Category: Blog

Excel Recruitment is now a CPSA approved recruitment agency

Posted on | by Editorial Team

We’re adding another string to our bow. We’re proud to now be recognized as a CPSA (Commission of Public Service Appointments) approved recruitment agency.

So what does being a CPSA approved approved recruitment agency mean for our clients?

The Commission is Ireland’s regulator for public service recruitment, which links public sector organisations who have open or ongoing vacancies with approved recruitment agencies (that’s us) who can fill these vacancies. The Commission outlines five codes of practice that must be followed when hiring public sector jobs. Our team is fully trained in the CPSA codes of practice. All of our internal recruitment processes for recruiting Civil Service and public service jobs are built around these CPSA standards.

Why we’re the best choice for public sector recruitment

As a CPSA approved recruitment agency, Excel Recruitment provides the same wide range of recruitment solutions to our public sector clients as we do all our clients across permanent, temporary and contract recruitment.

Our nationwide footprint, experience and comprehensive understanding of the requirements of state agencies, non-profit organisations & government agencies mean we are strategically placed to fill public service roles efficiently, and most importantly; successfully.

The CPSA Codes of Practice are embedded in our working processes and our team is made up of qualified and experienced public sector recruitment specialists.

Director Shane Mclave says “We’re delighted to become a CPSA approved recruitment agency. CPSA codes of practice mirrors our own high standards for recruitment and allows us to do what we do best for our public service clients, ‘place great people with great companies.’

To discuss your recruitments needs, contact our Divisional Manager Ciara Connolly on 045 397142 or email ciara@excelrecruitment.To view all our current live jobs, click here.To learn more about the CPSA and their guidelines, in their own words.

Vaccination Pharmacists: Now Recruiting

Posted on | by Editorial Team

Now actively recruiting Vaccination Pharmacists nationwide.

Excel Recruitment is proud to assist with the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination rollout in any small way we can. We have been contacted by several leading pharmacies across the country to recruit Vaccination Pharmacists to play a vital role in protecting the country against Covid-19. Here, at Excel we have written extensively about how well-placed pharmacists are to be a key part in the vaccine rollout, which is why we’re so proud to be assisting in the recruitment of these roles.

What do you need to apply?

In order to be eligible to administer vaccines as a Pharmacist, you will need to submit the following:

  • IIOP certificate for Delivery of a Pharmacy-Based Vaccination Service training course
  • IIOP Certificate for Administration of Influenza Vaccine
  • IIOP Certificate for Responding to an Emergency Situation, including the Management of Anaphylaxis training course
  • Valid CPR Certificate
  • Hibernian Healthcare Parenteral Administration of Medicines Certificate
  • HSELand COVID 19 Certificate
  • Preferably administered a flu vaccine in the last 12 months

If you or anyone you know may be interested in these Vaccination Pharmacist jobs, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Barbara Kelly, our senior Pharmacist recruiter at barbara@excelrecruitment.com or call 087-7379636.

To view all of our live pharmacist jobs, click here.

Pharmacists the ideal people to lead Covid vaccine rollout: So why are they not being let?

Posted on | by Editorial Team

Barbara Kelly, Pharmacy Recruitment Consultant reflects on the frustration of Pharmacists still being in the dark about the vaccine rollout…..

Vaccines: the much-anticipated light at the end of the tunnel that was has been a strange and stressful time. While there was bound to be stumbling blocks to the Government’s initial plan published late last year, one of the biggest frustrations so far is the lack of direction for Pharmacists as to what should be their key role in the plan.

According to a recent announcement from the Irish Pharmacy Union, over 1,850 pharmacies across the country are “ready and waiting” to vaccinate people, but are “in the dark” as to when they will be involved.

Numerous pharmacists are ready to go since the Government announced their plan last year only to be left in limbo now.

