Managing diversity and the opportunities for candidates dependent on work visas in ireland

Managing Diversity and the Opportunities for Candidates Dependent on Work Visas in Ireland Dissertation submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MBA in Human Resources Management At Dublin Business School Ana Cecilia Feitosa Ribeiro Student number: 10328426 MBA - Human Resources Management 2018 Table of Contents Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 Personal Interest 12 1.3 Research Interest 12 1.4 Research Question 13 Literature Review 15 2.1 Literature Introduction 15 2.2 Managing Diversity 15 2.2.1 Definition of Diversity 15 2.2.2 Equality and Diversity 16 2.2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of Diversity Management 17 2.2.4 The MNE and Diversity 19 2.3 International Human Resources Management 20 2.3.1 Talent management 21 2.3.2 Global skills supply strategies 21 2.3.3 Global knowledge management strategies and management through global networks 23 2.4 Employment Permits in Ireland 23 2.4.1 Criteria for Eligibility 23 2.4.2 Employer Criteria 24 2.4.3 Employee Criteria 24 2.4.4 The Process 24 2.5 Literature Conclusion 24 Methodology 26 3.1 Methodology Introduction 26 3.2 Research Philosophy 27 3.3 Research Approach 29 3.4 Research Strategy 30 3.5 Research Choice 31 3.6 Time Horizon 32 3.7 Data Collection 33 3.7.1 Secondary Data Collection 33 3.7.2 Primary Qualitative Data Collection - Interview Design Process 34 3.7.3 Data Analysis 35 3.8 Population and Sample - Selecting Respondents 36 3.9 Ethical Issues 36 3.10 Limitations to the Research 37 Data analysis / Findings 39 4.1 Introduction 39 4.2 Semi-structured interview 39 4.3 Presentation of findings 40 4.3.1 Possible reasons for the increase of immigration rate in Ireland 40 4.3.2 The acceptance of Non-Irish professionals from organisations in Ireland 41 4.3.3 The lack of Irish skilled professionals 42 4.3.4 Sectors in Ireland that are being challenging to hire suitable candidates 42 4.3.5 The skills that are in shortage in Ireland 43 4.3.6 Solutions for filling the gap in shortage skills 44 4.3.7 The typical profile of immigrants applying for jobs in Ireland 45 4.3.8 Advantages of having a diverse workforce 45 4.3.9 Disadvantages of having a diverse workforce 46 4.3.10 Challenges of setting up a diverse workforce 47 4.3.11 Employment work visa 47 4.3.12 Future of the Irish labour market 48 Discussion 49 5.1 Introduction 49 5.2 Research Objectives: 49 Conclusion / Recommendations 58 6.1 Conclusion 58 6.2 Recommendations 60 Self-reflection 61 7.1 Introduction 61 7.2 Learning Styles 61 7.2.1 The Researcher learning style 64 7.3 The MBA 64 7.4 The Dissertation Process 66 7.5 Personal and Professional Development 67 Appendix – Primary Research Material 77 Appendix - Research Timeplan 79 List of Tables and Figures Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Components of the annual population change Employment Permits issued and renewed in Ireland 2000 - 2016 Skills in demand 11 The research process 'onion' 26 Forms of interview 34 Learning Style Model 62 Learning Style 63 Gibb's Reflective Cycle 64 Declaration: I, _Ana Cecilia Feitosa Ribeiro_, declare that this research is my original work and that it has never been presented to any institution or university for the award of Degree or Diploma In addition, I have referenced correctly all literature and sources used in this work and this work is fully compliant with the Dublin Business School’s academic honest policy Signed: Ana Cecilia Feitosa Ribeiro Date: 21/05/2018 Acknowledgements Through the path of this work I had the support of some important people, people that were always presented in my life and people that just crossed my way during this project I would like to thank my supervisor, and my lecturers that immensely influenced and guided me on my topic choices and on the writing process, constantly giving feedbacks during this master’s dissertation Also, I would like to express my gratitude to my boyfriend that also was doing his master with me, and consequently worked beside me every single time of this journey Without his support, encouragement, love and understanding, this final stage of the master degree would have been much harder I would like to thank to my cousin, who is daily with me, listening to my complaints and has always encourage me to never give up on this project Not forgetting about my friends that are present in my life and completely understood why I missed so many important days and meetings with them during this master; in special Bianca and Fernando to have helped me with tips and encouragement to keep doing the course Above all, I would like to thank my family, in special my mother, my father and my brother to have also encourage me to take on this MBA, if it wasn’t their support, financially and psychological speaking, this stage of my life wouldn’t have become reality I also recognise that this work would not have been possible without the voluntary contribution of the respondents; their information was of a big value to this work Abstract Knowing that there are a lot of immigrants coming to Ireland, and even