monitoring the networks more closely and “in general, the network operators have been able to rise to the challenge”.

Looking at the impact on network investment, Blaney says that “in terms of investment climate it has moved things from ‘should we?’ to ‘when do we invest?’ and ‘can we do it quicker?’”. He explains that this is not just for all the market players in both fixed and mobile networks, but also for government with the progress of the National Broadband Plan.

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Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) Chairperson, Garrett Blaney, discusses how the pandemic has impacted on the telecoms sector and how Ireland seeks to grow its reputation for good regulation.

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However, Blaney outlines the risks, explaining: “We need to make sure it works for everyone. There is a risk that further investments are targeted only to where there are government interventions or in those areas that are most attractive commercially.

“We need to make sure that everyone benefits from the network upgrades.”

Consumer protection has also been an issue: “Operators have more work to do on that. We need better quality customer service, and it needs to

continue to improve. It is not great compared to other sectors and we need to keep the focus on.”

Postal services

“We are really trying to think about how we respond to the fundamental changes that are evident in postal services,” says Blaney. At a European level, a new Postal Regulation Directive is expected, which will see further change for the sector. “As with the telecom networks, the changes we are seeing in postal services are unlikely to be reversible and thus we are not going back to the way things were before the pandemic.

In our view, these changes in demand are permanent,” he adds.

Blaney states that although the pandemic has not been good for society, there are some silver linings on the communications front. People have realised that there are new ways of living and for a large diverse range of people, blended working is now an option. “We want to make sure the communications networks give that option to people and allow them to work in blended work environments. There are a lot of consequences resulting from these changes, such as how and where people will live and work in the future.”

Climate change

ComReg had released dedicated spectrum in the 400 MHz Band to facilitate the development of smart grids. With growing levels of renewable supply on electricity networks there is a need to increase flexibility in the electricity system. “Reliable telecoms connectivity is a key component of

“The trend of increasing traffic on the networks was a trend before the pandemic, which greatly accelerated.” providing that flexibility,” Blaney says.

“The smart electrification of the transport sector will rely heavily on reliable fixed and mobile communications networks.”

Looking wider, ComReg has a major spectrum auction which it hopes to conclude in the first half of 2022, which will give a 45 per cent increase in the amount of spectrum available to communications network operators.

“That is a big jump in the volume of spectrum available and in common with all our spectrum awards we will be keen to ensure that the spectrum is used efficiently and in doing so, helping to solve some of these broader societal issues. For example, the pandemic is causing society to rethink various issues such as transport, where we live and where we work, and we want to make sure that that connectivity can help enable these developments.

Digital ecosystem “ComReg is always keen to enable new technologies. For example, with satellite broadband ComReg facilitated that through use of spectrum and ensuring the right standards were used.”

Ireland is part of a broad international system: “We don’t come up with Irish solutions for Ireland, we work closely with international bodies to ensure that Irish innovation aligns with the latest international standards,” explains Blaney. He also highlights that there are new forms licence-exempt spectrum, such as new WiFi arrangements, which

again will give more options for consumers and trigger more innovation.

“We need to think of telecoms as part of a broader digital ecosystem,” he states.

A key aspect of that is resilience of that system and ComReg is working closely with government on issues around that wider ecosystem, including network security. The communications regulator has a dedicated unit, working with industry, looking at network resilience and how this will be protected in the future.

ComReg is also working with other regulators including Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) and the Data Protection Commission (DPC).

“We are talking to government about how to maintain and grow Ireland’s reputation for good regulation. We see, more and more, that good regulation is a key component for investing in Ireland. We have a predictable and professional regulatory environment that supports investment and underpins business needs and most importantly protects consumer interests.

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In addition to facilitating remote working, Blaney believes that connectivity can help solve other societal challenges, such as climate change. As a former energy regulator, he has a good feel for the key drivers within the sector and highlights the role of electricity, which he describes as “a central part of a low carbon energy future”.

future of work and connectivity report

In postal services there has been a fairly radical change because of the pandemic, with a significant acceleration in e-substitution. Consumers are moving away from letters but there has been a significant increase in the volume of parcels, with a reliance on parcels for ecommerce. ComReg is looking at a new Postal Strategy in the near future and has put the first calls out for inputs.

“This is now a theme at a European level, and we hope to show leadership at an international level over these regulations,” he concludes.

T: +353 (0)1 804 9600 E: industry@comreg.ie W: www.comreg.ie

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Making Remote Work: The national remote working strategy future of work and connectivity report

Published by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Making Remote Work is Ireland’s national remote working strategy. Built upon three fundamental pillars and supported by underpinning conditions, the Strategy contains several immediate actions each with an agreed delivery date in 2021.

Remote work is variously described as telework, e-work, mobile work, smart working, telecommuting, flexible working, locationless work, and platform work. In defining remote work undertaken within the State, therefore, Making Remote Work has adopted the 2002 European Framework Agreement’s classification: “A form of organising and/or performing work, using information technology, in the context of an employment contract/relationship, where work, which could also be performed at the employer’s premises, is carried out away from those premises, on a regular basis.”

Developed under the auspices of a “broad interdepartmental group” comprising multiple government departments and state agencies, Making Remote Work, the State’s first national remote working strategy was published by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar TD in January 2021. The Strategy is informed by the 2019 Remote Work in Ireland report, the Public Consultation on Remote Work Guidance and additional research undertaken in 2020.

Referencing the requirement to work from home where possible during the Covid-19 pandemic, Varadkar reasons that the experience has demonstrated the viability of home, remote and blended working. Post-pandemic, he indicates, “I want remote working to be part of a whole new world of work”. The Strategy, therefore, is intended to facilitate this new approach to work.

Asserting that it must be “done right”, the Tánaiste emphasises the need to update employment rights and work

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spaces, as well as fostering a cultural shift.

