Grant Thornton Ireland is hiring an extra 1,000 staff to meet surging demand for accountancy and professional services.
The accountants’ firm last month began recruiting new staff to add to the 1,550 people it employs in its seven offices around Ireland.
It confirmed on Wednesday that it plans to hire a total of 1,000 people across all offices and business units over the next three years.
Michael McAteer, Grant Thornton Ireland managing partner, said every area of its business, from accountancy and audit to cyber security and consultancy, was growing at a rapid pace.
“This is to meet demand as we see it coming, not just this year, but next year and right the way through the next few years,” he explained.
Mr McAteer acknowledged that the labour shortage was a challenge for the firm.
Grant Thornton Ireland has been recruiting from non-EU jurisdictions including Australia, Canada, India and the Philippines, to help cope with this.
However Mr McAteer noted that it was taking up to 18 weeks to process visas. “When you add in four to six weeks to find the right candidate, that’s almost six months,” he said.
Consequently, the firm is “blind recruiting” staff from outside the European Union to fill positions it expects to create in the near future.
Grant Thornton began its recruitment campaign last month with a drive to double its tax division to 340 from 170.
It has also begun a programme offering new third-level graduates opportunities to get experience in one of several growing units within the firm.
The 1,000 or so workers it intends hiring will be a mix of graduates and experienced practitioners.
‘Milestone’
In a statement, Mr McAteer said the announcement “marks yet another milestone in the Grant Thornton Ireland story”.
Along with the traditional accounting such as audit and tax, Grant Thornton offers specialised actuarial skills needed by financial services, advises on aviation finance, cyber security, technology and other business areas.
Mr McAteer remarked that the broad growth the firm was seeing boded well, as it indicated that the economy was not depending on one or two sectors to drive the post-Covid recovery.
Headquartered on City Quay, Dublin, Grant Thornton Ireland has offices in Belfast, Cork, Galway, Kildare, Limerick and Longford.
