Making the Workplace Work for Everyone

The Dialogue Code is an exciting new initiative with its sight set on identifying the solutions to make the workplace a more inclusive and supportive space for female employees. Cork Chamber, through our ongoing commitment to enhancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and our resolute focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals is delighted to be a supporter of this programme and we are inviting you to share your views in this important survey.

To identify the solutions, we must first acknowledge the challenges. In February 2020, the programme kicked off with a series of facilitated dialogue sessions attended by a diversity of business representatives from right across Ireland representing SMEs to large multinationals, bringing private sector and public sector voices together. Amongst the attendees were Cork Chamber, Microsoft, VMWare, Cork City Council, Women’s Network and UCC, to name but a few and also including women working in the homeplace.

These initial discussions were founded on exploring the baseline, namely the ‘what’s not working’ in the modern workplace. The discussions unravelled a rich diversity of perspectives while painting a clear picture of the top issues. A resistance in workplace cultures to adapt the traditional workplace model emerged as the number one issue which includes some issues such as resistance to reduced working week, remote work, flexible work, flexible schedule, set work times. Other key issues included a lack of confidence among women to set their own boundaries with the workplace between their work and life needs with stress from juggling to strike the balance between work and home.

Though the findings are recent, we are now working in a very different dynamic due to Covid. Research has shown that at the start of this year, just one in five of us spent some or all of our working day at home. That number jumped enormously to a third of the total workforce by the height of the pandemic lockdown. While working from home has brought benefits, taking away long commutes for example, it has also brought its challenges with studies showing that women are disproportionally affected and are doing the bulk of household work while juggling a paid job.

In this new context, it is important to reassess, and we want to hear from you. Niamh Gunn from The Dialogue Code has teamed up with Dr. Simone McGaughren in the School of Social Work and Policy at Trinity College Dublin to develop a survey to capture the stories, challenges and opportunities arising for Women in the current climate of changed work practises with Covid-19. A comparison paper of pre and post Covid-19 insights will be collated. Please complete this survey and share with your colleagues. Taking no longer than 15 minutes to complete your perspectives will be key in reflecting the modern workplace. The option for remote working can be a positive outcome of the pandemic, so it’s important that we identify the ways to make it work for everyone. To have your say and view the gallery of content from the event, please visit www.thedialoguecode.com/women-at-work