Hartley People

Recruitment Agency Offaly | Hartley People

Recruitment in Offaly

ISO 14001 certified company

Powered by Market Knowledge

Smiling recruitment consultant in a green jumper and headset typing at his desk in a bright open-plan office, with colleagues on calls in the background

Hartley People recruits across Offaly from our Dublin office, part of a group that has placed people in jobs all over Ireland since 2001. We work with employers in Tullamore, Birr, Edenderry and the wider Midlands on permanent, temporary and executive hiring, backed by a 150,000+ candidate network across the country.

Offaly at a Glance

25+
Years recruiting across Ireland, since 2001
35,200+
Offaly residents aged 15+ at work (Census 2022, CSO)
160,000+
Candidates in our wider network
Central
Searching Offaly and every county around it at once

One Group, Three Ways to Hire in Offaly

Permanent, temporary and executive recruitment. Whatever you need to hire in Offaly, one relationship with our team gives you access to all three.

Permanent Recruitment

Hartley People Recruitment & Training
  • Professional permanent recruitment across industries, functions and seniority levels
  • Recruitment on Demand, Career Services and Outplacement support
  • SearchPLUS sourcing for hard-to-fill and strategic Offaly appointments

Temporary Staffing & Workforce Solutions

Flexiforce, Agency Staffing Solutions
  • Temporary staff for seasonal, project and high-volume Offaly requirements
  • Recruitment Project Management (RPM) and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
  • Flexibility, cost control and compliance built in

Executive Search

Burton Sinclair, Titans For Tomorrow
  • Senior, executive and confidential search for Offaly and Midlands businesses
  • Leadership assessment, succession planning and board-level appointments
  • The LBR (Leaf, Branch, Root) sourcing methodology

Meet the Recruitment Team

You’re hiring a service delivered by people. Meet the recruiters who could be working your Offaly search.

Want the Full Picture of How We Recruit?

This page is about recruiting in Offaly. Our Permanent Recruitment page goes deeper into the services, methods and specialist knowledge behind every permanent hire we make, across Offaly and the rest of Ireland.

  1. Our Services

    How permanent recruitment works with us, from the first brief and shortlist through to offer, start date and aftercare.

  2. Our Methodology

    Our 3E Approach, the market research we do before every search, and how SearchPLUS reaches candidates who never see a job ad.

  3. Industries We Recruit For

    The sectors we hire into across Ireland, and the talent markets and hiring pressures that are particular to each one.

  4. What We Specialise In

    All 19 specialisms, from accountancy and finance, engineering and life sciences to technology, sales and senior leadership.

All of it on one page. A few minutes’ read, then come back and talk to us about your Offaly hire.

Explore Permanent Recruitment

Recruiting Across Offaly & the Midlands

Offaly’s labour market crosses into Westmeath, Laois, Kildare and North Tipperary daily. Census 2016 counted 8,682 residents working outside the county.

Tullamore Birr Edenderry Clara Banagher Ferbane Kilcormac Daingean Shannonbridge Kinnitty Shinrone Rhode

Tap the pin for contact details

Tullamore, County Offaly & the Wider Midlands

Offaly employers hire from Athlone, Portlaoise and Kildare, and many Offaly people work there. We search in both directions at once.

The Industries Driving Employment in Offaly

Offaly’s economy looks very different from ten years ago. Here’s what’s actually driving hiring across the county now, and what it means if you’re trying to fill a role.

A pharmacist helping an older customer choose a medicine from the shelf

Health & Public Sector

Human health and social work employs more than 4,300 Offaly residents, the county’s third-largest sector (Census 2022). The Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore added 289 whole-time equivalent staff between 2020 and late 2024, Offaly County Council is headquartered in the town, and Laois and Offaly ETB employs around 1,000 people across the two counties.

What this means for employers: nurses, allied health professionals and experienced administrators in Offaly are weighing a public-sector offer against yours. Flexibility, progression and a shorter commute usually decide it, because few private employers win on pension alone.
An engineer in a hard hat and safety glasses adjusting a lathe on a manufacturing floor

Manufacturing & Engineering

Manufacturing employs more Offaly residents than any other sector, over 4,600 (Census 2022). Cardinal Health wound down its Tullamore medical devices plant by April 2026, while food, fabrication and building-products operations around Tullamore, Edenderry and Banagher still need fitters, technicians and supervisors.