IPU secretary general, Darragh O’Loughlin, said “pharmacists are increasingly frustrated at the complete lack of clarity on when they can begin vaccinating their patients and the broader public”. He said there is also frustration among patients. “Pharmacists are trained, experienced and ready to start vaccinating in every town, village and community around the country. They, and the people in their communities, urgently need clarity on when they can start vaccinating.”

What’s such a pity about the current lack of clarity is, as anyone within the pharmacy community knows, is how well-placed pharmacists are to be a key part of the vaccine rollout. Pharmacists have been vaccinating people against the flu for the last decade, and are already using procedures allowing them to monitor patients for 15 minutes following the injection.

Local community pharmacies in small towns and regions everywhere can support their customers who can’t or may not want to go into bigger areas or bigger vaccination centres. They’re available for everyone to go to. Community pharmacists know their customers so well and have a level of rapport and familiarity with the local population that can’t be matched in larger centres. They are the ideal ‘friendly face’ for those who are nervous, have questions or are unsure about taking up the vaccine when offered. All of these factors surely have the knock-on effect of getting as many people vaccinated as possible, as quickly as possible which makes it even more frustrating that pharmacists nationwide are still waiting for answers.

For all our live Pharmacist jobs, please click here

Work From Home Temp Staff? Yes, it’s a thing

Posted on | by Editorial Team

Divisional Manager Ciara Connolly, who oversees our accounting, finance and office support divisions discusses how hiring remote working temps can work for your business.

Remote working and work from home. Two phrases we’ve all become MORE than aware of over the last year. Flexible working has gained momentum in recent years, with employers exploring the concept with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Covid has meant any caution was forced out the window. Employers have had to pivot rapidly to, in many cases, a fully remote workforce.

Covid has been the catalyst for this but it won’t be the end. Working from home looks set to stick around long after the crisis ends. Surveys since the beginning of lockdown consistently show most workers have seen the pluses of working from home. Most now want a mix of office and remote working to remain after the crisis ends. Employers too are seeing how workable this can be.

Being open to staff working remotely or flexibly has great benefits to companies. By removing the commute, you instantly have access to a much broader pool of candidates that may have been excluded previously. Substantial research shows employees see flexibility as a key part of their benefits package and those that have it already in their role are much less likely to look for other employment.

The future of temp

So, while a (somewhat) remote working internal team is here to stay, a common misconception I hear all the time is ‘this couldn’t work for temporary staff.’ Of course it can!

Here in Excel Recruitment, we provide remote temporary and office support staff to business nationwide and have been since the beginning of this crisis. It is the ideal solution in the current climate, whether you need a temp to cover absences for a day or 2, need extra manpower for a project, have a gap you need covered for an extended period or want to trial someone before committing to a permanent hire.

If this crisis has taught us anything, it’s that many more tasks can be carried out remotely than previosly expected. Our temps have the experience to start straight away to assist your business. With much of the market at the mercy of government lockdowns and the wider global situation, hiring remote working temps is an ideal solution for employers right now. It gives employers the freedom to scale staff levels up and down as required, commitment-free and at short notice.

We have a pool of temporary candidates fully screened, registered and ready to go. All are set up for remote working with the technology required to start immediately. Our consultants are experienced in onboarding remote temps to your workforce so can guide you through the process.

Temporary workers could be vital for your organisation over the next few months as lockdown restrictions ease, providing you with an accessible source of support either in the office remotely.

Contact Ciara Connolly, Divisional Manager on 045 397142 or email ciara@excelrecruitment.com to discuss your temporary staffing needs in administration, accounting, finance and customer support.

 

 

Why become a Locum Pharmacist with Excel Recruitment

Posted on | by Editorial Team

Think working as a locum Pharmacist isn’t for you? From 1 or 2 days of cover to longer-term bookings, locum work is as diverse a career as our pharmacists and clients are. Being a locum pharmacist means whatever you want it to mean for you and your life. Still not convinced? Our Pharmacy consultant Barbara Kelly tells us just why a Locum career with Excel Recruitment should be your next step….

