The Irish Coast Guard announced that the organisation has been certified by the GPTW Institute as a ‘Great Place to Work’.
The Coast Guard partnered with the Great Place to Work Institute back in 2019 to develop and implement an engagement programme with staff and volunteers as the organization undergoes an extensive programme of reform.
An engagement tool called the ‘Trust Index & Culture Assessment (TCA)’ was made available to all Coast Guard personnel and was specifically designed to collect their personal perspectives on the organisation and on wider reform activities.
Commenting on the ‘GPTW’ award, Eugene Clonan, acting Director of the Irish Coast Guard 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 Coast Guard 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.”
“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 Coast Guard, 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 5 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”
