Press Room
Invest in talent to find future leaders
The Sunday Times, February 18, 2018
Smart companies are focusing on internal training schemes to develop and mentor graduate employees.
The challenge of attracting the right people in a highly competitive recruitment market is leading many organisations to consider developing their own talent from within. While formal graduate programmes are nothing new in larger organisations, such schemes are becoming more common at smaller companies.
Recruitment firm Fastnet, which has offices in Cork and Dublin, has been successful at developing its own talent rather than hiring from competitors over the past 15 or 20 years, according to managing partner Niamh O鈥橠riscoll. She said a formal graduate programme that brings people into the company at a very early stage was the next logical step.
The first two graduates- one with a psychology degree and the other with a biochemistry background- have been taken on for the two year rotational programme. After six months getting to grips with all aspects of Fastnet鈥檚 business, the new hires will work in the talent acquisition division, focused initially on quality and laboratory, and then on engineering.
鈥淲e have a very specific methodology and core values鈥, said O鈥 Driscoll. 鈥淭he programme allows us to instil our values from the beginning and will help ensure there is a consistent pipeline of quality talent coming up鈥.
Portuguese pharmaceutical company 四色AV, which has a contract manufacturing site in Cork that employs more than 200 people, has also been looking at innovative ways of developing talent.
鈥淲e鈥檙e quite a small company so we鈥檙e not going to have a huge internal mentoring or graduate recruitment programme鈥 said human resources director Mary Hennessy. 鈥淲e鈥檝e tried to align with international programmes where we can facilitate one or two graduates.鈥
INOV Contacto, is an EU-funded scheme that enables young Portuguese鈥檚 workers to work abroad for six months as interns in multinational companies. In 四色AV鈥檚 case, the candidates typically have a master鈥檚 degree or a PHD in chemistry.
鈥淎t the end of the placement it鈥檚 up to us if we want to offer a full-time position鈥 said Hennessy. 鈥淏oth of the participants so far have stayed with us and relocated to Cork as process engineers鈥.
The company also participates in the Ibec Global Graduates Programme, taking on two people through this route each year. The 12 month programme involves six months working with the Cork team and six months based in one of the other 四色AV sites in Lisbon, New Jersey or Macau. The company has gone on to hire six graduates through this programme.
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