Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace is having a culture that values uniqueness: people of different backgrounds, cultures, genders, and races. Inclusion means inviting diverse groups to take part in company life.

 

Research into Ireland’s Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

First-of-a-kind Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) benchmarking for the Irish market has been launched by the Irish Centre for Diversity (ICFD).  It draws from the most comprehensive research into D&I in the Irish market. It involved almost 100 organisations that employ 60,000+ people across both the public and private sectors. Organisations will now be able to compare their D&I performance both at a national level, and against those in similar areas such as Public Sector, Professional Services, Construction and Engineering, Insurance and Finance.

According to the ICFD, data from the research showed that 90% of workers in Ireland felt respected by their colleagues. However, 2 out of 5 employees do not feel their organisation advances equality of opportunity. Furthermore, just 51% of employees believe their organisation neglects diverse groups. In addition, 33% – a third of employees feel that their organisations do not treat everyone fairly.

 

Why are Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace Important?

There is a significant body or research that outlines clear correlation between diversity and performance. This is because diversity, inclusion and feeling of belonging are interconnected. It is in combination that their true impact emerges. However, it is not only about ‘performance’ and business ‘achievements’. It is also very much about already mentioned – belonging. Belonging is the third critical piece to Diversity and Inclusion. It’s belonging that makes each individual feel accepted for who they are. It is the thing that – a feeling, that will drive personal motivation and satisfaction. It will also ensure keeping the workplace mentally (and possibly physically) healthy.

 

How can we Foster Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace?

We can foster diversity, inclusion and belonging in the workplace by:

• Ensuring that diverse talent is well represented.
• Strengthening leadership accountability and capabilities.
• Be fair and transparent, enabling equality of opportunity.
• Promoting openness and tackling microaggressions, bias, and discrimination.
• Fostering belonging through unequivocal support for all the ways diversity manifests.

In addition, you can explore the diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB) approach by completing eLearn Safety fully-online Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging course. In this course, topics such as creating a culture of diversity and belonging and avoiding bias are covered.

 

Online Health and Safety Training

Proactive Health and Safety training is critical to ensure a safe workplace. An effective training program can reduce the number of worker injuries and deaths. It can also reduce instances of property damage, legal liability, illnesses, and missed time from work.

Health and Safety training helps establish a culture in which employees themselves help promote proper safety procedures while on the job. It is important that new employees be properly trained and embrace the importance of workplace safety. The role of training in developing and maintaining effective hazard control activities is a proven and successful method of intervention.

This is why we have established Myelearnsafety school. We pride ourselves in how we guide, support and mentor our students. They receive support throughout their learning experience and into their working lives. Our staff have extensive training experience and also have many years industry experience. We understand the challenges that exist within Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety. Our priority is to ensure that all learners are fully prepared to differentiate themselves in the workplace after completing our Health and Safety courses.

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Health and Safety courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie

Women in Construction

Women in construction are underrepresented and most frequently found on construction sites in the fields of administrative and technical positions, such as architecture and civil engineering.

According to the CSO, women make up only 5.5% of the workforce in all construction-related sectors in Ireland (compared to 10% EU average).

According to the Construction Industry Federation’s Member Diversity Survey, “without female talent, the industry’s efforts to deliver critical Government housing and infrastructure strategies such as Rebuilding Ireland, the National Development Plan, and the National Planning Framework may fall short.” We must all do more to actively support women in the industry and encourage young women to pursue careers in construction.

 

Benefits of Gender Diversity in the Irish Construction Industry

Despite the low numbers of women in construction, there is evidence to suggest that women participation can bring many benefits to the construction industry. In addition, research has shown that gender diversity leads to improved decision-making, increased creativity, and enhanced innovation.

As a matter of fact, companies with greater gender balance are also more likely to outperform those that lack diversity. In other words, making the case for increased female representation in construction becomes more compelling.

Despite the fact that the construction sector is traditionally known as a male-dominated industry, the low number of women working in construction can be attributed to a number of factors, including:

• a lack of awareness of the opportunities available in the sector,
• a lack of female role models and mentors,
• a perceived lack of flexibility in the industry.

However, there are many initiatives underway to address these barriers and promote the participation of women in construction.

