Bernard Yore
CEO, ESS Group
Colm De Burca
Head of Outsourcing, ESS Group
Attracting and retaining staff can be a hard ask. However, if an organisation displays authentic values, new staff will be inspired to join — and current ones will be happy to stay.
It can be challenging for businesses to find and retain exceptional talent. Yet, Bernard Yore, CEO of ESS Group, says: “This is a very exciting time for us,” says Yore. “We’re expanding quickly and have taken on 60 employees in the last year alone.”
Importance of authentic, values-driven culture
Yore attributes at least some of the success to a focus on ‘company values.’ However, this is not about selecting a few random, fuzzy platitudes to write on a meeting room whiteboard, he insists. Organisations must do more than that. “Specifically, it’s about demonstrating behaviours behind those values,” he says.
“For us, that can include everything from celebrating one of our apprentices winning an award to participating in International Women’s Day events; and from hosting talks about career obstacles and opportunities for women to taking part in the Great Limerick Run to raise money for children’s hospice, LauraLynn.” In other words, when a company actually lives its values — rather than just talking about them — it creates an authentic and enjoyable culture that has the power to attract new employees and retain current ones.
Finding the right talent is one
challenge. Keeping it is another.
Outsourcing talent to various industries
ESS Group — specialist in the fields of asset management, maintenance reliability and critical airflow environments — was established 34 years ago and provides solutions and support to industries such as manufacturing, pharmaceutical, medtech, transport, education and utilities. Its services include the outsourcing of specialist engineering and technical personnel and apprentices to its many customers. This means that 200 of its 260 employees are working in permanent roles with companies across Ireland and the UK.
Partnership collaboration and communication
“When outsourcing staff, we operate a three-way partnership,” explains Colm De Burca, ESS Head of Outsourcing. “There are the personnel we outsource to a customer. There are the customers/companies we outsource our personnel to. Then, there’s our support team, which recruits and manages our personnel and listens to any issues they, or customers, may have. That collaborative, communicative-based approach is appreciated by all parties and is fundamental to the success we’ve had.”
This shared relationship is continued outside of working hours, too: another example of good company values, notes Yore. “If we’re hosting drinks or taking part in an event, we don’t confine invites to our employees,” he says. “We’ll reach out to the customers they’re working for to see if they want to join.”
Referrals and diverse hiring
De Burca admits that the Group is lucky because it finds many of its hires via word-of-mouth referrals from current employees. Nevertheless, when considering applications, one still has to think outside the box. “It would be easy to look at someone’s CV and say: ‘This person’s background is the food industry, so they wouldn’t fit in the pharmaceutical sector’,” he says.
“But it’s not good to typecast. It’s more important that they are customer-focused problem solvers, troubleshooters and innovative thinkers. Our employees are all different nationalities and come from any background.”
Training personnel and treating them with trust
Finding the right talent is one challenge. Keeping it is another. So, as well as offering training courses to the public, ESS offers in-house training to help companies and personnel develop their maintenance and asset management practices and technical abilities.
“We want to nurture all our people so are always interested in anyone keen to learn and develop,” says De Burca. Crucially, employees operate best in an environment where they feel trusted. “You need to treat people like grown-ups and give them autonomy,” he says. “It’s a simple thing but, in our experience, they’ll appreciate it and want to do their best for you.”