  • 4,600+ workers · Census 2022
What this means for employers: the Cardinal Health closure put experienced production and quality people back on the Tullamore market. Good engineers are still scarce, and most already work nearby.
Four wind farm technicians in hi-vis and hard hats walking beneath wind turbines

Energy & Renewables

Peat built a large part of this county’s working life. The West Offaly Power Station at Shannonbridge closed in December 2020, after more than 300 people had worked there. Many of the same bogs now generate electricity: Bord na Móna’s 75MW Cloncreen wind farm near Rhode went live in 2022, and its 126MW Derrinlough wind farm opened in April 2026.

What this means for employers: wind and grid projects need electrical, civil and project-controls people the county wasn’t training a decade ago. Your West Offaly electrician may be wiring houses in Athlone right now.
Two quality staff in lab coats and hairnets on a food production floor, one holding a clipboard

Food, Drink & Distilling

Food and drink is one of Tullamore’s oldest industries, and still one of its biggest. Carroll Cuisine had about 330 staff in the town when Eight Fifty Food Group bought it in 2020, Tullamore D.E.W.’s distillery employs around 100, and Offaly’s Glenisk is halfway through a €20 million new plant.

What this means for employers: Tullamore’s food producers compete for the same quality, food safety and maintenance people. The distillery’s 2025 production pause shows how fast export markets can change a hiring plan.
Two logistics workers in hard hats checking paperwork and a laptop beside stacked shipping containers

Retail, Wholesale & Distribution

Wholesale and retail trade employs almost 4,600 Offaly residents, just behind manufacturing (Census 2022). Tullamore is the county’s main shopping and service town, and the N52 to the M6 and the N80 to the M7 make Offaly a practical base for distribution serving Dublin, the west and the south.

  • ~4,600 workers · Census 2022
What this means for employers: proven store, warehouse and transport managers are the hard hires. Many commute to Athlone or Kildare for bigger roles, so a senior job at home is a strong pitch.
Three construction workers in hard hats and hi-vis vests reviewing plans on a laptop on site

Construction & Building Products

Banagher Precast Concrete makes bridge beams for road and rail projects across Ireland and Britain. With up to 120 construction jobs at Derrinlough and as many proposed at Lemanaghan, the wind build-out keeps civil and site demand strong.

What this means for employers: wind-project site managers and engineers often come from outside Offaly and leave when the job ends. Keeping them is as hard as finding them.

A Changing Offaly Changes Who You Compete For

Growth creates opportunity. It also creates competition for the people who can deliver it. That’s where we come in.

Wind turbines at Bord na Móna's Derrinlough wind farm on former peat bog in West Offaly

Bord na Móna’s move from peat to wind is the biggest change in the county’s economy. The West Offaly Power Station at Shannonbridge, where more than 300 people worked, closed in December 2020, and West Offaly felt it. On cutaway bog between Birr and Cloghan, the 126MW Derrinlough wind farm opened in April 2026, an investment of over €150 million.

More is in the pipeline. In March 2026, Bord na Móna and SSE Renewables sought planning for a 90MW wind farm on Lemanaghan Bog near Ferbane, with up to 120 jobs at peak construction if it proceeds. Projects like these need grid, electrical, civil and project people, and every Offaly employer competes for them.

The Investment Behind Offaly’s Growth

€150m+
Invested in Derrinlough Wind Farm, opened April 2026 (Bord na Móna, 2026)
126MW
Derrinlough capacity from 21 turbines on former peat bog (Bord na Móna, 2026)
€169m
Midlands EU Just Transition Fund programme, EU and Exchequer funding combined (gov.ie, 2022)
120
Peak construction jobs, proposed Lemanaghan wind farm (SSE Renewables, 2026)

Offaly’s Talent Pipeline Runs Through TUS

14,500+
Students across TUS campuses (QQI, 2022-23)
1,200+
Craft apprentices at TUS (QQI, 2022-23)
The glass-fronted main building at the Technological University of the Shannon campus in Athlone

Offaly has no university campus of its own, so its graduate pipeline runs through the Technological University of the Shannon, whose Athlone campus sits just over the county line in Westmeath. TUS taught more than 14,500 students in 2022-23 and trains craft apprentices at Athlone, alongside engineering, computing, science, nursing and business programmes that supply Midlands employers.