Weekly pay
The major difference in locuming with Excel compared to with others? Weekly pay. Our vast experience providing temporary staff in all sectors means we manage the logistics and admin of getting you paid for your hard work seamlessly. Rather than waiting and having to keep track of all your hours over the month yourself, with Excel you get paid for your shifts the following week.
Control

Being a locum gives you back control over your career and working life. In Excel, you work with our consultants, letting them know where and when you want to work, what you enjoy – and what you don’t. All while letting them take care of the details to get you working. Rates and working hours are agreed before you start any shifts, which means you choose the pharmacies that suit you best, can plan your work around other life commitments or take last-minute shifts, only if and when they suit.

Flexibility

As we said earlier, as an Excel locum pharmacist you choose what your work life and your schedule look like. Work patterns can vary as much or as little as you want, and most importantly is this is never set in stone. Want to work full-time this month and then only weekends next month? Have a young family or studying for a masters or PhD? As long as you communicate what you’re looking for with your consultant, you can work as much as you want, in whatever schedule suits your personal/ home life and take as many holidays as you wish!

Knowledge

A common misconception about locum work is that there is no time to grow your knowledge. The opposite is true. The knowledge and experience you gain as a locum is something you can’t get anywhere else. Working as a locum means, you can work in such a wide variety of different location and be exposed to different environments, customer profiles, ailments, team environments and management styles. Experiencing such a variety can come in really handy experience when making future career choices and it also allows you to better network and make connections. Above all, stepping outside what you’re used to, lets you become a more rounded and ultimately, better pharmacist.

If you have any Pharmacy recruitment requirements or are a Pharmacy professional considering a new job, get in touch with Barbara today at barbara@excelrecruitment.com or call 01-8148747. View our live Pharmacist jobs here

 

Keeping Your Goals on Track

Posted on | by Editorial Team

Setting realistic objectives and keeping your goals on track throughout your career is vital to achieving meaningful progress in any industry. CEO of Excel Recruitment Barry Whelan discusses…

If you have a career, you should have a career goal. Career goals are a great way to keep you focused and on track to achieve your full potential and personal ambitions.

So what is a career goal?

Career goals are the set of steps along the career ladder of your chosen profession that take you through the journey of your career. Like any journey, there is a start, a finish and stops along the way. Career goals are simply markers that keep you focused and make sure that you are going in the right direction and if not, help identify the issue and how to get back on track. Every employee or jobseeker should define their career goals clearly. It helps you pinpoint effective action plans and to keep focused on the direction of your career.

How to set career goals

Career goal setting is an easy process. Think of them as a set of targets best split between short-term targets and long-term. Take for example, that you decided at the age of 18 that you want to be the sales manager of a large company. Your career goal is set, now you need to follow the steps to get to that position. Your targets can then be focused on: you may need a strong Leaving Cert, then to complete a good business degree before joining the workforce in a junior sales role, whilst supplementing your education with a post-grad which may then help facilitate a move to a larger sales organisation in a role that allows for progression to the level you are looking to reach.

These are short-term and long-term career goals. The teenager’s long term goal is to become the manager of a company. To get there, he needs to achieve his short-term goals, which include passing his school and college exams, gaining experience by working for a related company and boosting his experience and skills through further studies. Short-term goals are those that can be achieved within six months to three years. It may take three to five years or more to achieve long-term goals. Defining your career goals is just half the battle. You must then do the work to accomplish the goals you have set. If you don’t map out your goals properly, it will be harder to achieve them. When setting career goals, try this twist on ‘SMART’ goal setting! Instead of the usual: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound, today we are opting for:

Specific

What does career success mean to you? What is it that you want to achieve? Do you want to be a CEO or to achieve financial freedom or do you want a job that affords you the best possible work/ life balance? Everyone is different. Be specific.

Measurable

Time-bind your career goals. This is the best way to keep them on track. For instance, if it takes four years to complete your degree, four years is your goal. Once you can attain the short-term goals within the set timeframe, you are on the right path to achieving your ultimate goal.

