The Land Development Agency

The Land Development Agency is a semi-state body set up in 2018 to coordinate State-controlled land for more optimal uses where suitable, with a strong focus on providing affordable housing.

Between 2021 and 2024, the agency went through a rapid growth phase, rising from 50 people to 170, with roles ranging from engineers, architects, and quantity surveyors, to support positions across finance, HR, legal, and public procurement. Many of these posts are filled by specialists hired from the private sector and local authorities.

Until 2023, the LDA’s recruitment was a manual process handled with spreadsheets, but as the number of open positions rose to almost 50, this was becoming harder to manage between hiring, onboarding, and offboarding. 

As a semi-state body, the LDA needs to ensure any solution bought through a rigorous procurement process meets criteria of value for money, while also being easy to transfer data and ensuring the safety of any sensitive information.

Grouper’s proposed HR system and high levels of service won the deal. Grouper assigned a dedicated account manager to the LDA for customer support, encompassing project management through to bulk uploading data, and helping the agency’s HR team to get the most from the platform. 

“With our rate of hiring, you don’t have time to go googling or looking at a video tutorial. The fact that we have somebody to talk to and give us practical solutions really quickly is invaluable. Their customer service is second to none,” says Melissa Sheedy, Director of Human Resources with the LDA. 

“The system’s onboarding functionality is really helpful, and the fact that you can pull reports that are standardised or customised. The system lets us keep all our HR policies and legal documents in one place, and we can prepare for board meetings more easily because the information is at our fingertips. There is an organisational chart that automatically updates so you go into your board meeting or audit and risk meeting, and everything is readily available.”

Time saving has been a key benefit. The LDA regularly uses the HR system’s bulk upload feature to log employee time off or parental leave. Before, this was a manual process that could take one hour but now takes just a few minutes. “That’s definitely saved me a huge amount of time on admin,” Melissa says.

“Instead of spending two hours on something that can take two minutes, this means I can focus on performance issues or on hiring plans for next year rather than tidying up data. And it means support managers can spend more time on coaching and leading their teams,” she adds.

“The working relationship with Grouper has been fantastic, our account manager is friendly, accommodating, and approachable. Their knowledge and expertise has been great and there is great reassurance that I can let the system do what it’s meant to do. It’s taken a lot of pressure off me in my role.”

Another major benefit of the system is that recruitment reporting is significantly enhanced. The LDA can now easily see how long it takes to close out a role after the hiring process, how long a position has been open, and how long it takes managers to respond to applications.

Using the previous manual system, the agency had no way of tracking where it was sourcing the highest number of candidates from. Now, managers can see which job boards and social sites candidates are applying through, and can decide where to allocate its advertising budget most effectively.

The LDA has also been able to streamline its recruitment by advertising open roles on its redesigned website, with any applications instantly routed through the HR system. The agency’s directors can use the system to track the hiring process for various candidates. “The business is getting value out of the system now, Melissa says. “We are able to manage our growth without feeling like we’re firefighting. We save an hour every time with the bulk upload feature, and that time really does add up. Our HR system is a massive time saver and we know that our data is safe, stored in Ireland.”

With approvals to reach 330 posts, the LDA is not finished growing yet, and it can do so knowing it has a reliable HR system and partner to support it as it scales.