starting their professional career in the Irish industries, this research main objective is to really understand the actual Irish labour market, and how it has attracted immigrants to Ireland More specifically, this study sought to understand how immigrants have contributed for the organisations in Ireland to overcome the shortage of skills, linked to the benefits that having a multicultural work environment helps to improve the production and the overall organisation performance With so many theories about managing diversity, the study was based on pre-existent information to guide the collection of primary data First of all the population chosen was HR professionals that are currently working in Ireland to participate in a semi-structured interview The study then found that indeed some sectors are being more challenged during the search for suitable candidates that possess specific skills IT, nursing, food and drink, pharmacy and finance were they main sectors brought by the respondents, as the most challenging ones And besides, training and constantly developing the staff they already have, hiring from overseas is another strategy to overcome the lack of talented professionals However, what it came that was new for this project, is that some organisations in Ireland are no longer recruiting staff by their nationality or age, or any other discriminatory profile, but instead they value more the skills that the candidate can bring to collaborate with projects Obviously, for being an immigrant, a process of work visa application has to be gone through, but that hasn’t been a big concern for the professionals that have an experience with it Introduction 1.1 Background Recent studies have proven that diversity in the workplace is an important issue to be approached and discussed in the work environment And it is assumed that a diverse and inclusive work environment has more variety of ideas and creation, hence perform better on the financial results (McKibbon, H., 2016) A diverse and inclusive work environment helps to develop innovation With values and experiences from different backgrounds, diversity is seeing as an advantage source of creation and innovation among organisations that adopted a diverse workforce Moreover, talented people from different culture provoke more challenges in the work environment, which it can lead to a more dynamic brainstorm of ideas, increasing the organisation’s performance and productivity (Groysberg, B and Connolly, K., 2013; McKibbon, H., 2016) Companies are crossing boundaries to grow internationally Being willing to, efficiently, attend to their client’s needs, an organisation with diversity in language, culture, and gender would be able to communicate better with the customer and to understand and devolve what is requested from them (Conboye, J., 2013) More and more organisations are seeking to build a diverse workplace, to perform better in between their global competitors, producing innovation and retaining the best talents (McKibbon, H., 2016) It is known that employees with experiences internationally can bring valuable advantages to multinational companies The millennial generation is more enthusiastic about working abroad in order to enhance their experiences and to acquire new skills But anywhere around the world, if you are out of your continent zone, and want to gain professional experience, you might need to apply for a work visa permit Work visas applications can be a concern for many of those immigrants that are trying to have an opportunity in the international work environment, due to high costs in investments for hiring immigrants (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2008) In this document, we will be focusing on the inclusion of non-EU immigrants and candidates in the Irish business environment Be recovering from the recession period and facing a shortage in skilled professionals, Ireland is looking for alternatives to attract and retain good candidates, and one of them is in hiring foreign workers (McMahon, C., 2018) With the attraction of immigrants to fill the job positions gaps, challenges can also be faced with the acceptance of them from Irish citizens Irish-born people were considered to have the worst attitudes to immigration and immigrants, compared to other European states (Halpin, H 2018) The attitudes towards immigrants in Ireland were considered to be negative during the hard times of economy, especially with someone from a different race or ethnic group (Halpin, H 2018) Challenges in having a diverse work environment can also be arising from this perspective of having a mix of ethnicities and race (MacDonald, L., 2018) Moreover, organisations in Ireland that have a heterogeneous teamwork would have to come with strategies to engage every employee in the organisation’s values (Weeks, A., 2017)  Study of Employment Permits and critical skills in Ireland Figure Components of the annual population change Source: Central Statistics Office Available at: http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/pme/populationandmigrationestimatesapril2017/ The Republic of Ireland has become a good destination for