About the programme

The Employer Excellence Programme is a two-year programme designed to support and spotlight employers in the tourism sector through focused employee engagement and development. It is tailored for forward-thinking businesses that understand the value of a motivated and supported team, leading to better customer experiences, a stronger workplace culture, and improved business performance.

Our goal is to help you create a workplace your employees are proud of. An engaged team not only delivers exceptional service but also attracts top talent and drives long-term success.

The Programme is open to tourism businesses who meet the criteria outlined in the Guidelines to the programme
Full details of how to apply are available on the Employer Excellence Programme page here 

Once your business is accepted onto the Employer Excellence Programme, a member of our team will call you personally to welcome you to the programme and explain what happens next. We will ensure that your team has access to our learniFI learning management system, giving access to the required management training. We will also explain how the survey aspect of the programme works and how the HR mentors become involved as well as an overview of our wider programme of supports throughout the year. Any questions you may have will also be answered.

The first step is getting feedback from your employees, obtained through a detailed fully confidential Employee Engagement Survey provided by an approved survey provider. This allows you to identify and assess any issues that need to be resolved, to incorporate the voice of your employees into your people management, and will support you to build the appeal of your workplace.

Through the programme you will then be provided with a range of supports including:

• Best-in-class people management training, both online and in-person, for your supervisors and management team covering key areas such as communication, leadership and managing day-to-day performance.

• A tailored action plan developed with our experts, based on survey results from your chosen approved survey provider, to help you to drive change and foster a positive, supportive, and high-performance workplace culture.

• Dedicated HR mentor and two HR clinics each year offering expert guidance and practical tips to help you to implement your survey action plan effectively. These sessions can also be used to address any strategic HR challenges you are experiencing.

• The opportunity to be officially recognised and certified as a Fáilte Ireland Excellent Employer.

• Eligibility for our annual Employer Excellence Awards.

• Attendance at Employer Exchange conference and other events designed to share thought leadership, expert advice and learnings from your peers.

• Access to official marketing collateral to promote your business as a top employer in the tourism sector.

• The opportunity to feature in our new PR programme to showcase certified businesses to prospective talent on a local and national level.

• The programme is now a 2-year commitment rather than 3 years.

• Businesses (20 employees or more) must select and appoint their preferred survey provider from our list of approved survey providers, and pay for their services directly. Businesses with less than 20 employees will have a survey provider appointed by Fáilte Ireland.

• Completion of the Fundamentals of People and Performance Management Training is not required if already completed within the last 5 years.

• An insights or action planning session from your survey provider is not required. This service will be provided by our HR experts.

The Employer Excellence Programme is open to tourism businesses who must meet the eligibility criteria below. Businesses must provide a demonstrable tourist experience or product, targeting domestic and/or international visitors. For example, but not limited to, one or more of the following:

• The ability to provide services through multilingual channels, proactively targeting both the international and domestic markets, alignment with one of Fáilte Ireland’s regional brands i.e. Dublin, Ireland’s Ancient East, Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, Wild Atlantic Way.

• Must have more than 5 staff (seasonal, full-time, and part-time staff are applicable to this total figure).

• If an accommodation provider, the applicant must be Registered or Approved under Fáilte Ireland’s National Quality Assurance Framework (NQAF).

• If one of the following businesses, the applicant must be registered with Fáilte Ireland as Statutory Accommodation Providers: Hotels, Guest houses, Holiday Hostels, Youth Hostels, Caravan & Camping Parks, Self-Catering (registered under a prescribed term) and Holiday Camps.

• If one of the following businesses, the applicant must be approved by Fáilte Ireland as Non-Statutory Accommodation Providers: B&Bs, Historic Houses, Self-Catering (individual properties), Welcome Standard Approved Marinas and Welcome Standard Approved Campus Accommodation.
  
  Note: Eligibility does not mean an entitlement to join the programme, which is at the sole discretion of Fáilte Ireland.

Businesses will be required to select a survey provider from the list of Approved Employer Excellence Survey Providers and to pay the survey provider directly for the provision of the employee engagement survey. The only exception to this is businesses with less than 20 employees who will have a survey provider appointed by Fáilte Ireland – if your business falls into this category, contact employerexcellence@failteireland.ie for further information.

All other elements of the Employer Excellence Programme including Insights Analysis, Action Planning, People Development, People Management Training, events, certification and awards are provided at no additional cost by Fáilte Ireland.

Businesses are managed on an individual site location basis, regardless of whether they are part of a group or not. Each location will be required to apply separately to join the programme and to provide feedback from employees at that location through a detailed employee survey provided by an approved survey provider. A minimum number of staff at each location will be expected to complete the Fundamentals of People and Performance Management training programme. Groups may also wish to seek certification at a group level in addition to this. Contact us at employerexcellence@failteireland.ie for further information.

Participation in the programme brings many benefits including:

• Embedding a culture of high performance through targeted and strategic supports.

• Strengthening your employer brand and reputation, and attracting new talent.

• Increasing employee satisfaction to increase staff retention, reduce turnover costs, drive excellent customer service, visitor experience and boost business performance.

• Improving management-employee relationships through best-in-class training for your supervisors and management team.

• Achieving meaningful change through a customised action plan developed and supported by a dedicated HR mentor and tailored to your business.

• Meeting your employee engagement goals through our focused support, advice, and resources.

• Receiving annual recognised EEP certification that can be displayed at your business and on your website.

• The opportunity to be part of a national programme of marketing and PR.

Take a look at the impact of the Employer Excellence Programme so far

If your current survey provider is one of our Approved Employer Excellence Survey Providers, then you may apply to join the Employer Excellence Programme. For more information on joining see our Join the Programme page

If your survey provider is not on our approved list, but you would like to join the Employer Excellence Programme, your survey provider can contact Fáilte Ireland at employerexcellence@failteireland.ie for information on being assessed to become an Approved Employer Excellence Survey Provider.

Applications from new providers are accepted periodically. Fáilte Ireland has engaged an independent service provider to implement a transparent and robust assessment framework, ensuring that only methodologically sound and industry-aligned providers are selected for inclusion. If a survey provider applies and is approved by Fáilte Ireland, a tourism business who uses that survey provider will have the option of applying to join the Employer Excellence Programme.

Whilst we do not recognise other employee engagement programmes, if you are carrying out an annual employee engagement survey and your survey provider is one of our Approved Employer Excellence Survey Providers then you may apply to join the Employer Excellence Programme. For more information on joining see our Join the Programme page

If your survey provider is not one of our Approved Survey Providers, see Q10

We would love to hear from you if you have any employee engagement practices that have worked well for you and that you would like to share. Please contact us at: employerexcellence@failteireland.ie