EY helps business stay ahead of the post-Brexit talent race
The Government has done well in echoing the business view that the UK will remain our closest trading partner even after Brexit, says Frank O’Keeffe, EY managing partner.
Last Friday, EY hosted a gathering of business leaders at EY’s ultramodern offices at City Quarter, Lapps Quay, Cork, for an audience with Minister for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe. The event took place on what would have been Brexit Day, whose moving goalposts and deadlines continue to confuse business communities the world over.
“It is important that we retain our social and economic connections with Britain,” said Mr O’Keeffe. “There is a significant amount of concern about Brexit for Irish businesses, particularly SMEs who have not yet been able to scale up to trade in more remote markets.
“Many SMEs continue to concentrate a lot of their energy on the UK market. Some areas like agri-food are high volume and low margin, some with perishable goods they sell to their nearest market. Border delays will impact on the mushroom trade, for instance.
People are very aware of the impacts they will face in terms of currency and tariffs. However, they will also face big challenges in terms of leakage of talent. People may leave. The talent business has not been discussed enough.
EY has been working with many of its clients on strategies to attract and retain talent, conducting analysis of the opportunities and challenges. Companies are looking at creating attractive working environments, looking to ensure they are developing existing talent and reaching out to the diaspora and attracting overseas talent.
In terms of developing Ireland’s talent pool from a nationwide perspective, Frank O’Keeffe believes the Government has also got its strategy right by investing heavily in promoting industry clusters in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Kerry and the South-East.
“It has been very beneficial to develop, for example, life sciences, fintech, technology and shared services clusters in Cork,” he said. “What is happening, as a result, is that we are seeing a huge amount of expertise being built up in Cork, which has been valuable in terms of attracting big corporations, but it has also made the region very attractive to entrepreneurs.
The ecosystem of entrepreneurs is very important for Cork, which has done extremely well in attracting and retaining talent in the region.
EY’s report for the financial year to June 2018 showed that the company’s fee income grew 28% to €316m, up from €247m in FY17. EY employs 2,245 people in the Republic of Ireland, up 14% on FY17. In all, it employs 2,803 people across the island of Ireland, including a recent intake of 305 graduates.
During 2018, EY announced 520 new jobs, and it continues to invest heavily in talent, technology and real estate to cater for future growth and the expanding needs of its clients. For the fifth consecutive year, EY reported double-digit growth, with strong performance across all four service lines: assurance, consultancy, tax and transaction advisory services.
Given the nature of EY’s services and primarily blue-chip clients, the company’s success cannot necessarily be read as a barometer for the general economy. Still, it certainly reflects well for anyone taking a snapshot of business health in Ireland.
Even more insightful on the future of work in Ireland is EY’s increasing commitment to innovative new technologies, and its services to its clients in relation to data analytics, robotics and artificial intelligence. EY is investing heavily in technology, in areas increasingly occupying the attention of its clients.
Frank O’Keeffe said: “We are redefining how we use technology across both our traditional and new services. We made a number of key hires in emerging technology in Ireland in FY18, building on the strength of our now 130-strong data analytics and technology team.
As part of our innovation drive, we will continue to focus on areas like financial services, cyber, risk management, managed services, software, digital tax and digital audit, and we anticipate a significant increase in the number of people we employ in these areas in Ireland over the next two years.
“We are doing a lot of work with our clients in relation to transformation programmes. Businesses are increasingly using new technologies to help them make better decisions. Businesses are looking at ways in which technologies can be used to support their customers, working with internet-of-things and developing smarter products.”
EY also continues to invest significantly in tax technology to support the growing demands on clients grappling with disruption in tax compliance, changes to global trade, legislative change, and Brexit planning.
Last year, EY launched Connected Tax, a new tax technology product.
“Disruption of the tax profession is not coming from a start-up or an app, rather from tax authorities investing in technology and capabilities allowing them to examine data in new ways, leading to demands for more data, more quickly, to the same levels of accuracy.
“Our cutting-edge Connected Tax offering uses a combination of data management, visual analytics, AI and robotics. Connected Tax will fundamentally change how we deliver tax compliance and reporting services to help our clients respond to immediate demands, with the flexibility to facilitate ongoing change,” said Frank O’Keeffe.
Business Movers
has been appointed as a solicitor in law firm Comyn Kelleher Tobin’s (CKT) litigation and healthcare departments.
She brings 20 years’s experience advising on clinical litigation and medical negligence. She joins from the State Claims Agency where she managed medical negligence and inquest files for public hospitals, as well as general litigation cases. She is also a CEDR accredited mediator.
She holds a BA Law and European Studies from University of Limerick (UL), is a member of the Southern Law Association and volunteers with FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres).
has been appointed to the role of client services manager at technology services company Singlepoint in Dublin, with responsibility for building strong relationships with customers and stakeholders, and providing excellent customer service to them.
Prior to taking up this position, Sangita was principal service delivery manager at Vodafone for four years, and before that she was application support manager at Citigroup Dublin for five years. She holds a BSc in Biotechnology from London South Bank University. She has over 18 years experience in IT.
has Grant Thornton’s financial services tax team, delivering tax and compliance services to asset management, banking, leasing, insurance and fintech clients. He will work with financial services audit practice and financial service advisory, advising in asset management, aviation, banking, fintech services, business risk services and financial consulting.
He will also work with colleagues in the firm’s international network. He previously worked in Ireland and the US with PwC. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (CAI) and an Associate of the Irish Tax Institute (AITI).
has been appointed managing director of the Rocket Restaurants Group. He joins from Applegreen, where he was chief brand and strategy officer and led the petrol forecourt retailer’s food and “house of brands” strategies. He previously spent 20 years as MD of McDonald’s Restaurants of Ireland. He has also worked with PWC in both Dublin and Melbourne.
He is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, holds a diploma in Professional Accountancy from Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business and a BComm. He is a member of the Institute of Directors in Ireland.
has been appointed as film development officer for Kerry. a newly created role created by Kerry ETB in collaboration with Kerry County Council. Siobhan brings extensive experience to the job having worked in TV production for the last twelve years. She has produced prime time TV shows such as The Great House Revival and Life After the Rising and has worked on many successful returning series such as Ireland’s Fittest Family. and “The Secret Millionaire”.
Her plan is to increase the levels of film and TV production within the county while continuing to ensure that Kerry is a great environment to film in, proactively addressing filmmakers’ needs. The Film Development Office at Kerry ETB is a single point of contact for filmmakers, interested in filming in Kerryand is supported by Kerry County Council.
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