A new survey released today has revealed that attracting and developing diverse talent within the industry impacts growth prospects.
Four out of five CEO’s surveyed said they 'rank gender equality, diversity and inclusion as priorities for their organisation,' according to the data published by Agri-Food Diversity and Inclusion Forum, which was developed by Bord Bia and Aon.
Tara McCarthy, CEO of Bord Bia said that is group is successfully 'advancing the diversity and inclusion agenda with 85% of CEO’s within the Irish food and drink industry, therefore enabling more companies to be in a strong position to compete to attract the best talent at all levels and across all fields of discipline.'
“The difficulties posed by Covid-19 means that business leaders will now need to balance their short term needs with a longer-term vision of how diversity can contribute to strengthening the resilience of their business," she added.
Bord Bia said that it has addressed the issue of attracting female talent, most recently, by appointing Deirdre Ryan as its director of Origin Green.
The group highlighted that it currently has 60% females on its senior leadership team.
Other Measures
The findings showed that steps have been undertaken with the food and drink sector to create a diverse talent pool with 79% of employees confirming Irish food and drink firms offering graduate specific programmes, 76% offer part-time working and 86% providing health and wellness supports.
'The findings of our survey demonstrate the strong business case for diversity and inclusion," said Ciara Jackson, EMEA Food & Drink Industry Lead, Aon in Ireland.
"Companies in the agri-food sector who attract and retain a diverse employee group benefit from a mixture of perspectives, experiences and skills that are key to fostering innovation and driving business growth," she added.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