In his foreword, the Tánaiste acknowledges that in the absence of the pandemic, the shift to remote working might otherwise have taken years. While conceding that a return to the office is a likely prospect for many, he contends that “most of us will be blended workers”.

For employers and employees, there are several mutually advantageous benefits emanating from remote working. These include: • improved employee retention; • enhanced regional development; • increased labour market participation; • more workplace diversity and inclusivity;

working during the Covid-19 pandemic with remote working under a regular scenario”. The swift transition fostered difficult working conditions for both employers and employees in the context of inadequate infrastructure, unsuitable home environments and, for a time, an absence of childcare and schooling.

Despite these challenges, the Remote Working during Covid-19 national survey (June 2021) found that 75 per cent of participants would like to work remotely post-pandemic.

As such, the Strategy aspires to ensure that remote work becomes “a permanent feature in the Irish workplace in a way that maximises economic, social and environmental benefits”. Public policy, it acknowledges, has a role to play in realising this objective.

• greater work/life balance; • time and cost efficiencies; and • reduced pollution carbon emissions.

At the same time, the Making Remote Work strategy identifies a number of potential disadvantages. From an employee perspective, this includes isolation, loneliness, increased stress and subsequent mental ill health, and inability to ‘switch off’ resulting in increased working hours.

However, many of these challenges are associated with the emergency homeworking necessitated by the pandemic, rather than remote working necessarily. Indeed, Making Remote Work stresses that “it is important not to conflate the experience of home

Overall, the Strategy asserts that increased remote work has the potential to transform the nature of work in Ireland, including who works and where, when, why and how they do so. For instance, increased remote work could reenergise villages and towns beyond the Greater Dublin Area, with increased flexibility encouraging people to relocate for work.

Government has asserted its commitment to facilitating increased remote work “in a way that reaps the many benefits and mitigates negative side-effects”. To achieve this, it has pledged to remove barriers, develop infrastructure, produce guidance, raise awareness and lead by example.

Pillars Fundamentally, Making Remote Work has three pillars braced by “underpinning conditions”.

• Pillar One: Create a conducive environment Pillar One aims to cultivate an ecosystem that is conducive to remote working through support for employers and employees.

Timescale

Lead

Legislate for the right to request remote work.

Q3 2021

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Introduce a code of practice on the right to disconnect.

Q1 2021

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Provide employers with consistent and current guidance on remote work.

Ongoing

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment/ Workplace Relations Commission

Review the current tax arrangements for remote working and analyse potential enhancements for Budget 2022.

Q3 2021

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment/ Health and Safety Authority

• Pillar Two: Develop and leverage remote working infrastructure

Action

Timescale

Lead

Invest significantly in remote work hubs and infrastructure in underserved areas.

Q4 2021

Department of Rural and Community Development (National Hub Network Working Group)/ Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Expand mapping and Q1 2021 classification of hubs to capture national data on hub infrastructure.

Department of Rural and Community Development (National Hub Network Working Group)

Map commuter, skills, and childcare infrastructure to inform hub development decisions

Q3 2021

Central Statistics Office/ Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment/ Department of Transport/ Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth/ Regional Assemblies/ County and City Management Association/ Enterprise Ireland

Investigate how existing hub classifications can informed future funding decisions (aligning with climate action objectives).

Q3 2021

Explore the acceleration of the National Broadband

Q1 2021

Department of Rural and Community Development (National Hub Network Working Group)/ Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications/ Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media/ Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Department of the Environment, Climate and

• Pillar Three: Build remote work policy and guidance Action

Timescale

Lead

Capture national data on the incidence and frequency of remote work as an evidence base for policy.

Q4 2021

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth/ Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment/ Central Statistics Office

Create a centralised cross-departmental knowledge base on the costs and benefits of increased remote work to understand the impact on employment, transport, carbon emissions, broadband, and equality.

Q4 2021

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment/ Department of Rural and Community Development/ Department of Transport/ Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications/ Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Arrange meetings of the Remote Working Strategy IDG every four months to ensure policy coherence across departments.

Ongoing

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Action

Timescale

Lead

Authorise public sector employers, colleges, and other public bodies to transition to 20 per cent home and remote work.

Q4 2021

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Enhance awareness of existing remote work hub infrastructure.

Q1 2021

Department of Rural and Community Development (National Hub Network Working Group)

Promote remote work among businesses, including through enhanced awareness of remote work training, guidance on the skill interventions required to make remote work successful, and best practice in relation to equal opportunity for remote and office-based workers.

Q1 2021

Enterprise Ireland/ IDA Ireland/ Western Development Commission/ Skillnet Ireland

future of work and connectivity report

Action

Pillar Two identifies the need to develop relevant infrastructure to enable employers and employees to capitalise on remote working opportunities at home and in hubs. This includes investment in national hub infrastructure and delivery of the National Broadband Plan.

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The Future of Work: Remote or hybrid working and the impact of Covid-19 future of work and connectivity report

pandemic struck in early 2020, much of the groundwork had been done. The National Remote Work Strategy "Making Remote Work" (the Strategy) was published by the Government on 15 January 2021 and a public consultation process on the right to request remote work was carried out between 1 April and 7 May 2021. The Government set a target date of Q3 2021 for the introduction of legislation to provide a framework around which requesting, approving, or refusing a request to work remotely can be based. No draft legislation has materialised at this point.

It is not possible to engage in any discussion regarding the future of work without considering the impact that Covid-19 has had on commercial life. Remote working has been on the agenda for many years – it is not a by-product of the pandemic – but of course the pandemic has clearly accelerated the implementation of remote working in

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organisations that may never have considered it as an option.

The future of work is unfolding rapidly before us as a result of the pandemic.

As office workers return to business premises, blended working arrangements appear to be the preferred option: time in the office and other times from home or a hub.

under the contract of employment to require employees to return to the business premises. Many employees may already have a contractual right to work remotely for a certain number of hours or days per week and that entitlement will remain the same.

No automatic right to work remotely

National Remote Work Strategy and legislating for a remote environment

There is no automatic right to work remotely. Most contracts of employment will require the employee to work at a specified location, typically the business premises. Once Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted, employers are entitled

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The Irish Government had already recognised and highlighted the potential for remote working in the 2019 Future Jobs Ireland report and so, when the

It is anticipated that the right to work remotely will be framed in language similar to the existing legislation governing requests for part time work: an employee can request but an employer does not have to grant; it will however have to provide objective, clear grounds for refusing. The legislation will provide clarity and best practice around what is potentially tricky terrain for employers. If an employer approaches remote working requests in a biased subjective manner, they may find themselves the subject of a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

Code of Practice on the Right to Disconnect In addition to the Strategy, a code of practice on the right to disconnect was introduced in April 2021 (Code). The Code provides employees with a right to formally disengage from work outside of normal work hours. One of the negatives associated with working from home is the perception (and sometimes the reality) of an employee always being available as the physical boundaries between home and the business premises become diluted. The Code paves the way for resetting the dial of the ‘always on’ culture. The Code is not legally binding but can be admitted in evidence in the WRC.

Employer's role

future of work and connectivity report

Employers should review their existing roles and policies to assess if accommodation can be made for remote working. Not all roles are conducive to remote working and employers will need to develop criteria to assess applications. A transparent, objective, factual matrix should be devised to avoid any allegation of unfairness, unreasonableness, or discrimination.

Other factors to consider are:

• Location of remote work It is envisaged that the legislation will provide for a right for employees to request remote working at a nominated location or locations on the island of Ireland. It is unlikely that a right to request remote working abroad will be legislated for.

• Health and safety and remote work environment Health and safety legislation applies irrespective of whether an employee is at the business premises or at home. It is likely that the new legislation will require employers to conduct an initial risk evaluation and a risk prevention plan. It is anticipated that many requests for remote working post-Covid will fail as the remote work environment will not meet the necessary criteria. Kitchen tables and counters with spouses, partners and flatmates sharing working spaces were a forced necessity during the pandemic. As the emergency situation lifts, those working arrangements will no longer be acceptable.

• People management

be framed in language similar to the existing legislation governing requests for part time work: an employee can request but an employer does not have to grant; it will however have to provide objective, clear grounds for refusing. The legislation will provide clarity and best practice around what is potentially tricky terrain for employers.” are logged on and doing their job. The use of monitoring technology in the remote workplace will have to be proportionate and balanced against an employee's right to privacy.

• Data protection and cybersecurity Data protection policies and cybersecurity protocols need to be up to date to cover working from home and employees accessing confidential sensitive information outside the office.

• Hybrid/remote working policy A hybrid/remote working policy should be designed to allow employees flexibility in carrying out their duties in a manner that also meets the organisation's business needs. The employer should also reserve the right to depart from or vary the policy as it deems appropriate in any case.

at which the pandemic evolved meant that, for many, remote working was not experienced in ideal conditions, with isolation and a sense of detachment from office culture. Junior staff have missed out on mentorship, collaboration, and a sense of collegiality. These factors have all fed into the desire for a hybrid model with collaborative work being done in the office and individual tasks attended to remotely. Trust has also been identified as an aspect of workplace culture that is particularly important in enabling remote work and is seen as an enabler of and a barrier to remote working. A lack of trust has the potential to damage the employment relationship which can lead to conflict and retention issues.

The legal and business implications of increased numbers working remotely need to be carefully considered by employers if the Government and societal vision of the social, economic, and cultural benefits of a hybrid remote working model is to be realised.

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Managing teams remotely poses unique challenges and employers will need to review their internal communications strategy to ensure there are no gaps between those physically in the workplace and those operating remotely.

Performance management of remote employees and providing equal access to training and career development are also matters which HR teams will need to consider.

“It is anticipated that the right to work remotely will

• Working time Employers will need to ensure that employees are taking their breaks/rest periods and balance those legal obligations with ensuring that employees

A note of caution The Strategy cautions that remote working is not the silver bullet that many employees perceive it to be. The speed

T: +353 (0)1 418 0600 E: s.mastersonpower@beauchamps.ie W: www.beauchamps.ie

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future of work and connectivity report

Digital automation and the future of work Published at the request of the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) and managed by the Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS) of the European Parliament, the Digital Automation and the Future of Work report considers the impact of digital automation on job quality and associated risks and benefits.

Described variously as the Second Machine Age, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Industry 4.0, across European economies, the digital revolution is inspiring intense technological progress, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced robotics. It is projected that these advances will transform how work is undertaken. For instance, the digital revolution has the potential to simultaneously reduce the volume of work and enhance the quality of work.

Written amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Digital Automation and the Future of Work, the catalytic effect of the crisis is evident, for instance in the widespread adoption of digital technologies for remote working. The pandemic has also exposed gaping societal inequalities as the poorest and youngest bear the brunt of the economic fallout. As such, the policy proposals contained in the report are relevant to the forthcoming recovery.

Having “systematically and critically reviewed key literature on digital technologies”, the report outlines several policy options, ranging from industry and sectoral skills alliances to proposals for reduced working hours, whereby technology is harnessed to deliver positive socioeconomic outcomes.

Advocating for a new digital social contract, the report indicates that its policy proposals are informed by the aim of managing digital automation via “principles of industrial democracy and social partnership”. Overall, these proposals are intended to “offer hope for a new digital future that works for all”.

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Credit: Lenny Kuhne

Digital automation is reliant on investment, wages, and the current regulatory environment.

This means its scale and depth is difficult to define and “technological change, as in the past, remains uncertain and open to reform”.

