Having been appointed as general manager for Workhuman in Ireland at the beginning of the year, Jim O’Dea talks about the importance of the company’s Dublin location.
Tech company Workhuman is one of Ireland’s unicorns, having hit a $1.2bn valuation in 2020.
Five years later, the company employs more than 600 people across product development, technology, marketing, e-commerce, customer service and operations.
Workhuman’s HR tech platform helps companies recognise performance and incentivise workforces and it counts LinkedIn, State Street, Cisco and Kyndryl among its customers.
In January of this year, Jim O’Dea was announced as the organisation’s new general manager in Ireland. Having joined Workhuman as vice-president of global operations in 2011, O’Dea has a strong background in strategy development and execution, outsourced partnerships, and systems and processes.
Before joining Workhuman, he held senior leadership roles at several well-known companies including Apple and Gateway.
Speaking to SiliconRepublic.com, O’Dea said his new role means working closely with CEO Eric Mosley and leading the Dublin site to drive growth.
“I ensure strategic goals are aligned within the Dublin site, fostering a high-performing, collaborative environment that supports Workhuman’s continued success in Ireland,” he said.
“My role spans business and operational leadership, site-wide alignment and cross-functional execution to maximise productivity, innovation and employee engagement.”
‘We are all in for our employees using AI to make their day-to-day more efficient’
Considering the company he works for, it’s no surprise that O’Dea believes employee recognition is essential to a team’s success.
“It’s important to recognise people consistently and in a genuine way, as this builds trust and encourages strong teamwork,” he said.
“My advice to other managers is to make recognition a regular part of your team’s culture. When employees feel valued, they’re more engaged and perform better.”
Ireland’s footprint
Workhuman is co-headquartered in Dublin and Massachusetts. However, O’Dea said Ireland is not just the company’s EMEA HQ, but a key part of the company’s global strategy.
“Our Dublin office is essential to Workhuman’s global product development and plays a major role in the innovation of new AI product offerings set to launch in 2025,” he said.
“With leadership and decision-making based here, the team is driving these advancements. For over 25 years, our team in Dublin has been developing technology used by clients around the world.”
Workhuman’s global e-commerce operations also run from Ireland and the Dublin office manages the sourcing of global products and daily operations of the store, according to O’Dea.
The changing workforce
While the future of work has been heralded for several years now and has already very much arrived in some respects, the ongoing speed at which digital transformation happens and trends such as artificial intelligence (AI) grows mean workforces across industries have to constantly adapt.
For O’Dea, AI and automation are the critical areas that are affecting the tech sector right now. “Upskilling for AI is one of the biggest trends at the moment. As this tech evolves, employees need to learn new skills to adapt,” he said.
“Another trend is process or task automation, which can improve efficiency but also highlights the need for creativity and teamwork, qualities AI can’t replace.”
In order to address these trends, O’Dea said Workhuman focuses on training and development, for example, through hackathons adding that “we are all in for our employees using AI to make their day-to-day more efficient”.
“We’re not only enhancing human skills with AI and building products for our clients but also applying this approach internally to foster innovation and strengthen our team’s capabilities,” he said.
For those starting out in their career, O’Dea said it’s important to understand that you don’t have to be an expert in everything. “Along your journey listen to your intuition, trust your inner guide to help you make the right decisions.”
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
