Connected Hubs is all about flexibility, community and helping businesses grow, says programme manager Stephen Carolan.
Three years on from the initial, rather sudden switch to remote working, Ireland’s workers are showing no signs of wanting to relinquish the benefits it can bring. According to the latest national remote working survey carried out by the Western Development Commission (WDC) and the University of Galway, 38pc of the more than 5,000 people surveyed work fully remotely, while 59pc follow the hybrid model.
Just 3pc said they work on-site, according to the data, which was collected in late September 2023. These statistics are broadly similar to the stats from April 2022, when 40pc of more than 8,000 respondents worked fully remotely and 52pc were hybrid workers.
As most of us know, flexible working – that mixture of remote and hybrid – is embedded into Irish working culture. From endorsements from professional bodies like CIPD to Government legislation and funding backing remote working, it is being presented as a reinvigorator rather than a productivity killer.
Part of that reinvigoration narrative belongs to Connected Hubs, the national network of co-working hubs that first went live in May 2021. The network is sponsored and funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development under the national policy ‘Our Rural Future’.
Yet, according to the latest remote working survey, not many people seem to be aware of the facilities on their doorstep. Only 20pc of people said they were aware of Connected Hubs and just 6pc said they used them. By contrast, awareness of tax relief support for remote workers was much more common knowledge: 94pc take advantage of tax relief for remote workers.
Flexibility, community and support
Stephen Carolan of the WDC describes co-working hubs as a “ready-made solution” to the challenges that remote and hybrid working can present. If you’re lonely, unproductive or can’t focus at home you can go to a hub. Likewise, if you waste too much time commuting to a big city centre office, you can opt to work from your local hub. As national hub network programme manager with the WDC, Carolan spearheaded the expansion. He previously worked at Mayo County Council in senior IT positions and as broadband officer, where his role involved supporting Ireland’s National Broadband Plan.
“What initially started as a pilot programme in the west of Ireland has now evolved into a nationwide initiative, aligned with Government policy and poised to revolutionise how businesses approach workspaces,” he says of Connected Hubs.
The hubs are “purpose-built facilities with flexibility, community and support at their heart,” says Carolan. “Almost all the hubs in the network are independent businesses which provide different mixes of service offerings. A small number of hubs are privately owned, but the majority are social enterprises, some are run by community groups and a number are operated by local authorities.”
According to Carolan, there are 400 hubs in operation – and they are not just for remote workers. They support growing businesses, from start-ups and scale-ups to international companies that want to base themselves in a new location without having to commit to office overheads. In fact, there have been a couple of examples of established companies successfully hiring new teams from various hubs around the country.
A different approach to attracting talent
Liberty IT recently opened a new office at the Portershed in Galway with plans to create up to 100 new jobs, while Public Relay, a communications, analytics and advisory firm, opened its second Irish site in the Cavan Digital Hub a while back. “The team believe the support of the hub manager was key to making connections and creating a strong community bond. Public Relay has plans in place for a further expansion and are looking to hubs to provide the solution,” says Carolan. Indeed, the company opened a third site in Waterford’s Boxworks 2 co-working space in May 2022, creating 40 jobs.
The hubs are effectively a way for companies to outsource a lot of the usual worries and unknowns involved in opening a new location. It’s not just workers that want flexibility, after all. Carolan says the hubs provide lower risk access to new talent markets. He also thinks that hubs will be key to companies’ ability to attract, onboard and retain Gen Z talent. This age demographic seems to puzzle recruiters, but Carolan says Gen Z workers simply have different experiences of the working world.
“While millennials tended to view hybrid work as a reward and perhaps a hard-won benefit – Gen Z don’t understand why it’s even a discussion.
“But, where they are ahead of the curve in tech and digital skills, they have missed on vital years of building connections with colleagues and corporate values… They are missing out on the social connections that many of previous generations built on the job.” To address this discrepancy, Carolan predicts that companies will choose to be “more mobile” and “more tailored” when it comes to onboarding new staff – and that’s where hubs come in. “Companies will look to bring new recruits on in batches and establish short-term regional locations that managers and HR staff will go to, with only occasional visits to a corporate head office.”
More than a desk and a chair
Carolan reckons the hubs’ more relaxed approach is what Irish workers and their employers need after years of being cooped up during the pandemic. Having a hub location means employers can have a space for workers to come in and meet without the pressure of having to go into an office.
“The function of workspaces is to bring teams together to cultivate engagement, creativity and collaboration – not simply to provide a desk and a chair to work from.”
Hubs are about “looking at workspaces in a new light”.
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