Land and Expand Playbook
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01 03 04 06 08 10 11 14 16 19 Replicating your company culture Getting the right cultural fit is important; if your company’s start-up roots are still very evident, you’ll need a leader who’s familiar with that environment rather than someone who’s used to navigating the structures of a large corporate. If you plan to start hiring in significant numbers after the initial setup period, you might want to Labour costs build an onboarding programme that includes time Irish labour costs are extremely competitive by spent at your global HQ. This can help familiarise European standards, having grown at an average new hires with the company culture, build of less than 2% annually over the last five years. relationships, and create stronger links between Hourly labour costs in Ireland are mid-range in both sites. Europe and below the Eurozone average. By some estimates, salaries in Dublin are 30% below the Labour law rates in London, for example, and other places in Irish labour laws are considered more flexible than Ireland offer even more competitive pay scales. those of other European countries. Employers in Ireland have broad freedom of contract, with Collaborating with the education system minimum statutory requirements around salary If your company needs to hire candidates with levels, annual leave, and working hours. Irish law computer science or technology skills, consider provides employees with some protection in pairing up with education providers as a potential dismissals and redundancies. source of talent. Many multinational companies in Ireland form links with universities and third-level • In Ireland, written employment contracts aren’t educational institutes, and IDA Ireland can facilitate mandatory but are usually provided. They discussions with these groups on request. typically include a description of the work, duties, expected hours, salary and benefits. • The maximum working week is 48 hours. • Annual leave is calculated based on time the employee has worked, subject to a statutory minimum of four working weeks, or 20 days, plus public holidays. • Protected leave applies in certain circumstances such as maternity leave, parental leave or carer’s leave, but pay during this time is often at the employer’s discretion and varies by industry. There comes a time in every company’s journey that it needs to reach new markets. To do this effectively, it needs a local presence. For any company expanding its international footprint, Europe is an obvious destination. Home to an estimated 447.7 million consumers, it is a sophisticated, mature market that is open to new products and services. But serving customers in Europe requires a direct presence on the continent itself. So, the next question is: where? We believe Ireland is that place. Ireland’s advantage For APAC headquartered companies, Ireland has For employers, Ireland provides access to a skilled the advantage of being English-speaking, as well talent pool, drawn from its existing industrial and as being a committed member of the European educational base, and beyond. In addition, Ireland Union. This makes it the ideal launchpad into is renowned the world over for its open, welcoming the European market, for business growth and culture. The country is home to an increasingly customer operations, world-class manufacturing, multicultural and diverse society, so it’s a highly or research, development and innovation. attractive destination for key hires who are relocating from other countries. Competitive living Ireland is socially diverse, politically stable and costs mean a person can live well for less money economically strong. Prior to the Covid-19 in Irish cities than in other global tech hubs like pandemic, Ireland was the Eurozone's fastest San Francisco, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, growing economy and ahead of the OECD average. or London. In terms of talent, culture, and cost, Ireland compares very favourably to other countries across Europe. Its business-friendly environment and common law jurisdiction makes it easy to navigate for Asia Pacific (APAC) companies, offering many attractive investment incentives for activities like R&D. 01 First hires students enrol in third-level Science, Technology, Ireland’s long-established links with global Engineering and Maths (STEM) courses. There’s multinationals are a rich source of experienced also good availability of language skills in-country, management-level candidates who can lead a local with almost 350,000 non-Irish nationals in the office. Hiring a senior leader with past involvement workforce at the time of the 2016 census. in setting up or running a business while reporting into a corporate HQ in APAC can give your Employment permits company a valuable head start. Ireland’s business Nationals from countries in the European Economic community tends to be closely networked; Area can work in Ireland without needing to obtain connections are plentiful so it’s possible that a a work permit first. The Irish Government’s trusted contact might reach out to their network Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and link you to a potential candidate. In turn, that has an online work permit and visa system in place person’s own network can be a useful source of for skilled workers from outside the EU. The identifying other potential recruits to build out your fast-track ‘trusted partner’ employment permit company’s team. If you’re hiring someone less system means that work permit applications for experienced but more entrepreneurial, they may non-EU nationals are processed within 10 working not have such extensive contacts, and you may days. For IDA Ireland clients, the requirement for need to support them more closely from Labour Market Needs Test is waived. headquarters in the early days. For companies that need to recruit talent from Growing your team outside the EU, IDA Ireland works closely with the Whether you’re hiring in sales, administration or relevant Irish authorities on securing employment technical roles, Ireland can provide. It has a young permits and visas. Companies can also avail of a workforce that’s adaptable and highly educated, streamlined employment permit application under coming from a system that ranks among the top the Trusted Partner Initiative. ten countries worldwide for quality. It’s a strong source of technology talent; almost 30% of Replicating your company culture Getting the right cultural fit is important; if your company’s start-up roots are still very evident, you’ll need a leader who’s familiar with that environment rather than someone who’s used to navigating the structures of a large corporate. If you plan to start hiring in significant numbers after the initial setup period, you might want to Labour costs build an onboarding programme that includes time Irish labour costs are extremely competitive by spent at your global HQ. This can help familiarise European standards, having grown at an average new hires with the company culture, build of less than 2% annually over the last five years. relationships, and create stronger links between Hourly labour costs in Ireland are mid-range in both sites. Europe and below the Eurozone average. By some estimates, salaries in Dublin are 30% below the Labour law rates in London, for example, and other places in Irish labour laws are considered more flexible than Ireland offer even more competitive pay scales. those of other European countries. Employers in Ireland have broad freedom of contract, with Collaborating with the education system minimum statutory requirements around salary If your company needs to hire candidates with levels, annual leave, and working hours. Irish law computer science or technology skills, consider provides employees with some protection in pairing up with education providers as a potential dismissals and redundancies. source of talent. Many multinational companies in Ireland form links with universities and third-level • In Ireland, written employment contracts aren’t educational institutes, and IDA Ireland can facilitate mandatory but are usually provided. They discussions with these groups on request. typically include a description of the work, duties, expected hours, salary and benefits. • The maximum working week is 48 hours. • Annual leave is calculated based on time the employee has worked, subject to a statutory minimum of four working weeks, or 20 days, plus public holidays. • Protected leave applies in certain circumstances such as maternity leave, parental leave or carer’s leave, but pay during this time is often at the employer’s discretion and varies by industry. What this playbook is for We developed this playbook to assist established Today, one-third of multinationals have been here companies, early-stage start-ups and for more than 20 years, and more than half have entrepreneurs to navigate what, for them, may be more than 10 years in operation. That’s testament uncharted territory. It is designed to give practical to the ease of setting up in Ireland and the advice to speed up the process of setting up in continued support they get. Ireland. With over 70 years of experience in partnering with The title of this playbook, ‘land and expand’, refers corporations and startups to internationalise and to the proven approach taken by more than 1,600 scale, IDA Ireland has gained a unique perspective multinational companies. They typically started on what it takes to set up and succeed beyond operations in Ireland with a small, focused team your home market. Crucially, this document also before building out capacity – often rapidly, beyond leans extensively on the experience of the many their original plans. The phrase has a second APAC companies that have already taken this step, meaning that recognises the longevity with first-hand case studies included in the of many foreign direct investment companies in following pages. We are happy to share this Ireland. Some began here decades ago with knowledge with you and we hope you find it useful.