Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year

The customer Supply and Group Services Directorate is a diverse directorate within ESB comprising the Business Units of ESB Contracts, ICT Group, Shared Services, Pensions, Energy Services and Customer Supply and supported by Directorate wide Finance, HR and Safety roles.

It is no surprise therefore that the directorate has established a Diversity and Equality Group, which has members from across these business lines. The Group is focussed on raising awareness of diversity and equality issues across the directorate and establishing an integrated approach to addressing these issues. In undertaking its role the group liaises closely with ESB's Equality & Diversity Manager, Joyce Farrell.

The group is currently developing a work plan for the year, a plan that will encompass the celebration of diversity as well as developing a better 'on the ground' understanding of what diversity and equality actually mean in our every day working lives. The motivation behind the establishment of the group is the belief that - diverse groups outperform homogenous groups - a belief that has substantial backing in contemporary research and that is fully subscribed to by all the group's members and by Brid Horan, ESB Customer Supply and Group Services Executive Director.

"One of the real strengths of the ESB Customer Supply & Group Services Directorate is the inherent diversity in the functions and in the people carrying out those functions," says Brid. "Our ability to harness this diversity towards a common goal is a key management challenge."

Brid says that she looks forward to it making a difference. The members of the group are: Peter O'Shea, Marina Hunt, Tony Mack, Siobhan Downey, Maria Travers, Jacobus Crous, Niall O'Hanlon, Ratna Nelapati, Ronnie Horan, Jessie Buckley and Anne Ruddy. The group welcomes all views, both from within the directorate and from the wider ESB community, which will help us to focus our efforts on making a real on-the-ground difference.

The approach of the Chinese New Year coincided with the group's first meeting and this helped to launch the group with a bang. Anne Ruddy and Jessie Buckley put together a number of events in Head Office, Clanwilliam and ESBI to mark this occasion – Joe Mescall and Debbie Cullen and the restaurant teams developed a Chinese Menu and a Lion Dance was performed to bring good fortune to all present. This was followed by an informative talk on Chinese religion and culture, by Dr Huan Xiong of University College Galway, in the Head Office Conference Centre.