Republic of Ireland’s Best Employers 2024: The full list revealed as Pfizer is king and tech giants fall

In a strong showing for retail, Harvey Norman is in second place and Home Store + More is eighth in this year’s survey (see full list in table below).

Unlike previous years’ surveys there is absence of tech companies at the very top of the rankings, with two charities and Coffey, an Athenry-based engineering firm, in the top five.

The Sunday Independent/Statista list of Ireland’s 150 Best Employers is based on research on firms with more than 200 employees.

In all, 6,500 workers across Ireland took part in the research project, which was organised by market-­research company Statista. They each answered more than 25 questions about their job covering subjects such as work-life balance, pay and their work environment.

Deb Mangone, country manager for Pfizer, said the pharmaceutical firm was recruiting at all levels.

“We have opportunities in digital, in finance, in supply chain, in operations, and we have a strong track record, especially in our manufacturing facilities, for apprenticeships. Across finance, medical and commercial, we have internships and graduateship programmes,” she writes in today’s Sunday Independent.

“So for anyone looking to work for the top employer as named by the Sunday Independent, I would say, ‘Look at Pfizer’.”

Ms Mangone described it as an exciting time for the company as it had a “strong pipeline” of medicines and vaccines being approved and launched.

Recent approvals in Ireland included a vaccine for protection against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a treatment for migraine, and an oncology breakthrough for multiple myeloma.

The Pfizer boss said the company’s focus was now on cancer, and it was aiming to “do to cancer what we were able to do to Covid”.

Read all Best Employers 2024 content, including case studies, analysis, and interviews in the Sunday Independent’s Ireland’s Best Employers 2024 hub.