 

Promoting Women in Construction

Some of the projects that promote women in construction by enabling information and education is FEMCON project. FEMCON’s mission is to create innovative vocational education and training tools to help women working in or considering a career in the construction industry advance to visible roles within the industry. The project’s goal is to make the industry more appealing to women, resulting in a greater number of women choosing the sector, creating conditions for positive change, and improving the industry’s gender outlook and quality of life in the male-dominated sector.

Diversity is having a culture that values uniqueness: people of different backgrounds, cultures, genders, and races. Inclusion means inviting diverse groups to take part in company life. But there’s a third critical piece: belonging. It’s belonging that makes each individual feel accepted for who they are. Explore the diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB) approach in this eLearn Safety fully online course Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. In this eLearning course we will explore the need for diversity, inclusion and belonging in the workplace, how to build a diverse workplace, your role in this, how to check your unconscious bias and also how to take on an ally role.

 

Online Health and Safety Training

Proactive Health and Safety training is critical to ensure a safe workplace. An effective training program can reduce the number of worker injuries and deaths. It can also reduce instances of property damage, legal liability, illnesses, and missed time from work.

Health and Safety training helps establish a culture in which employees themselves help promote proper safety procedures while on the job. It is important that new employees be properly trained and embrace the importance of workplace safety. The role of training in developing and maintaining effective hazard control activities is a proven and successful method of intervention.

This is why we have established Myelearnsafety school. We pride ourselves in how we guide, support and mentor our students. They receive support throughout their learning experience and into their working lives. Our staff have extensive training experience and also have many years industry experience. We understand the challenges that exist within Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety. Our priority is to ensure that all learners are fully prepared to differentiate themselves in the workplace after completing our Health and Safety courses.

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Health and Safety courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie

Work-related Stress

Work-related Stress is the reaction people have to excessive work-related pressures or other types of demand placed on them. While there may be some disagreement over an exact definition, most people believe that it is a serious problem in their organisations.

 

Work-related Stress Surveys

Various work-related stress surveys found that stress is a significant issue at work. Majority of surveyed employees claim they had taken time off work due to stress. Basically, stress is thought to pose a relatively high risk. However, it is often the least well controlled of all risks at work.

Pressures exist in all aspects of people’s lives. There is even some evidence that we need pressure to be able to function at maximum effectiveness. Be that as it may, the responses to pressure, physical and mental, can be damaging if required to continue beyond the short term. Psychological, and physical illness caused by work-related stress can result in anxiety, depression, heart diseases and other serious medical conditions.

 

Work-related Stress Contributing Factors

Factors which may contribute to stress in the workplace include:

• The physical work environment (e.g., noise, cold, heat, etc.).
• Working conditions (e.g., salary, long hours, unsocial hours, travel requirements, etc.).
• Change in practices and techniques.
• Volume of work (e.g., overload).
• Work design and pace
• Roles within the organisation.
• Tension between pressures of production and safety requirements.
• Relationships with other people at work.
• Organisational style and office dynamics.
• Lack of job security.
• Poor communication, training and involvement in decision making.

There are a number of additional factors which can be a cause of work-related stress. Isolating one or more of these factors as a cause of a particular stress problem is difficult. This is because most of these factors are inter-related.

 

Dealing with Work-related Stress

Stress at work is believed to reduce the individual’s effectives, increase absenteeism and labour turnover. In addition, it may increase the likelihood of injury.

Each employer has an obligation to ensure that, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health of employees is not endangered in the course of their work.

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has a number of useful resources that can be used in managing work related stress. For instance, one of these resources is WorkpositiveCI. WorkpositiveCI has been developed by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), State Claims Agency (SCA) and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Network Ireland. It is a free, easy to use, innovative, confidential, psychosocial risk management process that provides feedback on workplace stress.  In addition, it looks into employee psychological wellbeing and critical incident exposure in the workplace. As a matter of fact, it is designed to deliver structured guidance enabling organisations to develop an action plan to mitigate against these stressors.

In addition, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has published a number of useful guidance, publications and resources on workplace stress.

Another beneficial course is a fully online Working Safely course. Working Safely is a 2 hour online course for people at any level, in any sector, that will boost business performance and staff motivation. Simply by showing how everyone can enhance their safety, health and wellbeing through everyday behaviours. The topics include importance of working safely, definitions of hazards and risks, common workplace hazards and how to improve safety performance.