Precedence illustrates the resilience of work, in spite of historical technological progress. Given the limits of automation and the capacity for technological change tasks within jobs, it is fair to project that future developments will preserve work. Meanwhile, the report contends that digital surveillance can limit worker autonomy and hinder the quality of work.

The report consistently emphasises that technological progress will unlock opportunities as well as risks. For instance, digital technologies can create a context within which working hours decrease and living standards are augmented.

Likewise, workers can be upskilled amid a general improvement in job quality.

Conversely, digital technologies can foster skills gaps, exacerbating inequality and further polarising society. Similarly, job quality can be

eroded through the nullification of valuable skills, intensified monitoring in the workplace and the proliferation of atypical work.

The report asserts that rather than being deterministic, technological change can be moulded. There is, it indicates, “no guarantee that digital technologies will destroy jobs, nor any certainty that these technologies will lead to more and better jobs”. Instead, societies must make decisions on which technologies they develop and implement. Ultimately, the report states, “society must aim for a digital future where the greatest number of people thrive within work and beyond it”.

While some authors of the report perceive robots to be the workers of the future, others suggest that as in the past, the impact of technological change will be most discernible in quality of work, rather than volume and, as such, major job losses will be avoided.

Cognisant of the myriad impacts technological change has on work and employment, the report outlines that its net impact is relative to potency of the job displacement effect. However, job losses are not necessarily predetermined by technological advancement and there is potential for increases in paid employment.

Simultaneously, technology can impact the very nature and quality of work. How tasks are allocated, and work is completed is reliant on the technology that is developed and adopted. This is linked with the broader socioeconomic context, including ownership and control of technologies. As such, while job quality and skills can increase, deskilling and the embedding of low paid, low autonomy work can also prevail.

“It is hoped that policymakers will take note of the policy options and that the report will help to spark wider critical reflection on the possibilities for rethinking technologies and work in the future,” it suggests.

Suggested policy options Acknowledging the ongoing and projected impact of digital automation on the labour market and workplace, the Digital Automation and the Future of Work report outlines several policy options. While some are analogous to existing

future of work and connectivity report

Consequently, the Digital Automation and the Future of Work seeks to contribute to policy discussions seeking to maximise the benefits and minimise the risks associated with digital technologies.

Credit: Possessed Photography

policies, others are more innovative. These are divided across five categories.

1. Skills and training provision • Industry and sectoral skills alliances centred on assisting transitions for workers in ‘at risk’ sectors.

• Reskilling workers in transformed jobs.

• Digital upskilling for AI-enabled ecosystems.

• Additional protections for workers in jobs that are less likely to be automated.

2. Digital work/life balance • Establishing a European right to disconnect.

• Reducing the EU Working-Time Directive to 38 hours per week while removing the opt-out clause.

3. Governance • Enhancing worker representation and greater democratisation of the workplace.

4. Duty to Report Directive • Adoption of a new directive to regulate technology at work.

5. Mission-orientated industry policy • Introduce direct EU participation in the design and diffusion of digital technologies to achieve decent work objectives.

Collectively, these policy options endeavour to establish a new Digital Social Contract relating to the development, management, and application of digital technologies. The report affirms that “a social protection floor at a European level for all workers, regardless of their contractual status, is an essentially part of this contract”. This social protection floor is informed by the Human Centred Agenda (HCA) outlined by the ILO. The HCA recommends that EU member states guarantee “entitlement to lifelong learning, support individuals subject to technological transitions at work, implement a programme for gender equality, strengthen social protections at work, and expand time sovereignty”.

Proposing a digital future in which technology works for “all in society, not just a privileged few”, the proposals contained in Digital Automation and the Future of Work are aimed at complementing the HCA’s recommendations. Conceding that some of its proposals are radical, the report concludes that “it can be argued that their implementation is needed if digital automation is to yield benefits to all”.

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future of work and connectivity report

Ireland must come together to grasp the opportunity

David McCourt is the Chairman of National Broadband Ireland.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has presented Ireland with an opportunity to transform how we live, work, and socialise. Investment in ambitious long-term projects which deliver intense collaboration between the public and private sectors, as exemplified by the National Broadband Plan, offer the chance to seize this opportunity asserts David McCourt, Chairman of National Broadband Ireland.

Ireland is a country that has played a big leadership role globally for over 100 years. I recently read the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic; it was written during the First World War when Ireland was fighting for independence. On three occasions, the document references that women will be equal partners in the future of Ireland.

This was a full four years before the United States allowed women the right to vote.

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Ireland was bold in its electrification of the country, and recently with its road network. Ireland was the first country in the world to institute a nationwide comprehensive smoke free workplace law. Ireland was the first country to legalise same sex marriage by popular vote. The free education scheme of the 60s led to what we have today, which is a country that at last measure had the highest share of population in Europe with university graduates. Despite EU

opposition, Ireland developed a very business friendly tax scheme to attract the largest companies in the world to set up shop, hire, train and employ thousands of Irish people.

Most recently, Ireland was among a tiny elite group that made it a human right to have high-speed broadband available to every man, woman, and child in the country through its National Broadband Plan. It is these brave, long-term

policies that come at significant shortterm cost that have allowed Ireland to claim a leadership role on the worldstage.

This mentality is also what has taken Ireland from being a small agricultural economy to a global player. While still geographically small, today it ranks number six in commercial service exports globally. This is a significant feat, and it is what will shape the future of work for Irish citizens for generations to come.

What is apparent to me, in these turbulent social, economic and political times, is that Ireland does not need to change to meet the world. The world needs to change to meet Ireland. Our small country has a chance to show the world a new disruptive way forward.

