Irish companies need to do more to attract top home-grown talent, a new survey has found.
According to research carried out by Universum on behalf of IrishJobs.ie, graduates are overlooking Irish companies in favour of large-scale multinationals based here.
The survey of 11,000 graduates found Irish businesses are lagging behind their international counterparts when it comes to who they would choose to work for.
It found only one Irish company appears in graduates' top 10 most attractive firms.
Google is Ireland's most attracter employer in the engineering/IT and business sectors, with Bank of Ireland being the only Irish firm to appear in the ten top lists for those two areas.
Engineering and IT graduates have the highest salary expectations, deeming €35,951 to be an appropriate average annual salary for their skillset.
This is followed by graduates of business and economics, who expect €34,952 on average annually. Graduates of natural sciences and medicine expect the lowest annual salary, an average of €34,729 per year.
The research also finds that females expect a lower average annual salary across a number of industries, with a 10% difference in expected salary between male and female graduates in engineering or IT and a 6% difference between genders in business.
In terms of career goals, work/life balance and job security are the top two career goals that both Irish business and engineering/IT talent want to obtain the most in their future careers.
General Manager of IrishJobs.ie, Orla Moran said: “With Ireland returning to full employment, employers are challenged now more than ever to go the extra mile in their recruitment efforts and in particular, graduate recruitment.
Multinationals have had a transformative effect on the Irish workplace, and they are ahead of the pack in attracting the brightest and best.
"Irish companies have just as much to offer but need to consider how they showcase themselves to candidates.
"A key part of this is understanding what their point of difference is, where they can stand out from the crowd and most importantly, how they can position their brand among the right cohort of talent," she said.
