We brought an array of local and international expertise to Dublin Castle to discuss how diversity and inclusion can help to shape the future of our ever-changing workplace. We also had the opportunity to hear the life experiences of some of our colleagues from diverse backgrounds who are currently working in the public sector in Ireland.
publicjobs is the centralised provider of recruitment services to the civil service and to more than 150 public bodies in Ireland. The civil and public service is a major employer – with more than 350,000 staff across the country in the civil service; local authorities, and the defence; education; health and justice sectors, as well as State agencies. Last year, publicjobs ran nearly 600 individual public sector recruitment campaigns, processing nearly 65,000 applications.
publicjobs plays a very important role in fostering ambition, modelling leadership, and setting standards to enable a thriving public service that reflects Irish society today - that embraces equality, diversity and inclusion.
In 2021, we launched our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I) strategy, which seeks to identify who is working in the public service and to encourage people from under-represented sections of society to apply. This strategy includes developing more inclusive entry routes for people from underrepresented and ensuring our recruitment processes are equitable and accessible to people from all kinds of backgrounds.
Our ED&I strategy also makes a commitment to develop a data-driven, evidence-based diversity profile of candidates throughout the recruitment process. To that end, we shared our Equality Monitoring Data Review at the conference as part of an important step in building a strong foundation of equality data, alongside the lived experience, to inform and drive forward diversity and inclusion in the public sector. This is an important early step in our move to build a strong foundation of equality data to inform our Diversity and Inclusion strategy and initiatives.
International speakers included Binna Kandola, Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Pearn Kandola; Emilie Priday, Director, Workforce Inclusion and Experience, New South Wales Public Service Commission; Nadine Huggins, Chief Human Resource Officer, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Alana Baker, Policy Analyst, Public Employment and Management Directorate for Public Governance. Irish experts include Shirley Comerford, Assistant Secretary, Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery & Reform; Yvonne Cooke, Executive Director of Human Resources and People Development, An Garda Síochána; Frankie Kay, Chief information Officer, Central Statistics Office; and Frank O’Mara, Director, Teagasc.
Thank you to all who took part and attended. This is for us all to work on together!
Linda - Clair Willing Able Mentoring (WAM)
Lisa - Clair Willing Able Mentoring (WAM)