Equal access to connectivity breeds equal opportunities In November 2019, the Government signed contracts with our team at National Broadband Ireland (NBI) to deliver the highly anticipated National Broadband Plan (NBP). Recognised as one of the biggest and most ambitious projects of its kind globally, the NBP is the biggest investment in Rural Ireland ever, frequently likened to rural electrification.

Make no mistake, this is a huge project born out of incredibly bold and forwardthinking policy decisions, demonstrating tremendous leadership from policymakers which will be respected the world over.

Stretching across 96 per cent of the country’s land mass, we are laying enough fibre to go around the world nearly four times. Specifically, this means deploying fibre on approximately 1.5 million poles — many of them new

Public and private sector collaboration is critical to long-term success

This is about radically changing the broadband landscape across the country to ensure that every person in Ireland has access to high-speed broadband, no matter where they live or work. It is quite an incredible feat, and it is going to be transformational for Ireland.

foundations of the ‘house’. The roof still

The economy is moving globally to be tech enabled and the foundation for that is having connectivity to every person.

Across almost all developed countries, what we see today is a digital divide whereby urban areas have an incredible advantage with access to connectivity and digital services, but many rural areas have been left underserved and that causes all sorts of problems.

embraces this opportunity in its typical

Urban areas around the world have been growing by three million people a week; that means every three weeks we are creating another Hong Kong or another London or another New York.

That’s unsustainable from an environmental standpoint, from a carbon footprint standpoint, from a cost of housing standpoint, and from a congestion standpoint. The only way to turn that around is to get people employed where they live, so they do not have to commute.

between the public and private sectors

Covid-19 has shown us that it is possible. We must be in a position where people in a rural environment can start a business or grow a business from where they live. You can’t just assume that the only smart people in the world are those who live in an urban environment.

award-winning TV producer.

While it is a vital part of the puzzle, what we also need to remember is that connectivity is only the enabler, or the must go on top, and the windows and doors need to be put in. Access to connectivity will inspire tremendous advances across healthcare, education, business, agriculture and so on, and it is going to be fascinating how Ireland entrepreneurial fashion.

The pandemic has shown us in no uncertain terms that technology and innovation have the opportunity to transform people’s lives, businesses, jobs, education and healthcare.

Investment in long-term strategies to these issues, where cooperation sets out a path where tech is harnessed to shape people's future, must offer the key to a limitless future.

David McCourt is the founder and CEO of Granahan McCourt Capital

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Fast-forward to today and the Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly underlined the criticality of reliable, high-speed connectivity, which has become essential for work, education and so many aspects of our lives.

— over 15,000km of underground ducts and will run along almost 100,000km of the road network. This is a size and scale that is unprecedented and requires collaboration across the public and private sectors to expedite the roll out in the national interest.

future of work and connectivity report

The signs look extremely promising.

Ireland has had one of the fastest growing GDPs in the European Union every year for the past two decades. All this success came the hard way, by policymakers making difficult decisions and sticking with them, supported by the business community. This way of thinking and acting is dying fast elsewhere, and we can be proud that Ireland has bucked the trend.

and the Chairman of National Broadband Ireland. He is the author of bestseller Total Rethink: Why Entrepreneurs Should Act Like Revolutionaries and is an Emmy

For more information: W: www.nbi.ie

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future of work and connectivity report

How we value work As the pandemic exposes just how vulnerable employment can be across multiple sectors in Ireland, a 2020 NESC report examines how we value work and how that value has been changed by what Covid19 has done to our employment landscape.

“The crisis has brought into view the occupations and work that are seen as essential and critical to the wellbeing of the nation and in doing so, has brought attention to the wages and terms and conditions of workers in those areas,” the report, How we value work: The impact of Covid-19 by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), says.

Published in June 2020, the report states that by the end of April 2020, the adjusted measure of unemployment stood at over 694,000, an unemployment rate of 28.2 per cent, and that almost half the population have had their employment situation affected by the pandemic.

“Employment vulnerability and job quality have moved from the periphery to centre stage in economic and enterprise policy, magnifying the importance and need to understand and indeed re-consider what good jobs

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mean today, and into the future,” it says, going on to note that it is those on the lowest wages who have to travel to work who have been placed at the highest levels of risk.

While the report states that health and safety are paramount, it also says that “the nature of income, terms and conditions had come to define the quality of employment, or a good job” and that “the pandemic has reemphasised the pre-existing negative aspects of some poor jobs” and “has reinforced the importance of adequate wages and hours”.

Using various examples, the report begs the question of whether or not those on ‘if and when’/zero-hour contracts whose work has been especially affected by the pandemic should be entitled to pandemic unemployment payments. Other examples offered of those in work

exposed to danger by the pandemic include: carers who have insufficient hours of work in one workplace, and who may then also work in other care settings; workers on low pay who are more likely to live in over-crowded accommodation; and workers with poor sick-pay provisions, “who rely on State illness benefit which until recently only commenced on day seven of an illness, and at €203 weekly maximum”.

Using a series of considerations, NESC then calculates a Covid-19 risk score based on a given sector. One such factor is contact intensity, where it is noted that there are around 864,000 people in Ireland in occupations that require “very close physical proximity to other people”, a rate of 37 per cent of all workers. Such occupations include barbers/hairstylists and food and beverage preparation and service workers. Occupations such as graphic and web designers, marketing and

Sectoral annual average earnings and Covid-19 risk score

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sales, business services (finance, sales, strategy, HR, accounting), software development, architects, media, and writing and content provision are said to be occupations with low contactintensity and lower Covid-19 risk scores due to their lack of contact with the public. It is also noted within the report that it is “questionable how long this factor will remain an important one”, and with the comprehensive rollout of vaccines among the adult population in Ireland since the report’s publication, the risk here will have been significantly lowered.