immigrants (workpermit.com/Ireland-immigration) According to the table above, the number of immigrants in Ireland has doubled since 2010, from about 40 thousand immigrant to 80 thousand until 2017 (cso.ie, 2017) The increase in the number of immigrants in Ireland can be explained by the actual strong economy and the Irish Immigration system that easies the visa application for highly skilled immigrants European members not require a visa to enter the country However, if the immigrant comes from outside of Europe, it is required a visa to visit, work, or study in Ireland The Irish immigration system has the purpose of easing the access of migrants with good skills and expertise needed by the Irish economy to get a visa (workpermit.com/Irelandimmigration) The Irish work visas available for immigrants to apply are specified as General Employment Permit, Critical Skills Employment Permit, Irish Start-up Entrepreneur Program Visa, and Dependent/Partner/Spouse Employment Permit (workpermit.com/Ireland-immigration) Figure Employment Permits issued and renewed in Ireland 2000 - 2016 Source: Department of Jobs, Enterprise, and Innovation Available at: http://emn.ie/index.jsp?p=128&n=138 Critically analysing the table above, the huge decrease in the number of non-EU working in Ireland, fell in 41% during 2009 due to the recession in the country, what made the Government decide to restrict the number of work permit visa (Smyth, 2010) The main idea here is to show that the Irish economy is recovering from the recession period, and financial incentives are being offered to multinational companies to start their business in Ireland The government then is starting again to issue employment permits to fill the gap of professional skills In 2016, the number of non-EU work permit beat a record since the recession period, expecting to exceed 9,000 applicants work visas, while in 2015 this figure was in 7,353 (Waldron and Ali, 2016) Comparing both periods, 2009 and 2016, we can see some changes in the single market that employed most non-EU national In 2009 and 2010 the biggest single employer of non-EU nationals was the Health Service Executive (applied for 524 employment permits), and the Service Industries (applied for 2,970 work permits) (Smyth, 2010) In 2016 the biggest single employer of non-EU nationals was the IT sector and language-oriented positions (Waldron and Ali, 2016) Organisations in the IT, Financial, language-oriented and Engineering sectors, are the main areas looking for skilled international people to fill the gaps in the workforce As an example of these organisations, the top five users of the Irish work permit for non-EU workers are HSE (479), Google (125), Intel (103), Infosys (94) and Accenture (66) (Waldron and Ali, 2016) Some recent articles reviews are bringing that Irish employee is not happy with the pay packages and are leaving their jobs to join a different industry The result is seeing on employers struggling to find skills to fill the job vacancies (Woods, K., 2017) The list of skills most demanding in the Irish labour market was brought in one of Hays reports for 2018, see table below: 10 - Action: If the researcher was to go for a second Masters, in another specific area, she would definitely better manage her time to keep up with deadlines, presenting a better work result She would also interact more with the lecturers in order to get from them, specific information about what has been studying 7.4 The Dissertation Process - Description: The researcher chose the topic of “Managing Diversity and the Opportunities for Candidates Dependent on Work Visas in Ireland” during a lecture about managing diversity, which brought to a topic the importance of having multiculturalism and a mix of nations to enhance the organisation’s performance And then she linked with the current Irish labour market situation of skills shortage, and emphasised in her study, the importance that immigrants has for organisations in Ireland The researcher started then to read academic articles and the news about the current Irish labour market to better understand theories about managing diversity and combine that with the organisations in Ireland starting to hire immigrants to fill the gap of shortage skills However, it was not known from HR professionals in Ireland their real feeling, needs, and satisfaction in having immigrants to constitute their work environment, and how they normally deal to keep these talented people engaged in the company - Feelings: Challenges raised during the data collection and the dissertation writing process First, it was hard to find newer information about employment work visas delivered in Ireland, and also some other recent information about the current Irish labour market It was also hard to get in contact with HR professionals working in Ireland for taking the interviews for the primary data collection This, at first was chosen to be collected utilizing survey method, but after it was realized that a semi-structured interview would bring more information to the study First, the researcher did three interviews, but they weren’t sufficient enough to answer the main