PM Group to recruit 350 people in full range of roles
PM Group graduate recruits work on a wide range of engineering projects, including innovative robotics. Photo: Aidan Oliver
Construction project management specialist PM Group is gearing up for a busy 2022, growing in line with its key clients in Ireland and across the world, notably in pharma, medtech, food and mission critical.
In 2022, PM Group is looking to recruit 350 people while increasing our graduate intake to 200. Whilst the majority of new recruits will be in the traditional engineering disciplines, as the business evolves, the company is also recruiting in Finance, HR, Project Services, digital/data analytics and Marketing.
"Next year, we are looking to recruit 350 people for a variety of roles and in support of our graduate programme, said Dave Egan, group head of recruitment and talent acquisition, PM Group. "Thankfully, our workload is already very busy into next year. To meet client demand, we recently opened new offices in Germany and Philadelphia and have grown our existing offices in all of our locations."
While PM Group has changed the way it recruits new staff, the face-to-face interviewing is the key focus as it seeks to take on high calibre people to meet its business needs.
Dave Egan said: "The market is certainly more competitive and that has led us to expand our recruitment team over the last 20 months. Having an expanded team has helped us to source and recruit more people internationally, providing us with greater reach and capacity. Our recruitment drive has continued over the last two years.
"We have hired more than 150 graduates per year and more than 500 technical staff and contract personnel this year. We have also recruited senior teams for our new offices in Switzerland, Germany and Philadelphia."
One benefit that PM Group has seen is that with over 53 nationalities already working in the business, the new way of working is opening up a wider talent pool. PM Group's strongest sources for finding people are headhunting, internal referrals and to a lesser extent direct applications
"We would see the strong growth continuing across our 16 offices and in particular, with our new offices in the US and Europe. Recruitment in these regions will be aligned to key growth areas in Pharmaceuticals, Mission Critical and Medical Technologies and driven by sustainability and Industry 4.0."
Digital technologies, sustainability (net zero, carbon targets), innovation and Industry 4.0 initiatives are central to shaping PM Group's growth plans, notably tech to facilitate remote work for its staff, with enhanced portable technology, office hardware and system upgrades and new software and digital platforms.
To support staff in their remote work, PM Group has provided them with office furniture, virtual ergonomic assessments and flexibility around work times to fit in with work/life balance needs. PM Group encourages its staff to innovate, notably with its annual innovation scheme with a €10,000 top prize. Its remote work model is similarly innovative.
Mr Egan said: "Looking to the future, we developed our programme for flexible hybrid working called ‘adapt’. At its centre is a focus on the health and wellbeing of our employees. It addresses workspace design, new innovations like touchless and digital technologies for greater inclusivity."
The group will continue to develop its capabilities across all sectors and regions, supporting domestic and international projects through its multi-office engineering (MOE) capability. This allows us to continue to capitalize on remote working and the opportunity to recruit more internationally based personnel. A lot of the location will be influenced by opportunities across the business.
"With a strong pipeline of work through next year we will look to maintain the same levels of recruitment activity that we have seen over the last few years, yet broaden where we recruit from and the skillsets we bring into the business," said Dave Egan.
"While it was clear pre-Pandemic, that the future of work was changing to have a stronger emphasis on the work-life balance, the Pandemic fast-forwarded the dispersed working aspect of this. From the outset, we felt that remote working, while challenging, could be successful if we adapted our approach with the right systems and supports for our people."
Mr Egan said that inclusion is a core value for PM Group, a company that feels its business is stronger with different voices reflected in its decision-making.
"We are culturally diverse with over 53 nationalities across our 16 offices in Europe, Asia and the USA. Another important part of our culture is employee ownership with a growing base of over 1,000 shareholders and a key aspect of our inclusion focus," said Dave Egan.
"Having the right balance at all levels is something we are working hard to develop, despite the obvious challenges with attracting females into our industry. In Ireland, we have been partnering on gender balance initiatives like 30% Club, Women in Pharma, Engineers Ireland, Junior Achievement and iWish (to encourage school children to choose STEM careers)."
PM Group's CSR programme has two €50,000 bursaries in place to support disadvantaged schools — Old Bawn School in Dublin, and Nagle Community College in Cork. The programmes also provide equipment, mentoring and coaching supports to help those going to third level STEM courses.
