MEMBERSHIP SENTIMENT SURVEY REPORT Q2 2023

The Chamber conducted its quarterly survey over a period of two weeks from the 23rd May- 6th June 2023.

Of the total responses received, 42% where from businesses with 21 plus employees, while 58% came from businesses with staff ranging from one to 20 employees. Over 60% of the responses came from the ICT & Digital economy area, Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure, Retail, Agri food & drink and the service industry.

The survey concentrated on the Budget 2024 asks for the Kildare business community, specifically measures to increase housing supply within the county, increased investment in infrastructure projects and in public services. The survey also dealt with key business challenges of competitiveness in Kildare, Housing, Energy Costs, Sustainable Development and staff retention. It particularly highlighted continuing challenges Kildare businesses are having with regards to housing availability and the cost of energy, all of which businesses see as substantial barriers to competitiveness within Kildare.

The survey found that 41% of businesses consider housing availability the #1 issue affecting competitiveness within Kildare, closely followed by the availability of skills and talent. The survey also found over 75% of business owners were concerned about the adverse effects of rising energy cost on their operations and profitability.

Each month it becomes more and more evident that housing poses a significant challenge to Kildare’s ability to maintain its competitiveness as a county. The shortage of available housing and rental accommodations has reached a crisis point, posing a major obstacle to the ongoing growth and development of our economic ecosystem. The housing crisis is now a pressing concern, impacting both workplace harmony and broader societal cohesion.

County Kildare Chamber is currently in the process of preparing our pre-budget submission, with a specific focus on housing and the availability of skills within the county. By emphasising the importance of housing and skills availability, the chamber aims to advocate for necessary investments and policy measures that will support the development and growth of our local economy. Through this submission, the chamber seeks to highlight the critical role that affordable and accessible housing plays in attracting and retaining talent, fostering entrepreneurship, and bolstering the overall competitiveness of Kildare. Additionally, the submission will emphasise the need for comprehensive strategies to enhance skill development and training opportunities, addressing any existing gaps and ensuring that the workforce is equipped with the necessary capabilities to thrive in our evolving economic landscape. By prioritising these key areas, County Kildare Chamber aims to contribute to the long-term sustainability and prosperity of Kildare, laying the foundation for a vibrant and thriving business community.

You can read the full document online at Reports - County Kildare Chamber

Policy Advisory Council

The Policy Advisory Council held its third meeting of 2023 on 17th May.

Guest speaker Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath TD, presented to the grouping and outlined updates to the TBESS, housing, and a wide-ranging discussion on Budget 2024

The Policy Advisory Council is composed of members, interested in actively contributing to the success of our lobbying. The Council meets throughout the year, agreeing priorities and formalising working groups to develop specific topics for advocacy work. The focus of the Council’s work can be seen through the Chambers representative work to Local Authority and Government Departments. You can find out more about the work of the Policy Advisory Council and its membership on our website.

The next meeting of the Policy Advisory Council will take place in Oct 2023.

The Sales Center began in 1980 as an agency selling Endress+Hauser devices, and eventually as an Endress+Hauser owned company. They began trading as Endress+Hauser Ireland in the early 2000’s. It is now a thriving organisation which serves the Irish Market and its customers faithfully. Endress+Hauser Ireland covers the 26 counties, and it operates from two offices, Kill, Co. Kildare with around 20 staff and Fota Business Park, Co Cork with around 17 staff, with Kildare acting as the head office for Ireland.

What do Endress+Hauser do? Endress+Hauser provide measurement devices for industrial process engineering. They manufacture, sell and service devices to measure flow, level, pressure, temperature, liquid analysis such as pH, and optical analysis for chemical properties of substances.

Their customers come from a variety of industries including chemical, food & beverage, life sciences, power & energy, mining, minerals & metals, oil & gas and water & wastewater. In Ireland, the three main industries are Life Sciences (Pharmaceuticals), Food & Beverage, and Water & Wastewater.

For Endress+Hauser Ireland, the main activities for the sales center are sizing, selecting and selling measurement devices, and providing services for our customers including commissioning, calibration, and repairs.

The Regional Support Center was established in 2016 at the existing Sales Center location in Kill. It was initially setup to support multiple Endress+Hauser Sales Centers across Europe and Asia in the transition from a previous ERP system to ERP SAP, the standard within Endress+Hauser Group.

