A PLAN to encourage employers to “hire instead of fire” has resulted in more than 4,000 jobs being pledged and 1,000 positions filled in less than three months.
The idea for Hireland came from a chat around the kitchen table between Lucy Masterson, a lecturer in social and not-for-profit marketing, and some friends last year.
“We thought, what if we could challenge the current status quo of firing to one of hiring?” she said. “What if we could get employers thinking differently – about the benefits of creating a job instead of cutting?”
They launched the Hireland campaign and website in mid-January, with the aim of getting pledges for 5,000 jobs within six months. Companies make public pledges to hire people on hireland.ieand Hireland monitors the promises and notes when the jobs are filled.
Up to late last week 4,030 jobs had been pledged by more than 800 companies around the State. Some 530 firms in Dublin had pledged jobs, 47 in Cork and 33 in Galway. Job openings pledged range from builders to beauty therapists to business analysts.
Promising jobs is the easy part, but Ms Masterson said she was “absolutely” confident that the pledges would result in jobs, as people were publicly pledging the jobs. “The very public nature of the pledge is only the first step. We are already seeing follow-through and getting feedback from hundreds of people who have hired and been hired.”
The response has been overwhelming. “We had no idea how this would be received, just a gut feeling that there were thousands of people just like us who work in and own Irish businesses who want to be part of a solution rather than wait for something to happen,” she said. “I guess that gut feeling was right.”
As well as generating interest here, the idea has been picked up abroad. Hireland will feature in a BBC documentary on people-powered movements, due to air next month.
Ms Masterson travelled to the US last week to talk about the Hireland experience, and a colleague is going to Portugal this week to speak to people interested in starting a similar project. She has also been asked to share the model in Poland and the UK.
People involved in a similar scheme in the US contacted Hireland when they heard about the plan and the Irish project is now a sister initiative of UhireUS.
She said thousands of small and medium enterprises were quietly carrying on their work, employing people in ones and twos, but getting little recognition.
“As a bottom-up movement, we are drawing on the disparate strength of thousands to think and act differently about survival and growth,” she said.
HIRE AND HIRE: 'IT'S GREAT TO TAKE SOMEONE OFF THE DOLE'
Stephen Reddin has a lot to thank Hireland for. He is now account manager with email marketing company Circulator.ie, having being unemployed since returning from Australia a year and a half ago.When he came home he found it impossible to get a job, and began voluntary work for a start-up digital marketing firm. Through that work, he met Don Farrell, the managing director of Circulator.ie, but the company was not planning to take on staff at the time.
However, Mr Farrell heard about the Hireland campaign, made a pledge to hire someone and Stephen got the job. “I’d like to think I would have got a job eventually, but the fact that Don made the pledge definitely helped me,” he says. “I’m delighted with where I am now and I’m extremely appreciative of Don and Hireland.”
Mr Farrell says the Hireland campaign gave him the push he needed to expand his workforce. “It’s something that’s very positive in the middle of such negativity,” he said. “And it’s great to take someone off the dole if you can.”
Martin Grogan of DeWar enjoyed the experience so much he intends to pledge again. His services company offers tradesmen in areas such as facility management, property maintenance and electrical contracting.
He took on five people and hopes to take on eight or 10 more this year. He says he received a much better quality of staff through hireland.ie. "The people who applied had the qualifications I needed. They tended to be professionals in their trade," he says. "We will pledge again."
Alan Coleman of Wolfgang Digital in Dublin pledged six jobs and has hired five people. “It’s going really well,” he says. “We hope to have between 10 and 12 employed by the end of the year.”
ALISON HEALY