research question So then a fourth interview was soon concluded, and it really enhanced the primary data collection content Time management failed a few times as well, the researcher couldn’t follow her time plan proposed at the end of the Research Methods module, and had to be adjusted while she was writing the dissertation Even though she couldn’t meet with her time expectations, she did meet the time requested by her supervisor to submit drafts of the work in process This 66 helped her to keep working in line to not miss any submission date, especially to not miss any feedback given by the supervisor - Conclusion: In the end, the researcher was very satisfied with the information collected for her study, and with what she had learned from it Being in contact with HR professionals also gave her opportunity to understand better the area of work she wants to follow, and also provided her to share her experiences in HR for a future work opportunity 7.5 Personal and Professional Development - Action: With the experience of writing an academic study, the researcher could develop some personal and professional skills Personally speaking, she developed the control of her expectations and anxieties Managing her personal activities while having to focus on her dissertation writing and also commit to a part-time work during the week, was also extremely important to keep her life healthy The researcher also developed professionally, enhancing her speaking and writing professional vocabulary Also, communication skills were developed in order to get in contact with professionals in the current Irish industries Furthermore, she believes that those skills acquired during the MBA and the dissertation process will be further applied to her personal and professional life, in order to succeed on her life expectations For the near future, after the researcher completes her MBA course, she will try to put in practice what she has learned during the course and during her researches in a company in the Irish market And as it was said before, her best way to learn is by doing, and there isn’t a better place to professionally and personally develop skills than in a work environment, or even during the day-to-day life involvements Also, she plans to a specific course in the HR area, such as recruiting trends and most useful tools to current recruit skilled candidates, such as LinkedIn 67 References Ali, F (2013) ‘A multi-level perspective on equal employment opportunity for women in Pakistan’ Equality, Diversity 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Educational Psychology: Vol 20, No 76 Appendix – Primary Research Material 1) Can you tell me about your education level and career development? 2) Can you briefly talk about the company you are working for and your position in it? 3) Since 2010 the number of immigrants has doubled, from about 40 thousand to more than 80 thousand What comment can you on this number? What are the reasons you believe immigrants are moving to Ireland? 4) After the 2008 financial crisis, the Irish government started to give incentives for multinationals companies to come to Ireland How important is this factor to explain the increase in immigration? 5) From your experience, you think that Irish people are generally qualified enough to fulfil the needs of the Irish labour market? 6) Would you say that organisations in Ireland favour Irish people over foreigners? 7) A study done by Hays Recruitment on “Salary and Recruiting Trends 2018”, finds that some sectors are facing difficulties to hire suitable candidates Is that something you experiment in your daily activity? 8) Being more specific, what skills are lacking in the sectors? 9) How would you solve this issue? 10) What is the typical profile of immigrants that are applying for jobs in Ireland? 11) What are the advantages that having a diverse workforce bring to an organisation? And what are the disadvantages? 12) What are the challenges that you can face when setting up a diverse workforce? Can you think of any real case? 77 13) After having an heterogeneous environment, what new challenges arise? 14) In regards to work visa application, you think that the Irish policy in terms of numbers of visa delivered fits the needs of the Irish labour market? 15) Is this shortage of skilled Irish professionals something that is going to last in the future? 16) Do you have any comment to add that it wasn’t mentioned before and can be relevant for this study? 78 Appendix - Research Timeplan First draft document 79 Final document 80 ... interview done with Human Resources professionals working in Ireland brought non-numerical information for the study The author will make the use of them to interpret the meaning created by each interview... location and relocation of management, planning and forecasting, staffing, training and developing, and evaluating if the firm’s needs are met with the talent skills, not forgetting about the concerns... immigrants and candidates in the Irish business environment Be recovering from the recession period and facing a shortage in skilled professionals, Ireland is looking for alternatives to attract and