Sigmar Recruitment (Grand Prize Winner, 51-Plus employees, Ireland, 2023)
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As featured on SIA website- https://bestfirms.staffingindustry.com/sigmar-recruitment-grand-prize-winner-51-plus-employees-ireland-2023/
Pride in Purpose
Creating a place where employees enjoy the day-to-day
Sigmar Recruitment understands that its success begins with genuine investment in its own people. The firm’s values — “Going Further, Faster, Together” — uniquely embody its corporate spirit and leadership mentality, consistently playing out in the day-to-day life of employees. Sigmar prides itself on being people-first, socially responsible and unafraid to challenge the status quo — and it is this philosophy that has helped the firm earn a grand prize on SIA’s Best Staffing Firms to Work For – UK and Ireland for the third time.
Despite business changes and market hurdles, Dublin, Ireland-based Sigmar Recruitment has never lost track of its values and the drive to have an impact. Established in 2002, the firm has grown steadily and in 2018 formed a strategic partnership with French staffing firm Groupe Adéquat, expanding Sigmar’s reach even further. Today, the firm is home to 130 internal employees and places candidates in temporary, contract and permanent positions across various sectors, including accounting and financial services, construction, engineering, life sciences, marketing, office support and sales.
Coming Home
CEO Frank Farrelly makes his vision for the employee experience clear. “I want it to be a place where they can enjoy the day-to-day,” he says. “Whether that’s working remotely or from the office, I want them to enjoy it — and as important, I want them to know their impact and have all the support, mentoring and confidence they need to succeed in their careers.”
To Sigmar’s internal employees, this is what makes the firm different from other places to work. Senior Public Sector Recruitment Consultant Madeline Donovan shares, “The work is enjoyable, but I also love the culture. The people I work with are good friends of mine. It’s easy working with them.” Noting that teamwork is common and the atmosphere in the Dublin office is casual, she adds, “If someone else needs a hand, you offer it, and even though your role could be one thing, everyone jumps in to help each other out.”
That culture of teamwork and belonging helps people feel like more than just employees, no matter where they are located. Take Marcel Skolimowski, a recruitment manager working from Poland. Coming to the Dublin office daily is not feasible, yet he experiences the close-knit environment even as a remote worker. “In my previous company, I never had a direct path to the CEO where I was able to pick up the phone and call him with any issue or have a normal conversation,” he says. And whenever he does travel to Ireland, the way he is welcome is “like I’m coming home. You get hugs, and everybody smiles. We go for lunch and pints after work together.”
Giving Back
From its earliest days, Sigmar Recruitment came from a place of giving back, changing lives with the job opportunities and career advancement they provide to external candidates and internal staff alike. The firm’s mission to have an impact on the lives of others is woven throughout the day-to-day work that Sigmar does as well as through socially responsible activities employees are empowered to be a part of — something that Farrelly sees as a reason why people stay with the firm. “We are commercially focused but put people first and make decisions that recognize people as our most important asset,” he says proudly. “First and foremost, throughout time, through all our history, we have done the right thing by our people and for our society. We have a strong social conscience. We give back.”
Donovan speaks enthusiastically about various activities she has been involved with at Sigmar, including helping out at their annual “Talent Summit,” Ireland’s largest HR and leadership conference, in which speakers from around the globe present on topics influencing work today and in the future. She appreciates how Sigmar makes it fun and easy to contribute to a range of activities, many with a social cause. Employees have opportunities to get involved as a team, helping to carry each other forward in doing great things for their communities and beyond.
For example, Sigmar last October raised over €40,000 through its participation in Paris2Nice, a 700-kilometer charity cycle event completed by 10 of their staff; the firm used this money to send 30 volunteers to help transform the outdoor spaces of a school that looks after children who have autism and other special needs.
Breaking Norms
Underlying Sigmar’s values of Going Further, Faster, Together is a sense of empowered risk-taking and experimentation. Reflecting on 20 years at Sigmar, Farrelly recalls the success stories — the people who, despite struggling, surmounted their challenges and made a space for themselves in the business. “All these people who’ve grown with us — consultants, managers, support staff — Sigmar is providing an ecosystem and the autonomy to make mistakes, to ask questions, to learn, and the encouragement needed for success.” Under Farrelly’s leadership, Sigmar is a place where employees are empowered to question the status quo and where “norm breakers, not norm takers” are rewarded.
From this company culture and supported autonomy come “small success stories,” as Skolimowski proudly recounts. After working several years in the Cork office, Skolimowski was presented with an opportunity to return to Poland — but despite the move, he knew he wanted to stay with Sigmar. “It was quite easy, surprisingly enough,” he says, recalling the conversation he had with leadership about the move. “Even though you are with a company for some time and you think that you know everybody, [I was a little afraid] to have a conversation like that. But then they were like, ‘No problem.’” Where some companies may have parted ways with an employee when faced with a relocation request, Sigmar valued Skolimowski enough to make it work. And as a result, today, Skolimowski steers a small and growing part of the business out of Poland, including an office with an expanding headcount.
Passion Beyond Size
Smaller organizations are often close knit in their operations, but Sigmar leaders and team members alike know their culture is driven by something more than the size of the business. It is more than having an open-door policy; it is more than professional training and development. People at Sigmar embody and promote an environment that allows others to excel on their own terms, in many ways reversing the standard operating procedures of corporate life; Sigmar exists to support its people, not the other way around. And in response, the firm’s internal staff follow a philosophy of treating people the way they themselves want to be treated, a mindset that will continue contributing to Sigmar’s growth and success in the future.
