Paddy O'Connell is Director, Recruitment Solutions, with Berkley Group and has worked in the industry for over 15 years. He has responsibility for Irish operations across the firm's IT, pharma-life sciences, engineering and search and selection divisions.

MARKET REBOUND This year Berkley Group celebrated its 20th year in operation and we have witnessed periods of growth and stagnation over time. However, the growth in market demand for talent across our core specialist areas in the last year alone has been remarkable. We have taken on additional resources and implements training programmes to start delivering within as short a timeframe as possible.

SKILLS DEMAND In IT, sourcing professionals is difficult across most development stacks, development operations, security and cloud, as well as business intelligence/data analytics and SAP. Within our pharma life sciences/engineering division, the challenges lie within API external manufacturing support, pharmaceutical R&D, technical packaging support and upstream/downstream process science leaders.

Challenges also lie within contingent-based requirements around validation, automation, serialisation and process engineering. Generally there is lack of availability of junior to senior skilled professionals. Initiatives are underway but there needs to be a consistent and joined-up approach across education and industry to drive students into third level STEM courses that are tailored to meet the demand from industry.

GOOD RECRUITERS A good recruiter is someone who possess the relevant subject-matter expertise, strong network and quality of service that clients and candidates deserve. This can be all wrapped up with an individual who possesses the right drive, ambition, perseverance and resilience.

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CANDIDATE PRIORITIES Large and small companies that wish to attract the best people are paying huge attention to their employer brand. A meaningful employer value proposition articulates the 'employment deal', which is the offering outside of remuneration (extrinsic) and benefits (intrinsic). Extrinsic factors may include company vision and culture, training, career development, social and corporate responsibility, and flexible working.

Our sister company, Rethink Talent Management, provides services around internal and external employer brand design and management reflective of the importance of EVP.