Christmas recruitment campaign aims to bring executives home for good

AN Irish global executive search firm is beginning a targeted campaign aimed at business leaders within the Irish diaspora over Christmas.

Dublin-based Accreate has identified up to 150 members of the diaspora who could potentially fill the many senior roles that the company is recruiting for.

It says that there has been increase in demand for executive positions in the Irish market over the past number of months.

The increase in opportunities at a senior level in Ireland is linked to a continuing strong domestic economy combined with a strong pipeline of foreign direct investment — much of which is linked to planning around Brexit.

The sectors showing particularly strong demand include fintech, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and ICT.

Around a quarter of the executives being targeted are based in Australia, 35pc are in the UK, 20pc are in North America, 10pc are in mainland Europe and the remaining 10pc are spread across the Asia Pacific region.

“There has been a surge in Irish-based C-suite-level career opportunities through the second half of 2017. We are embarking on a targeted drive to attract the best of Irish talent back home over the Christmas and New Year period,” said Accreate managing partner, David Phelan.

“However, one of the recurring challenges of attracting senior-level decision-makers into Ireland is our personal tax rates,” he added.

“With all the advantages Ireland has in terms of general quality-of-life factors, the prospect of losing almost 50pc of their marginal earnings to income tax does dissuade some from making the move.

“That is one of the reasons, other than their skills and experience, which makes Irish diaspora an important source of talent. They already know the environment they could be working in — and the lure of home is still strong.”

The company has put together a programme of engagement which includes meetings with executives to discuss opportunities while they are home for Christmas.