The Irish Coast Guard has been certified as a ‘Great Place to Work’ by a leading employee satisfaction audit firm.
In 2019 the IRCG partnered with the Great Place to Work Institute to develop and implement an engagement programme with staff and volunteers as it undergoes an extensive programme of reform.
An engagement tool called the Trust Index & Culture Assessment (TCA) was made available to all coastguard personnel and was specifically designed to collect their personal perspectives on the organisation and on wider reform activities.
Commenting on the accolade, the Irish Coast Guard’s acting director Eugene Clonan said: “We are delighted to be recipients of this year's ‘Great Place to Work’ award.
“Engaging in the programme has allowed us to hear the perspectives of all our coastguard members and to create a ‘just’ culture that encourages open engagement and supports the Coast Guard’s wider programme of reform.
“We are proud of our teams and their certification as great places to work and will continue to work together to continuously improve our organisation and resolve the many challenges that remain.”
Clonan added: “This process is much more than a simple survey of attitudes of those working in the organisation and our volunteers around the coast.
“It is about building a sense of ownership and trust across the coastguard, where people can feel empowered to develop as individuals, highlight issues of concern without fear and engage in a constructive and solution-oriented way to the challenges that face a strongly community-based organisation.
“We are an organisation that has been through some traumatic events over the last five years and we are keen to learn from these events.
“That is at the heart of this initiative — a clear demonstration that we are willing to learn, develop and improve how we do what we do. The icing is that this work is being recognised by an outside organisation.”