Our ESG and Social Impact
Explore our social purpose in action and discover how we’re helping to shape a better future for Irish communities.
Our ESG and Social Impact
Explore our social purpose in action and discover how we’re helping to shape a better future for Irish communities.
We’re committed to driving meaningful change, both locally and nationally. By harnessing our knowledge, resources, and technology, we’re empowering our people, clients and partners to tackle some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges within our Irish communities.
- Maureen Lynch, Managing Director, Hays Ireland
The right job, skills and opportunities can transform a person’s life and help realise an organisation’s goals – investing in people isn’t just good for business, but the key to a brighter future.
At Hays, people are at the heart of everything we do. A strong social and environmental purpose underpins our business' narrative, closely woven with the communities we live and work in. It also forms a key strategic priority, guiding our decisions and improving outcomes for customers and society.
- Karen Young, Director and Social & Environmental Purpose Lead, Hays UK&I
From expanding our ‘Helping for your tomorrow’ volunteering initiative, moving closer to Net Zero, or uplifting social mobility, we’ve demonstrated tangible social and environmental progress. And we have so much more planned for the future.
There’s a clear commercial reason for pursuing social value, but more importantly, it’s the right thing to do. Helping good causes is part of our culture at Hays. Our people consistently give their time to support local communities, whether it’s assisting school children’s reading, delivering career advice to disadvantaged members of society, or planting trees to uplift urban spaces. We’ve been doing what we do best – connecting people.
- James Musgrave, Finance Director and Board Sponsor of Social Purpose, Hays UK&ICombined with our partnerships with Neighbourly, Paralympics Ireland, and Down Syndrome Ireland, I’m proud of the work our people have achieved to nurture relationships with communities across Ireland and the UK, while evolving how we contribute to society. This earned us the Community Impact of the Year Award at the REC 2024 Awards – an achievement made possible by the collective efforts of our people at Hays.
- James Musgrave, Finance Director and Board Sponsor of Social Purpose, Hays UK&I
When we talk about social value, it’s not just about supporting good causes, but doing our part to look after the environment we all belong to. It’s important that we continue to move the dial on our sustainability goals, modelling best practices to other organisations and the customers we serve.
There’s still more we can do – more people we can reach out to; more ways we can leverage our skills and resources. However, it’s this drive to keep improving – for our people, customers and society – that defines our pledge to always do the right thing.
Our global ‘Helping for your tomorrow’ (HFYT) programme supports the communities we serve by lifting the employability of people who may not have the same opportunities as others, and laying the foundations for a more sustainable world of work. As part of the programme, we entitle every Hays employee across our global business to take one paid volunteering day each year to help with causes aligned to ‘Helping for your tomorrow’, providing potentially thousands of volunteering hours each year for our local communities.
We’ve reached out to charities across Ireland, sharing our skills and expertise to empower staff to deliver effective services to local communities. This has included a series of best practice recruitment and careers sessions, delivering sessions on topics including CV writing, interviewing, shortlisting, and unconscious bias. Moreover, our HFYT programme has empowered our people with the time and resources to raise life-changing funds, totalling over €25,000 for our Irish charity partners in the last year alone.
Our Ireland business took home the Activation Award at our Global ‘Helping for Your Tomorrow Awards’, showing the highest levels of employee volunteering participation – an incredible 88% – across our 33 countries.
Expanding on the paid Helping for your tomorrow volunteering hours we offer our people, we partnered with Neighbourly to broaden our reach and help more good causes across Ireland and the UK. Our first campaign in 2023 saw over 1,800 of our people donate close to 10,000 hours of volunteering time in just ten working days. We supported 1,282 good causes, helping over 83,000 people with their services, resulting in a financial impact of over £163,000.
And following our 2024 two-phase campaign, we’ve connected over 1,300 of our people to 190 events, totalling over 6,600 hours of volunteering time during May 2024 – equalling £116,000 worth of financial impact for local communities. Moreover, our ‘always on’ skills-based phase challenged our people to lend their expertise to a variety of good causes, sharing valuable careers advice, IT skills, marketing support and more.
Since 2022, we’ve been official partners of Paralympics Ireland, supporting the organisation with their recruitment needs and assisting Paralympic athletes as they transition from their sporting career into the workplace. To date, we’ve placed 11 professionals on the Paralympics Ireland team and have provided 283 hours of pro bono support, working closely with Paralympics Ireland to help refine their inclusive hiring practices.
We also surveyed a cohort of Irish Paralympians to find out the challenges of balancing athletic duties with wider career prospects, and why Para Athletes can be a great asset for workplaces. The insights gained have helped us improve awareness of this unrepresented talent group, advocating more diverse hiring practices, and challenging employment inequity.
We partnered with Down Syndrome Ireland with the aim of raising vital funds for the charity along with supporting their members with Down syndrome on their journey within the world of work. This year’s fundraising activities have seen Hays colleagues climb the three highest peaks in Co Kerry, get involved in running and walking events across the country, and host a variety of creative office events, raising over €28k to date.
As part of the partnership, we’ve also hosted CV, interview skills and communication workshops to help support those with Down syndrome find meaningful employment. Moreover, we’re supporting the charity’s aim of challenging inaccurate stereotypes that people with Down syndrome face, playing our part in championing acceptance and inclusion for people with Down syndrome – specifically within the world of work.
We provide employment charity Jobcare with support for their Jobnet programme, which aims to equip unemployed people with the skills, clarity, and confidence to secure meaningful work. Our team donated 92 hours of their time and expertise in 2024, offering their world-of-work insights to help transform the lives of programme participants and support them on their career journeys. This support has included facilitating mock interviews, running through interview preparation, and providing LinkedIn networking tips.