Recruiters need to act as brand ambassadors for Ireland

The Berlin Language Fair was great to attend and a good eye opener for me in terms of European candidates’ perceptions of Ireland at the moment. While it remains an attractive destination for a number of reasons, negative press surrounding the banking crisis abounds and can cause potential candidates to pause for thought. The coverage is lop-sided and focuses little attention on the strength of our service export market here (up 6.4% in H1 2010) and the excellent selection of multinational companies with operations based here.

The disproportionate analysis damages the Ireland brand and can create difficulties in our attempts to attract candidates here. As recruitment professionals it is up to us to act as brand ambassadors to ensure that the negative coverage is effectively counteracted, emphasising service export as the shining light of the economy that’s full of further potential. Our ability to do this effectively will have a strong influence on the continued success of the SSE market in Ireland. Multinationals will only establish and maintain a presence here if they have confidence they can fully meet their staffing requirements.

Despite our current woes, our country has a lot to offer – we need to work to get that message across and ensure Ireland’s negative press is effectively counter-balanced. The Berlin Fair really served to underline this and it was great to see the warm response to Ireland but it was a reminder of the importance of recruiters as brand ambassadors for our country.