Irish civil water, engineering & environmental contractor, Coffey Group, is making significant progress in balancing the number of women employed within the company. One of their key objectives is to promote and support women in Coffey, encourage women to join Coffey and to encourage women to consider engineering as a career.
To help realise this, they established the Unlimited@Coffey committee. This committee comprises women from a range of disciplines and departments across Coffey.
Fiona Flaherty, at Coffey The Unlimited@Coffey committee members wanted to introduce an annual event to promote and celebrate their vision. Having previously participated in one of Jo’s Idea Time workshops, they knew Jo would be the ideal person to support and facilitate the event. What emerged was the inaugural Unlimited@Coffey conference which took place in in Athlone in May 2023, attracting a significant gathering that set the stage for the vision of #unlimited@Coffey in 2023 and beyond.
Fiona, Fiona, HR Generalist describes first meeting Jo at an Idea Time workshop in Dublin alongside other colleagues. “Jo was really engaging, it was great how she facilitated and steered the group, it was so interactive. There was so much information and lots of ideas to take away after the session. She is very inspiring, and you leave the session thinking about how you’re going to achieve all these things – you do leave with a lot of gusto.”
Commenting on Jo’s facilitation prowess, Fiona describes some of her stand-out attributes being “how she interacts, how she reads the group when there’s a mix of people, she could pick up on things. Jo shows real strength in how she brings the room together and gets people to think differently and keeps things interactive and engaging.”
Coffey employee, Susan Kenny, Framework Manager on Growth and Development and Chair of the Unlimited@Coffey group, also took part in one of Jo’s Idea Time workshops. Susan reflected on some of Jo’s strengths and the impact the session had for her, “Jo got me using the creative side of my brain. I found her really interesting, the content was great and I found her presenting style very good, she’s very engaging and uses some great techniques, it was so good to see different people all getting something out of it. New things I’ve implemented as a result? I think it’s the idea of being creative and starting things from a creative point of view. Rather than starting with a list, I’ll often use a spider diagram or a different approach, so I’m looking to form links in different ways. Another great suggestion that I really like was for meetings; Jo encouraged us to try a workshop meeting and I’ve found it really gets everyone thinking positively about a problem.
Commenting on the Unlimited@Coffey conference, Susan described how “there was a lot of energy in the room, and everyone was very excited from the outset, Jo was able to contain the energy whilst still getting good ideas out of everyone.”
While working with Coffey, Jo packaged and facilitated a conference that served as a platform for engaging discussions and informative sessions, which have left a lasting impression on all participants, who had an amazing day celebrating, promoting and connecting with the fantastic women in engineering and construction within Coffey and across the sector. The day was packed with great energy, support and ideas, where Jo supported delegates to collectively create a vision for Unlimited@Coffey, focused on equity, goal-setting, leveraging strengths, allyship and potential as well as connection and courage.