The pandemic has also seen sectors that were seen as being under threat, such as food-retail, food-delivery and couriers/transport, redefined as essential and ‘front-line’, protected to an extent from rapid unemployment, leading to the Government issuing sectoral guidance as to what constitutes essential work. The report states: “On one hand, employment and incomes have been maintained in these occupations during the crisis, which speaks to the resilience and quality of these jobs. On the other hand, some workers in the short-term may not be as attracted to these occupations given that they continue to be active even in the face of a pandemic.”

The ability to work from home has also become a quantifier of a job’s quality due to the pandemic, the report states.

Of those whose employment has been impacted by the pandemic in Ireland,

Covid-19 risk score

34 per cent have started remote working from home. In broad terms, these are sectors where remote working and digital technology can be used and as such are somewhat protected from an unemployment shock as work has been able to continue interrupted and these sectors are also best placed to restart earlier than others (e.g., financial services, professional and business services, ICT sector, and parts of manufacturing). Such occupations account for roughly 945,000 workers across sectors in Ireland, while around 1.15 million workers in Ireland are in occupations where working from home is more difficult, such as education and health services, construction, wholesale and retail, transportation and utilities, agriculture, leisure, and hospitality.

“One immediately obvious lesson from the crisis is that it has made good jobs better and more valuable to workers, and poor jobs worse but more valuable to society,” the report states, a contention which becomes evident when viewing the contrast between sectors with higher incomes/lower risk, and those with lower incomes/higher risk: 670,100 workers in ICT, financial and professional services, and wider industry have average annual incomes of around €55,200, and an average mean risk score for Covid-19 of 10.6. while 902,400 workers in retail, hospitality, healthcare, and other services (e.g., hairdressing, security) earn €29,300 on average per annum,

Source: NESC

and have a mean Covid-19 risk score of 57.6.

By May 16, 2020, 31 per cent of the 24,036 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland, 7,615 in total, were among healthcare workers despite the fact that they make up just 12.5 per cent of the Irish workforce. With an average income €25,000 lower per annum than workers in the ICT sector, healthcare workers had a risk of infection seven times greater than those in ICT. The report concludes: “The Covid-19 emergency has brought new vulnerabilities to light and reemphasised some pre-existing ones. It has forced a reappraisal of what are termed good jobs and how work is valued… Policymakers must take the opportunity now to consider how the coincidence of those pre-existing issues and new criteria inform our understanding of the quality or value of work. The arrival of the pandemic has knocked society’s approach to how work is valued: what jobs are essential, frontline, or involve workers putting themselves at risk in the service of others? There is a stark contrast between sectors with higher incomes/lower risk, and those with lower incomes/higher risk. Covid-19 has made good jobs better and more valuable to the worker; and made poor jobs worse, yet more valuable to society. This has consequences for workers, employers, and policymakers.”

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Irish SMEs are adapting to new consumer behaviours The pandemic is having a sustained effect on the .ie domain writes David Curtin, CEO of .IE, the company that manages .ie, the preferred future of work and connectivity report

online address for business in Ireland.

The latest .IE Domain Profile Report, which analyses and explores the .ie database, shows a clear correlation between the Government’s decision to lock down sections of the economy and changes in new .ie domain registrations.

33,815 new .ie domains were registered in the first half of 2021 (H1: 1 January–30 June), an almost 2 per cent increase on the same period last year, marked by the beginning of the pandemic in Ireland. H1 2021 is the best first half-year period on record for new .ie domain registrations.

This increase is also good news for the broader economy and its recovery. The CSO recognises domain registrations as a forward indicator of digital intent and future e-commerce activity.

At 51 per cent, the .ie domain holds the highest market share of all hosted toplevel domain names in Ireland, ahead of .com with 32 per cent. Ireland, with 9.6 per cent growth year-on-year, is the second fastest-growing country code domain in Europe, behind Portugal at 10.8 per cent growth year-on-year.

Authentically Irish and trusted at home and internationally, the .ie domain remains the domain of choice for Irish businesses and individuals.

Responsiveness and adaptability

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In Q1 2021, during the post-Christmas lockdown, new registrations increased by

almost 34 per cent year-on-year.

Registrations continued upwards in January and peaked in March, at which point non-essential retail had been closed for three months. SMEs clearly recognised that a web presence was the only effective means of staying connected with customers or, indeed, staying open at all.

In Q2, registrations gradually slowed as non-essential retail re-opened and the vaccine rollout accelerated. Numbers, while still high, decreased 22 per cent compared to Q2 2020, the period of Ireland’s first lockdown.

Beyond correlation with lockdowns, the data suggests two major trends among SMEs in particular: greater responsiveness to consumer demands, such as useful digital experiences, including e-commerce; and increased understanding of the value of omnichannel.

While digitalisation was increasing in the years before the pandemic, historically SMEs have been slow to invest in their online presence. The 2019 .IE SME Digital Health Index showed that most small business owners, despite recognising the benefits of digital technology, and indeed using it themselves for purchasing and online banking, said they did not have the available time or skills to build a useful website to engage with their customers.

But the pandemic has created an ‘adapt to survive’ situation. Business owners affected by lockdown have had no other choice but to migrate their sales function partially or entirely online after the closure of their physical premises.

Sceptics have seen what their competitors have accomplished in selling online, often with ‘click and collect’ and are responding by replicating this ‘bricks and clicks’ mix of in-store and online sales and marketing.

The .ie domain has provided SMEs with the means to quickly build an authentically Irish digital presence with a

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website and e-commerce functionality.

Even SMEs that provide a service can, if the service type allows, provide video consultations, sell vouchers for future use, or at the very least build goodwill with customers. Estate agents and conveyancing solicitors have demonstrated that physical paperwork and bureaucracy can be eliminated by using digital tools combined with an effective .ie website.

Keyword analysis Keyword analysis of words within the .ie domain name shows that SMEs continue to adapt quickly to the current environment and are using customised websites to meet consumer demand.

