With people being at the heart of everything we do, it goes without saying that we value the diversity of all those who work for us, and who we work with. We believe an energised culture built on trust, respect, equity, and inclusivity will enable us to live our values, achieve our ambitions and deliver on our purpose. By drawing on our differences, our experiences and what we think, we generate broader insights and a better business that best serves our people, our customers and our communities.
DE&I
Diversity, equity and inclusion: celebrating our differences
Join usSupporting meaningful change
- Our diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) strategy is championed and endorsed by our leadership, ensuring we make actionable change and achieve our vision
- We enable all our people with the resources and training to be true custodians of our DE&I journey
- Our culture is equitable, safe, and positive and our people feel a true sense of belonging
- No matter where you’re based, our workplaces reflect the communities in which we live and work in
- We are DE&I leaders, drawing on the expertise of our FAIRER Consulting business and supporting our clients make meaningful change
Our DE&I journey
We know that actions speak louder than words, so we’ve taken a considered approach to achieving our vision of creating inclusive and people-driven workplaces. Whether it’s training our leaders to build diverse and inclusive teams or providing our people a voice via our employee networks, we’re always looking to move the dial on DE&I.
No matter your role or seniority, we believe creating a culture of inclusion is everyone’s responsibility. We actively encourage our people to get involved in celebrating and championing important days of recognition, participating in learning and development activities, or joining working groups that amplify their voice. By joining Hays, you’ll not only be able to bring your authentic self to the workplace every day, but help forge a world of work where inclusivity is the norm, and every individual feels valued and respected.
As a market leader, we’re in a unique position to enable real change; both on a local and national scale. Through our FAIRER Consulting business, we’re actively modelling high standards of DE&I throughout the wider world of work, helping businesses across Ireland and beyond become more inclusive spaces and doing our part to enact positive change. And with 47% of our senior leadership team in Ireland being female, we’re demonstrating a clear commitment to driving more equal gender representation at a senior level.
Investors in Diversity Gold Accredited
Our commitment to DE&I is recognised by the Irish Centre for Diversity, being among the limited number of corporates to be awarded ‘Investors in Diversity Gold’ in Ireland’s leading DE&I accreditation mark.
Powering change through partnerships
Developing lasting relationships is key to our ethos, and our commitment to driving diversity, equity and inclusion can be seen through our thriving partnerships with charities and good causes. Discover how we’re linking up with organisations and communities across Ireland to help to level the playing field:
Jobcare
We provide employment charity Jobcare with support on their Jobnet programme, which aims to equip unemployed people with the skills, clarity and confidence to secure meaningful work. Our people regularly volunteer their time and expertise to provide mock interviews, run through interview prep and provide LinkedIn networking tips as part of this programme, providing their world-of-work insights to help transform the lives of programme users and support them on their career journeys.
Paralympics Ireland
Paralympics Ireland is the official body for Ireland that organises and supports the Irish team at the Paralympic Games, which take place every four years alongside the Olympic Games.
Hays Ireland have been official partners of Paralympics Ireland since 2022, providing recruitment and key hire support to the team while assisting Paralympic athletes as they transition from their sporting career into the workplace. We’ve placed a number of professionals on the Paralympics Ireland team, while launching a variety of partnership activity to progress a positive inclusivity agenda for those living with disabilities in Ireland.
The Open Doors Initiative
Despite the recent trend of full employment, many of Ireland’s marginalised groups are cut out of work and face higher barriers to employment than others.
To help challenge this inequity, we’ve partnered with the Open Doors Initiative, a group of over 95 companies and NGOs who work with the government to create pathways to education, employment and entrepreneurship for some of Ireland’s most marginalised people. This includes offering online training, mentorships, assisted learning, seminars and in-house guidance for existing employees on a range of subjects, along with funding for courses.
Over the past year, we’ve worked with Open Doors to deliver training sessions to our DE&I Council and the wider Ireland team about cultural awareness, and are helping them deliver further training for different initiatives over the next year.
TeenTurn
We’re dedicated to a more equitable and sustainable future of work, and believe it’s crucial that more young girls have the chance to pursue careers in technology. That’s why we’re partnered with Teen-Turn: a programme which provides young girls a two-week tech work placement with Irish-based companies.
Leveraging our industry networks and expertise, we’re connecting organisations with the Teen-Turn Programme and teen girls, with over 150 placements to date. We also actively promote Teen-Turn by facilitating industry events, networking opportunities and after school activities, along with providing marketing and social media expertise.
Down Syndrome Ireland
We recently 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. As part of the partnership, we aim to support the charity’s aim of challenging inaccurate stereotypes that people with Down Syndrome face, and to play our part in championing acceptance and inclusion for people with Down Syndrome – specifically within the world of work.