 

Online Health and Safety Training

Proactive Health and Safety training is critical to ensure a safe workplace. An effective training program can reduce the number of worker injuries and deaths. It can also reduce instances of property damage, legal liability, illnesses, and missed time from work.

Health and Safety training helps establish a culture in which employees themselves help promote proper safety procedures while on the job. It is important that new employees be properly trained and embrace the importance of workplace safety. The role of training in developing and maintaining effective hazard control activities is a proven and successful method of intervention.

This is why we have established Myelearnsafety school. We pride ourselves in how we guide, support and mentor our students. They receive support throughout their learning experience and into their working lives. Our staff have extensive training experience and also have many years industry experience. We understand the challenges that exist within Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety. Our priority is to ensure that all learners are fully prepared to differentiate themselves in the workplace after completing our Health and Safety courses.

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Health and Safety courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie

Work Related Stress and Mindfulness

Work related stress and mindfulness are those workplace topics that are very often overlooked by both employers and employees. However, employers have a duty under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 to protect all employees from hazards which can lead to injury.

 

Work Related Stress

It is believed that a significant work downtime is due to sick leave brought by work related stress. This may be due to various personal reasons, or the physical and emotional challenges of the job. Work related stress, however, is not only this invisible ‘illness’. Stress can manifest itself by causing stomach and skin conditions, heart disease and depression.

There are a number of factors that can influence stress in the workplace. Some of these factors include poor working conditions, overwork, job insecurity, personal reasons (such as ‘imposter syndrome‘), peer pressure (such as harassment), unrealistic targets, lack of leadership (not knowing what to do) and poor management.

 

Identifying Work Related Stress

No person is exactly the same and stress will affect people differently. There are a number of factors which may affect how an employee will cope with stress. Some of the examples are employee skills and experience, age and disability, etc. Employees should be encouraged to report stress and management should be trained to recognise the causes and symptoms. By talking to employees, an employer can identify the signs of stress, and importantly they can prevent and reduce workplace related stress.

 

Mindfulness

Prevention is one of the most important steps of any successful risk management. One of the ways to prevent stress is raising awareness about work related stress. For this purpose eLearn Safety has designed and developed a number of relevant fully online courses. For example, the Workplace Stress course is designed to suit a diverse range of workplaces. It deals with topics such as how to define workplace stress, which safety legislation applies to it, how to identify common causes of workplace stress and stress management.

Another beneficial course is a fully online Working Safely course. Working Safely is a 2 hour online course for people at any level, in any sector, that will boost business performance and staff motivation. Simply by showing how everyone can enhance their safety, health and wellbeing through everyday behaviours. The topics include importance of working safely, definitions of hazards and risks, common workplace hazards and how to improve safety performance.

 

Additional Resources

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has a number of useful resources that can be used in managing work related stress. One of these resources is WorkpositiveCI. WorkpositiveCI has been developed by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), State Claims Agency (SCA) and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Network Ireland. It is a free, easy to use, innovative, confidential, psychosocial risk management process that provides feedback on workplace stress, employee psychological wellbeing and critical incident exposure in the workplace. It is designed to deliver structured guidance enabling organisations to develop an action plan to mitigate against these stressors.

In addition, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has published a number of useful guidance, publications and resources on workplace stress.

 

Online Health and Safety Training

Proactive Health and Safety training is critical to ensure a safe workplace. An effective training program can reduce the number of worker injuries and deaths. It can also reduce instances of property damage, legal liability, illnesses, and missed time from work.

Health and Safety training helps establish a culture in which employees themselves help promote proper safety procedures while on the job. It is important that new employees be properly trained and embrace the importance of workplace safety. The role of training in developing and maintaining effective hazard control activities is a proven and successful method of intervention.

This is why we have established Myelearsafety school. We pride ourselves in how we guide, support and mentor our students. They receive support throughout their learning experience and into their working lives. Our staff have extensive training experience and also have many years industry experience. We understand the challenges that exist within Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety. Our priority is to ensure that all learners are fully prepared to differentiate themselves in the workplace after completing our Health and Safety courses.

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Health and Safety courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie