Bandon-born Newsweaver wins award for ‘listening' to staff

A SPECIAL award for listening and communicating with employees was won by Cork-based internal communications software company Newsweaver at last week’s Best Workplaces in Ireland awards.

The Cork-based company, which was founded in Bandon, is now the global leader in internal communications software and services.

Newsweaver, which was founded 20 years ago in Bandon, by Dripsey man Andrew O’Shaughnessy is now based in Cork Airport Business Park – also recognised as one of Ireland’s best workplaces for the third consecutive year. 

This year was its first year taking part in the medium business category for companies of more than 100 employees, due to the phenomenal growth of the business over the past 14 months. 

Newsweaver’s Emma Hanley from Castletownbere was the team leader for the Great Places to Work 2017 awards.

Speaking about the wins, Yvonne Frost, Head of People Operations at Newsweaver said: ‘It means so much to us to be recognised once again as one of Ireland’s best workplaces, especially given that we have grown so much in the past year. 

‘We have doubled our workforce in the past 14 months, and we did worry that our growth might compromise the things that made us a great small company: our warmth and friendliness, the trust we have for each other, our ability to listen, engage, motivate and inspire.’

CEO and founder of Newsweaver Andrew O’Shaughnessy, who is now based in Clonakilty, commented: ‘As global leaders in the internal communications industry, two way communication is something we strive to cultivate every day, in every team. Actively listening and engaging in dialogue underpins everything we do at Newsweaver, so it was a particular honour to receive the award for listening to our employees, which we believe plays a critical role in enabling healthy employee engagement and effective internal communication.’

The special award for listening honoured Newsweaver’s SWOT to Strategy project, through which CEO Andrew O’Shaughnessy engaged in workshops with representatives from every team in the company to listen to, identify and analyse strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). Andrew listened to each team’s perspective on what the company needed to focus on, then built a strategic plan targeting every element of the SWOT analysis. 

Recognition as one of the country’s best workplaces was based on an in-depth, company-wide employee survey and an assessment of Newsweaver’s policies and practices by Great Places to Work Ireland. 

‘Newsweaver is the global leader of internal communications software and services, placing people at the heart of everything we do,’ said a spokesperson. It has offices in Cork and Boston and now has a workforce of over 140.