There was an increase of 64 per cent in the number of new .ie web addresses with ‘outdoor summer’-related keywords in H1 2021, such as ‘pool’, ‘barbecue’ and ‘tent’ among other outdoor activities and hospitality products. General healthrelated keywords, such as ‘doctor’, ‘pharmacy’, ‘wellness’, and ‘fitness’ increased by 18.8 per cent. Homeware stores, garden centres, GPs and pharmacists, who may previously have been reluctant to invest in their online presence, are now benefiting from the convenience and revenue-generating power of online sales and virtual consultations.

Omni-channel Even with the option to shop in-store, for convenience or price reasons many consumers now simply prefer to buy online or at the very least browse or research products online before buying them in-store.

The pandemic has greatly accelerated the trend towards omni-channel retail, whereby the process of buying and selling a product or service integrates digital and physical platforms. This is likely to become permanently ingrained behaviour and a core trend in retail generally.

future of work and connectivity report

We know from the latest .IE Tipping Point research (conducted January 2021) that less than a quarter of consumers felt fully comfortable shopping on the high street.

While lockdown restrictions have since eased significantly, nearly 60 per cent of consumers said they intended to do some or all of their shopping online for the remainder of 2021. A rise in .ie domain registrations suggests SMEs are increasingly prepared for this reality.

Digital towns and the rural future .IE has long recognised the potential of Ireland’s towns. In June, we announced the winners of our inaugural .IE Digital Town Awards, which marked the first phase of a €1 million investment that we will deliver over the next four years as part of our nationwide .IE Digital Town programme, which seeks to empower and celebrate digital towns.

This is especially true for regional Ireland, and especially promising.

Businesses’ increased openness to remote and hybrid working has clear benefits for smaller towns with less commercial investment and fewer employment options.

What each of our winners, runners-up, finalists, and overall winner, Dingle Peninsula, showed was the resilience and spirit of local towns, local people, and local communities in creating their own opportunities by using digital for the betterment of local life and society.

Flexibility to work anywhere means a reduction in brain drain and even a ‘brain gain’ as workers from major cities are drawn to smaller towns and the countryside. Local enterprise offices can capitalise on this by investing in enterprise and digital hubs, providing central office spaces for innovation, collaboration, and other community events.

The Government, too, now has a clear progressive vision for Ireland’s towns and villages. The Rural Development Policy, 2021–2025 outlines the steps to a digitally-enabled rural Ireland, empowered to strengthen rural employment and improve career opportunities for young people. Among its goals are the implementation of local digital strategies, the development of a

new adult digital literacy strategy, and the creation of multi-purpose community spaces, involving renovating vacant or under-used buildings as enterprise hubs.

We believe that towns and communities around the country, empowered by local energy and insights, supported by the Government and industry programmes like .IE Digital Town, can continue to inspire others and show how digital technologies can create new, efficient ways of doing the right things locally, promote local innovation, and preserve and grow local communities.

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Since the pandemic, digital technology, coupled with improving internet infrastructure, has empowered individuals, businesses, and communities across the country in profound ways, opening new markets, creating new ways to participate in civic and local life, and enabling greater work-life balance.

E: marketing@weare.ie W: www.weare.ie

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future of work and connectivity report

A European approach to artificial intelligence The European Commission has outlined how Europe intends to deal with artificial intelligence (AI) in the coming years through the release of guides to “excellence” and “trust”, as well as a legal framework for the technology.

In what it is terming the ‘Digital Decade’, the Commission has published its AI package which aims to “turn Europe into the global hub for trustworthy AI”. The package includes guidelines on fostering a European approach to AI, a coordinated plan with member states, and a proposal for the regulation of AI that would adopt harmonised laws across the EU. The Commission says that its aim for a “resilient Europe” is one “where people and businesses benefit from improvements in industry and day-to-day life generated by artificial intelligence”, offering the example of AI being used “to treat diseases and minimise the environmental impact of farming”.

Excellence in AI The EU’s four steps to excellence in AI, which will “strengthen Europe’s potential to compete globally”, are: 1. enabling the development and uptake of AI in the EU; 2. making the EU the place where AI thrives from the lab to the market; 3. ensuring that AI works for people and is a force for good in society; and 4. building strategic leadership in high-impact sectors.

The Commission and the member states of the EU published their revised Coordinated Plan on AI in April 2021, which outlined “a vision to accelerate, act, and align priorities with the current European and global AI landscape and bring strategy into action”.

Through the Digital Europe and Horizon Europe programmes, the Commission states that it plans to invest €1 billion per year in AI. Additional investments from the private sector and member states will be mobilised in order to reach an annual investment volume of €20 billion over the course of the current decade. The newly

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European proposal for a legal framework on AI In April 2021, the Commission released its proposal for a legal framework on the regulation of AI, which it described as the first of its kind. The regulation includes a number of provisions intended to promote the development and uptake of AI systems in the EU, with the framework creating a European Artificial Intelligence Board tasked with overseeing and coordinating enforcement. The AI Regulation envisages a twoyear period for application following adoption and publication of the final regulation, making it possible that new regulations will apply as early as 2024.

“Through the Digital Europe and Horizon Europe programmes, the Commission states that it plans to invest €1 billion per year in AI. Additional investments from the private sector and member states will be mobilised in order to reach an annual investment volume of €20 billion over the

making the news of such investment upscaling a welcome development.

by the regulations.

With access to high quality data an essential factor in building high performance, robust AI systems, the Commission points to initiatives such as the EU Cybersecurity Strategy, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, and the Data Governance Act as examples that “provide the right infrastructure for building such systems”.

