Sláinte Healthcare Bucks The Trend With 57% Women In Senior Management Position
Leading international healthcare technology company, Sláinte Healthcare has announced the results of their employee analysis of male and female participation in its workforce. It revealed that women represent 57% of its senior management team and 33% of its technology positions are held by women. This bucks current trends in the labour market in Ireland with most recent figures showing female participation at senior management level at only 21%.
Commenting on its male / female employment ratio, Oonagh O’Driscoll, HR Director at Sláinte Healthcare said: “Ireland has laudable ambitions of becoming a global leader in ICT and I believe we are well positioned to achieve this. At Sláinte Healthcare we encourage women in the workforce through our culture, flexibility in working hours, generous maternity policy and other family friendly arrangements. As an industry we must address the issues on all fronts and in particular lobby the government in relation to educational choices at an early age. An obvious solution to addressing our skills shortage and achieving our ambitions outlined in the ICT plan is to increase female participation. The private sector has led the way with Coder Dojo (Computer Programing and Computer Technology Clubs for Young People) and more recently Coder Dojo for girls, our educational sector needs to follow suit.”
Oonagh continued: “At Sláinte Healthcare, we are bucking the trend with a 33% female participation rate in technology and a 57% female participation rate at Senior Management level. The International Business Report by Grant Thornton in 2012 identified female participation at Senior Management level at just 21% in 2012.”
“ICT contributes €70 billion per annum to Ireland’s export performance and there are 44,500 job openings forecasted by 2018. All good news but how will these jobs be filled? Ireland is home to global leaders like Microsoft, Oracle, Intel, Google, Facebook, Twitter and of course Sláinte, so it is critical that all of these employers feel confident that they are going to be able to attract and retain talent in Ireland.”
The Government’s ICT Skills Action Plan 2014 – 2018 (Government, Education and Industry working together to make Ireland a global leader in ICT talent) sets out the Government’s objectives of driving and growing investment and opportunities in the ICT sector. The action plan is detailed and comprehensive and looks at a range of measures in relation to education, work permits, conversion courses, promoting Ireland as a destination for high level ICT skills etc. However the fact remains that only 60% of the skills demand will be met domestically and female participation in the ICT sector in Ireland is an estimated 24%.
A recent survey by Hays Recruitment “Women in IT, an untapped answer to the skills shortage” found some interesting facts:
- 75% of respondents did not plan a career in IT and “fell into it”
- Only 39% of respondents had a computer science degree
- The 3 mains reasons for poor participation were:
- Poor subject choices in education, not exposed to or could not study relevant subjects in school
- Work environment – better gender balance, unfortunately this is a bit of a catch 22 situation
- Culture – more flexibility and work life balance.
Sláinte is an equal opportunities employer and embraces diversity with a 50/50 split between male and female employs. Current CSO statistics in Ireland show male/female labour market participation at 49% male and 51% female. We are bucking the trend in other ways also with a 33% female participation rate in technology and a 57% female participation rate at Senior Management level. The International Business Report by Grant Thornton in 2012 identified female participation at Senior Management level at just 21% in 2012.
For further information visit: ww.slaintehealthcare.com