Client Corner – December 2024

“On the edge of our business, lies our future.” – Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks.

At Harvest, we thrive on collaborating with clients who are eager to explore the future of our industry through cutting-edge research and best practices. In this edition of Client Corner, we delve into two compelling themes that are generating significant interest and lively discussions.

Early Careers Research

This Autumn, Harvest completed its most extensive research project of the year, focusing on the Early Careers Employee Experience. Our goal was to gain deeper insights into the core challenges and provide actionable recommendations for our client employers.

Our comprehensive research used both qualitative and quantitative methods, encompassing three distinct groups of respondents:

• Students: We partnered with six universities to gather insights from students in their final year of undergraduate or master’s programmes across disciplines such as Arts, Business, Law, Humanities, and Engineering
• Graduates: Employers facilitated contact with early career professionals who are 12-18 months into their first full-time roles. Additionally, we included a small cohort of apprentices in our study
• Employers: We surveyed and interviewed employers representing a workforce of over 18,000 employees across Ireland.

A heartfelt thank you to our clients who supported this research initiative!

Skills-Based Organisation

At Harvest, we are proud to be at the forefront of adopting best practices for our clients. The ‘Skills-First’ agenda is a hot topic, and many companies are keen to understand how to transition effectively. In response, we partnered with L&DI to host a Skills-First event on September 11th. This was followed by a series of L&DI Skillnet-funded workshops titled ‘Skills-Based Organisation – How to’ for HR and L&DI professionals. The workshops were a resounding success, selling out quickly, and we are excited to announce a third workshop on February 4^th, 2025.

Feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the workshops as essential education and a ‘must have’ support for our L&D and HR community.

Discovery with intact teams to help teams to understand their own personal communication style and preferences, as well as learn about and understand other members of the team’s styles and how they like to interact.

We use a series of interactive exercises, team building activities, as well as practical action planning and commitments to share new learning and agree ways of working as a team for the future.