News & Events

Minister Humphreys launches the online Workplace Innovation Toolkit for businesses

The Workplace Innovation Toolkit was today launched by Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD. It is a practical tool to help companies and their workforces identify where there is scope to improve their business and their work practices. This, in turn, will help them to become more resilient and more sustainable, enhance skills, and support them in maintaining and creating employment.

Based on four pillars of employee engagement; innovation; productivity; and training, this diagnostic Toolkit provides an online questionnaire of 25 questions designed to facilitate self-evaluation of the organisation's capacity to be an innovative workplace.  The Toolkit, which can be used as a resource for ambitious firms to innovate and compete successfully in an increasingly uncertain global trading environment, will point companies to the relevant supports to help them improve and grow their business. 

Minister Humphreys said “Evidence shows that workplace innovation leads to significant and sustainable improvements both in organisational performance and in employee engagement and well-being.  This Workplace Innovation Toolkit will be beneficial to employers and employees alike and I would encourage all businesses to make use of it. It is one of a wide range of supports provided by my Department and our enterprise agencies to bolster businesses of all sizes right across the country. These supports are particularly important in times of global uncertainly when we are determined to build resilience in our enterprises and economy.”

The Workplace Innovation Toolkit is an initiative under the Government's 2018 Action Plan for Jobs.

Ends

The Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation (DBEI) plays a key role in implementing the Government’s policies of stimulating the productive capacity of the economy and creating an environment which supports job creation and maintenance. The Department also has a remit to promote fair competition in the marketplace, protect consumers and safeguard workers.

If you would like more information about this topic, please call Press Office at (01) 631 2200, or email press.office@dbei.gov.ie

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Notes to the Editor

The Workplace Innovation Toolkit can be accessed at:

witool.dbei.gov.ie/#/ei-login

About Workplace Innovation

Building resilience and achieving and sustaining world-class levels of performance and innovation requires an integrated approach to investment in new technologies, skills and empowering workplace practices. 

Workplace innovation is about the systematic adoption of workplace practices, grounded in evidence, that unleash employee-led knowledge, skill and innovation at every level of the organisation, and is recognised as one further method to help retain and ultimately increase employment in firms.

Action Plan for Jobs 2018

Action Plan for Jobs 2018 (APJ 2018) contains 55 actions. The actions seek to embed progress made, ensuring readiness to take new opportunities as they arise, and aid our enterprises in building resilience to meet new challenges. 

The APJ 2018 sets out four key immediate aims, to ensure that:

  • Ireland’s enterprise base can be successful amid the uncertainty created by Brexit;
  • All parts of the country achieve their potential in terms of job creation;
  • Those entering, re-entering, or in the workforce have the incentives and skills needed to prosper and lead fulfilling lives; and
  • Ireland’s enterprise base remains successful by focusing relentlessly on competitiveness, productivity, and innovation.

With the APJ 2018, the Government demonstrates its commitment to support the long-term growth of our enterprise, in particular our SMEs. APJ 2018 reflects the Enterprise 2025: Renewed priorities and also the priorities within other Government strategies that are relevant to job creation e.g. Pathways to Work Strategy and the Action Plan for Education.