Ireland

Trust in AI The Commission has proposed three inter-related legal initiatives in a bid to “help to make Europe a safe and innovation friendly environment for the development of AI”: 1. European legal framework for AI to address fundamental rights and safety risks specific to the AI systems; 2. EU rules to address liability issues related to new technologies, including AI systems (last quarter 2021-first quarter 2022); and 3. Revision of sectoral safety legislation (eg Machinery Regulation, General Product Safety Directive, second quarter 2021).

future of work and connectivity report

adopted Recovery and Resilience Facility, which entered into force in February 2021, makes €134 billion available for digital investment. The Commission states that this “will be a gamechanger, allowing Europe to amplify its ambitions and become a global leader in developing cutting-edge, trustworthy AI”. In 2020, the European Investment Bank reported that a €10 million investment gap in AI was seriously constraining the EU’s ability to impact the global market, with the bloc responsible for just 7 per cent of investment at a time when the US and China were responsible for 80 per cent together,

AI systems that deploy subliminal techniques beyond a person’s consciousness to materially distort behaviour in a manner likely to cause harm, exploit age-, physical-, or mental disabilitybased vulnerabilities, or classify the trustworthiness of people based on their social behaviour are explicitly banned under the regulation. The regulation also states that providers, distributors and manufacturers of high-risk AI systems are obligated to ensure that their projects abide

Ireland’s national AI strategy, named AI-Here for Good was published in July 2021, emphasising that “AI is not a technology of the future, it is a technology of the present”. It sets out a high-level direction, seeking to enable Ireland to harness AI as a positive force for transformation. The Strategy outlines three core principles to best embrace the opportunities of AI: adopting a human-centric approach to application of AI; staying open and adaptable to new innovations; and ensuring good governance to build trust and confidence for innovation to flourish.

Within the implementation plan of the Strategy, the Government has pledged to establish an Enterprise Digital Advisory Board to advise and work with Government to drive enterprise adoption of digital technologies, including AI. Additionally, an AI Innovation Hub will also be established, to act as a National First Stop for AI, providing expertise and guidance to enterprises on their AI adoption journey. It will form one of four national-level European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) which will be established in Ireland as part of the EU-wide network to be launched in May 2021.

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Diversity in the future of work future of work and connectivity report

Research shows that companies that prioritise diversity are more productive, more efficient and give better returns to shareholders. eolas examines the benefits of the workplace of the future becoming more equitable.

The relationship between diversity and business performance is an enduring one, with research published in 2015 showing that “companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 15 per cent more likely to experience above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile”, a figure that rose to 21 per cent in updated and expanded research published in 2018 that surveyed 12 countries.

In terms of ethnic/cultural diversity, the 2014 finding was a 35 per cent likelihood of outperformance, comparable to the finding of a 33 per cent likelihood found in the 2018 research.

Companies with the most ethnically/culturally diverse boards in the 12 countries surveyed were found to be 43 per cent more likely to experience higher profits and a positive correlation between ethnic/cultural diversity and value creation at both the executive team and board levels was also found.

Companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/ cultural diversity were found to be 29 per cent less likely to achieve above-average profitability than were all other companies.

In the case of gender, some companies lead the way in both absolute average diversity and representation in top-quartile. with Australian, UK, and US companies making up over 70 per cent of this group. In terms of ethnic diversity, there is less progress evident, although South African and Singaporean companies have a higher representation in the top-quartile versus overall representation in data set, suggesting material progress on ethnic diversity.

A cotemporaneous ESRI report, published in 2018, found that in Ireland, people from Black non-Irish backgrounds are less than half (0.4 times) as likely to be employed than people from

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White Irish backgrounds and “five times as likely to experience discrimination when seeking work”. Black Irish people are twice as likely to experience discrimination seeking work and just under three and a half times (3.4 times) as likely to experience discrimination in the workplace as White Irish people, while both the Black non-Irish and Black Irish groups are much less likely to hold a managerial or professional job.

Eastern European nationals were found to be much less likely to hold a managerial or professional job but showed no differences in their employment rates, and Asian Irish people were found to have no difference in employment rates and to be more likely to hold professional or managerial jobs, but were also almost twice (1.9 times) as likely to experience workplace discrimination Overall, the report showed that the disadvantage experienced by some groups in relation to securing employment in managerial and professional level jobs appeared to be narrowing when compared with research conducted in 2004.

A 2020 World Economic Forum report stated it will take 99.5 years to close gender gaps in health, education, work and politics. In relation to the gender income gap, they found that women are heavily under-represented in technology (just 12 per cent of the workforce), engineering (15 per cent) and data and artificial intelligence (26 per cent). These are sectors which have experienced substantial wage increases in the last decade and three sectors that are both prominent in the Irish economy and key to the future of work. While the ESRI report showed that progress has been made, further diversification is required if Ireland and the companies within are to maximise their potential.

Remote working during Covid-19

future of work and connectivity report

In their third report on remote working in Ireland during the Covid-19 pandemic, NUI Galway’s Whitaker Institute gauge the national mood towards working from home. Published in May 2021, Remote Working: Ireland’s National Survey finds three-quarters of the 6,442 respondents working remotely in some capacity.

75% of respondents are working completely remotely since the outbreak of Covid-19

51% work more hours on average when working remotely compared to onsite

45%

work the same hours

20%

are working a mix of remotely and onsite

54%

95%

feel that working remotely increases their productivity

would like to continue to work remotely for some or all of the time after the crisis

11%

never worked remotely before Covid-19

32%

feel it lessened their productivity

would like to work remotely on a daily basis

53%

91%

would like to work remotely several times a week

say that remote working gives more flexibility

10%

86%

West

Galway, Mayo, Roscommon

would like to work remotely several times a month

9%

say that remote working makes life easier

4% work fewer hours

68%

5%

have relocated due to their experience of remote working since the beginning of the pandemic

South-west Cork, Kerry

Border

do not want to work remotely after the crisis is over

Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo

62