Avoid negativity

A goal must be something that an individual wants rather than something they want to avoid. Don’t focus on leaving a particular job or position within the next five years. Instead, aim for where you want to be and plan what you can do to get there.

Realistic

While a career goal should be a challenge, it must also be something you can achieve.

Tie actions to each goal

For each set goal, a person needs to take certain measures to achieve it. List each goal and the different activities that are needed to achieve that goal to make achieving it easier.

Temp Workers

Hiring a Temp for Office, Admin or Finance jobs: Why bother?

Posted on | by Editorial Team

Divisional Manager Ciara Connolly who oversees our accounting, finance and office support divisions addresses some of misconceptions businesses may have about hiring a temp.

Obviously, as a recruitment agency specialising in temporary recruitment, we love temps. But as our temp division has grown across office support, accounting and finance alongside healthcare, catering and industrial, we have encountered many businesses who initially can’t see how temps can benefit their business. Well, I’m here to tell you how!

Business peaks and pits

Every business experiences peaks in demand or the need to cover absences, now more than ever! With higher numbers of staff having to quarantine due to contracting Covid or being a close contact, employers are left with the headache of how to quickly fill such short-term gaps. Outside of filling absences, with the wider market so difficult to predict, it makes sense for a business to utilise short-term hirings for busy periods and short term projects. With no-one knowing quite what the next few weeks/months look like in terms of restrictions, engaging with a temp workforce is ideal. It gives employers the freedom to scale staff levels up and down as requirements shift in the current global climate.

React quickly

98% of all temporary bookings are filled within a 24-hour turnaround, making it an ideal in the present climate as restrictions change quickly and staff may be unavailable at short notice. But with Excel, you don’t just get staff quickly, you get qualified staff quickly. Whether its accounts or administration staff with strong excel or sage experience or temporary workers already set up to work from home if your office is currently closed, tell us what you need and when you need it. The rest is up to us to deliver. And we do.

Honeymoon period

Having the ability to pick up the phone and get qualified, professional staff at short notice in fantastic for any business but temp staffing also works as a longterm hiring tool. By using temps, it allows you to identify talented staff that fit well within your company culture without undertaking a lengthy recruitment drive. Temp working allows employers and candidates alike to see if there is a good fit before committing to a permanent role.

Here at Excel Recruitment, we are a leading provider of flexible temporary staff. Contact Ciara Connolly, Divisional Manager on 045 397142 or email ciara@excelrecruitment.com to discuss your temporary staffing needs in administration, accounting, finance and customer support.

Agency workers prop up healthcare system, only to be forgotten at vaccine time

Posted on | by Editorial Team

To begin by stating the obvious: COVID is still with us and in the words of the WHO’s David Nabarro; “This pandemic is nowhere near finished”. That being said, the promise of further vaccine arrivals over the coming months has provided hope of a more stable ‘new normal’. The focus of the conversation is now turning to how we compensate our front line workers for what they have gone through over the past twelve months and the challenges that they will continue to face for the foreseeable future.

But what was noticeably missing from any of the conversations has been the role of agency care assistants, nurses and doctors. When the vaccine rollout began at the start of the year, no-one, including the HSE, could give agency staff a definitive answer as to where and when they could access their vaccines. Private care homes presumed the HSE would oversee it, the HSE possibly presumed the private care homes would oversee it and all the while the staff, the very people who have been on the frontlines of tackling COVID and protecting our most vulnerable citizens since the beginning, were left in limbo. This is despite several attempts by our management to engage directly with the HSE on this matter.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new nor is the negative press so often associated with agency front line workers. Healthcare professionals often choose the agency route to pick up some extra work but most find temporary shifts because it suits their lifestyle as they are unable to commit to a permanent job and schedule due to family or other commitments. But they have the same professional requirements, dedication and compassion and are regulated in the same way.

Recently, in a briefing for the Cabinet Committee on Covid-19, the HSE warned it may be unable to provide any more public health service staff to private nursing homes if they’re hit by new outbreaks of coronavirus. But this isn’t how healthcare units have been managing in real-time. In truth, it is no exaggeration to say agency staff have played a vital role in maintaining the entire country’s healthcare system both private and public since last March.

