Employers’ body maps out major change of direction

The Irish Business and Employers Confederation is planning a major strategic shift in direction, part of which will be a new pricing model for its 7,500 members. In a document outlining the organisation’s strategy, the confederation said it had ‘moved away from social partnership in an orderly and constructive way’. It also said it had ‘reforged relationships’ with the new government. The change in direction appears to mirror the growing influence of Ireland’s non-union sector.

Background

Members of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) have been told that the organisation was planning a major shift its strategic direction. The changes, said IBEC, would be the most far-reaching since the confederation was formed from the merger of the Federated Union of Employers (FUE) and the Confederation of Irish Industry (CII) 20 years ago. The plan was outlined in a document called The future is this way: A new strategic direction for IBEC 2013–2015 (3.51Mb PDF).

New pricing model

IBEC said in the document that a ‘new pricing model’ would be developed following a review, and would be based on new ‘membership propositions and service benefits’. What this was likely to mean, according to the independent weekly magazine, Industrial Relations News (IRN), was a move away from the annual membership fee based on employee numbers. Instead there would be a move towards a more client-based fee system for work performed. IBEC would not, however, be moving to a pricing model that was exclusively based on the level of service used by members.

Influence of non-union firms

In the strategy document, Director General Danny McCoy said the organisation had listened to members and ‘other key stakeholders’. He said:

Ultimately we need to look, act and deliver more like you, the businesses we represent.

Members were told that the changes were designed to ensure the organisation was able to best meet the future needs of members. Set to be rolled out over the next 12 months, IBEC insisted that its core role would not change, but that in a changing economic environment where businesses were facing tighter budgets, it had to provide services at a competitive cost.

Under the heading ‘membership strategy’, the document said IBEC’s ‘unique selling proposition’ would be clearly defined as would the ‘membership target base’. The relevance of all current sectors would be reviewed, alongside all member services and what was ‘core and non-core’. Criteria would also be developed for the entrance or exit of sectors currently covered by IBEC. An ‘account management framework’ would be developed.

McCoy also briefly addressed the post-social partnership environment in Ireland, saying:

...we have moved away from social partnership in an orderly and constructive way... reforged relationships with the new government and established ourselves as the ‘go to’ business organisation in Ireland for the Troika.

Summary

In summary, the strategy document promised a ‘higher-performing’ organisation with the following ‘key deliverables’:

• a redefined vision;

• a commercial focus;

• an emphasis on ‘business’;

• the optimised use of technology;

• a new member-centric operating structure which is flexible, agile and lean;

• strategically focused leadership and a well-developed talent pool;

• continued development of key stakeholder relationships;

• a redefined customer value proposition with a new pricing model;

• realignment/re-engineering of the operating processes;

• a redefined performance culture with clear accountability;

• sustainability and balance;

• an engaged workforce.

Commentary

For some years now, IBEC has been shifting from a majority of members operating in a unionised environment to a solid non-union majority. While there is no reference to industrial relations or human resources in the document, IBEC insists that providing industrial relations and human resource services to members will remain central to the work of the organisation. Moreover, it has revealed that it has no plans to close regional offices.

The former IBEC Director of Policy and International Affairs, Brendan Butler, left IBEC at the end of 2012 after almost 25 years at the organisation, a large proportion of which he spent in the industrial relations division. Butler also represented IBEC in the various social partnership programmes between 1993 and 2009. Other senior IR figures were also expected to depart this year.

IRN has commented that the larger IBEC members, who currently underpin revenue with their relatively higher affiliation fees, have been behind this proposed change in how the confederation secures its revenue. The change in direction mirrors the growing influence of the non-union sector in Ireland generally, many of them large foreign multinationals. Many of these companies, according to IRN:

...may feel that the industrial relations concerns of more traditional Irish-based firms should no longer be at the heart of what IBEC provides for members.

Brian Sheehan, IRN Publishing