With a proven track record in shared service provisions, and the availability of a diverse workforce with the skills required, these were some of the reasons why Endress+Hauser chose Ireland as the location for the Regional Support Center.

From an initial team of 6 people, the team and its remit have continued to grow over the past 7 years. The team is now 10 people who provide both back-office and valueadded support activities to our customers. The growth within the team has come from candidates from the local region of Kildare. With the proven success of the Regional Support Center in Ireland, it made the choice for the Endress+Hauser Group to develop a campus location here much easier and ensured it will flourish in Kill.

Digitalization in key processes and roles is the next big step for our customers and stakeholders and the Regional Support Center will drive these changes and challenges across Endress+Hauser Group for our Global Fulfilment and Finance processes.

In May 2020, the Global HR Shared Service Center was established in Kill, Co. Kildare. The team of four began their

Endress+Hauser journey fully remotely, due to Covid restrictions. This Shared Service Center was the first of its kind within the HR organization in Endress+Hauser, set up to coincide with the deployment of a new global HR Software system.

Today, they have grown to a team of eight highly experienced people, all living in the Kildare area.

The team provide HR Masterdata support to employees in 37 countries across the EMEA and Americas region (3,500 employees), with plans to extend this service to an additional 11 countries in Asia from July 2024 (1,000 employees) as the next phase of the deployment is achieved.

Learning Administration support is also provided by this team to 8,600 system users across the entire Endress+Hauser organization. This service is provided in both English and German languages.

The team pride themselves on an efficient and friendly service to their colleagues, using a state-of-the-art integrated HRIS system incorporating different modules such as Masterdata, Recruitment, Learning and soon to be deployed, Onboarding & Offboarding. There are also future plans for the implementation of Performance & Goals, Succession & Development, and Workforce Planning & Analytics modules.

These systems are linked to a HR ticketing system and a document management system which enables the team to provide a faster and more effective service while ensuring compliance and data governance standards are always met.

In October 2022, the team were honored to receive the prestigious annual Endress+Hauser Support Function award. This is a global accolade recognizing excellence in support tasks.

The team are focused on future expansion while also continuously revising and improving current systems and processes to ensure that they provide the best service for their colleagues.

The Global Logistics Operations Center (G-LOC), based in Kill began operating in March 2022. A previously outsourced logistic process, it was insourced into an inhouse operation, and Ireland was chosen as the location.

Endress+Hauser has had great success with existing Shared Service Center operations in Ireland. It was an easy decision to locate the Global Logistics Operations Center into the existing location in Kill, Co. Kildare. The high presence of Tech companies and the availability of the multicultural work force, provides an excellent platform to fulfil the company’s language requirements and cultural values.

G-LOC has grown to 25 team members, representing ten nationalities who speak +15 languages, providing customer support excellence and smart solutions to their global customer base.

The Endress+Hauser Global Transportation Network (GTN) is an ecosystem which connects all regions with digital supply chain services. This enables Endress+Hauser to respond to all customer requirements on a global scale.

Effective and standardized processes are supported by smart tools that create the required transparency to manage the supply chain, which helps mitigate any risks. Roughly 75 freight forwarders at local, regional, and global level, transport Endress+Hauser products out of four regional Hubs in China, Germany, India, and the USA to their end customers, globally.

The Global Logistics Operations Center activities:

Service Execution

• Transportation order monitoring

• Exceptions management

• Spot Market requests

• Carrier claims handling

• Continuous improvements

Data Management

• Master data maintenance

• Data Quality Management / Governance model

• Interface Monitoring

• Performance measures + analytics

• IT Systems + Functions Development

+ Testing

• Data Security

Logistics Service Provider Management

• Tender

• Contract + Rates

• Performance + Relationship

• Qualification, Audit, Training

• Sustainability

Cost Management

• Logistics Cost Management implementation

• Continuous Improvement Process

• Reporting + analytics

• Cost trend + Outlook

• Freight audit and payment

The G-LOC team continue to grow and love to talk to people who have a passion for Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

For more information, please contact info.ie@ endress.com or 045 989 200 for any queries. www.ie.endress.com