Agency support staff were often those called into facilities during the darkest periods of outbreaks, covering the provider’s own staff who were out due to being a close contact or having contracted the virus themselves. We are incredibly humbled by the agency nurses and carers who have willingly put themselves into difficult situations and moving on to do the same in a new nursing home once the outbreak had abated and permanent staff had returned to work. There have been so many frontline workers who have pulled us through the pandemic and the contribution of agency healthcare staff across many disciplines cannot be overlooked.

Ask yourself this question how many more lives would have been lost and how could our health system have coped without the tens of thousands of agency healthcare workers and recruiters that have worked tirelessly since this pandemic started?

SuperValu Blanchardstown’s Jamie Caffrey named National Grocery Retail Manager of the Year 2020

Posted on | by Editorial Team

Now in their 15th year, the ShelfLife Grocery Management Awards once again recognised individual management excellence in the grocery sector and honoured the talent in each department that make up our supermarkets and convenience stores.

While the standard of entrants was as high as ever, this year’s ceremony marked a break from tradition due to COVID-19. Broadcast virtually live from the RDS, the audience tuned in to watch MC, RTE’s Karina Buckley, announce the winners of the ShelfLife Grocery Management Awards. After a year like no other, the nation’s gratitude to our retailers was expressed by Simon Harris, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, who said “I wanted to congratulate you on your achievement but I also wanted to thank you…. I want you to know when we thank the frontline heroes throughout 2020, that includes the people working in grocery, that includes the people working in our petrol stations, in our convenience stores, in our supermarkets. The people who got up every morning and looked after us.”

The night’s biggest award, Supreme Champion for 2020 was awarded to Jamie Caffrey of SuperValu Blanchardstown with the judges praising Caffrey and her achievements, “Our winner has spent the last 18 months making the store more customer-friendly, more profitable and a more enjoyable place to work.” Excel Recruitment’s own Nikki Murran summed up Jamie as “a trailblazer in the world of grocery retail,” having started in the retail trade at only 16 and at only 23, having already been promoted to store manager.

Excel Recruitment is proud to be involved with the GMAs since the award’s beginning. We would like to thank everyone who entered the awards in what has been a strange and challenging year and say a huge congratulations to all 15 deserving winners.

Delicatessen / Food to Go Manager of the Year

Linda O’Sullivan,
Eurospar Cobh,
Co. Cork

Cash & Carry Manager of the Year

Tom Ryan,
Value Centre,
Hebron Road,
Co. Kilkenny

Off-Licence Manager

Shane McNulty,
SuperValu Ballinteer,
Dublin 16

Protein/Provisions Manager

Jason Mc Donagh,
SuperValu Lucan,
Co. Dublin

HR Manager of the Year

Carley Dennan,
SuperValu,
Blackrock,
Co. Dublin

Brand Marketing Team

Premier Lotteries

Small C-Store Manager of the Year

Rebecca Murphy,
Herlihy’s Centra Grand Parade,
Co.Cork

Medium C-Store Manager of the Year

Alan O’Donnell,
Daybreak Cahir,
Co. Tipperary

Large C-Store Manager of the Year

Briege O’Kane,
Top Oil Newhall,
Naas,
Co. Kildare

Small Forecourt Manager of the Year

David Martin,
Mace,
Glanmire,
Co. Cork

Large Forecourt Manager of the Year
Ian Leahy

Maxol Ballincollig,
Co. Cork

Supermarket Manager of the Year (Small)

Tanya McGarry,
Charlesland,
Greystones,
Co. Wicklow

Supermarket Manager of the Year (Mid-Large)

Doug Thompson,
SuperValu
Sundrive,
Dublin 6

Retail Team of the Year

Londis St. James Hospital, Dublin 8

Supreme Champion

Jamie Caffrey,
SuperValu,
Blanchardstown,
Dublin