Closer to home, Laois and Offaly ETB runs further education and training centres in Tullamore, Birr, Edenderry, Clara and Banagher, plus the National Construction Training Centre at Mount Lucas, near Daingean. Maynooth and the Dublin universities are within commuting reach of east Offaly. Knowing which of these routes a candidate came through tells you a lot about where to find the next one.

Sometimes the Right Candidate Isn’t Here Yet

Old Bord na Móna peat rail wagons reflected in a lake at Lough Boora Discovery Park, County Offaly

When a specialist role means someone has to move, the county is part of the offer: no more daily drive up the M4 or M7, house prices well below Dublin and Kildare, the Grand Canal through Tullamore, Lough Boora, the Slieve Blooms, Georgian Birr and the Shannon at Banagher, with motorways in every direction.

The likeliest movers are Offaly natives working in Dublin, Kildare, Athlone or abroad. Our recruiters know how to put a role back home in front of them.

From First Brief to Start Date

The same disciplined process behind every Offaly search, whatever the role.

  1. 01

    Discovery

    Understanding the role, the team and the Offaly candidate market before we start.

  2. 02

    Search Strategy

    Building the right approach around where your candidates actually are.

  3. 03

    Talent Sourcing

    Combining local networks with our 150,000+ candidate database.

  4. 04

    Screening & Assessment

    Structured interviews and motivation checks before anyone reaches your desk.

  5. 05

    Shortlist & Interview

    A shortlist built for fit, not just volume.

  6. 06

    Offer & Onboarding

    Support through offer, negotiation and start date.

Why Offaly Employers Choose Us

Hartley People and Burton Sinclair consultants together in a boardroom
  • Access

    Direct access to Offaly candidates who aren’t actively job-hunting.

  • Time

    We manage sourcing and screening so you’re only meeting genuine fits.

  • Expertise

    Recruiters who understand Offaly’s key industries.

  • Reach

    A 150,000+ candidate network that goes well beyond the local market.

  • Flexibility

    Permanent, temporary and executive hiring from one relationship.

  • Search Capability

    SearchPLUS for the roles advertising alone won’t fill.

  • People + Technology

    Recruitment technology, run by experienced recruiters, not the other way round.

  • Regional Reach

    One search across Offaly and the counties around it, not a single-town agency.

What Our Clients Say

13,000+
Roles filled
1,100+
Clients supported

Offaly Hires From Every Direction

Two cyclists on the Grand Canal Greenway in County Offaly

We recruit for Offaly employers from our Dublin office, with the reach of a national group headquartered in Waterford. Central counties need searches across four or five counties at once. We keep close track of who’s hiring in Tullamore, Edenderry and Birr, and our consultants travel to meet clients.

Hartley People Dublin, serving Offaly
20 Harcourt Street
Dublin 2
D02 H364
(01) 525 8506
Get Directions→

Questions Offaly Employers Ask Us

Do you have an office in Offaly?

No. We cover Offaly from our Dublin office at 20 Harcourt Street, Dublin 2, D02 H364, backed by our Waterford head office. Our consultants travel to meet clients across the county.

How long has Hartley People been recruiting?

Over 25 years. Hartley People was founded in Waterford in 2001 and has recruited across Ireland ever since, from our Waterford head office and our Dublin office.

What are the best recruitment agencies in Offaly?

Rather than make that claim for ourselves, we’d point to what’s verifiable: 25+ years recruiting across Ireland, a national candidate network, and recruiters who understand how Offaly’s market connects to the counties around it. We think that’s worth a conversation, but you should judge any agency on its record and how it actually works, not marketing copy.

What industries do you recruit for in Offaly?

We recruit across 19 specialisms in Offaly, including Manufacturing, Engineering, Construction, Logistics & Supply Chain, Accountancy & Finance, HR, Sales, Technology, Life Sciences and Executive Appointments, reflecting the industries that actually drive employment in the county.

Do you recruit across County Offaly, not just Tullamore?

Yes. We recruit across Tullamore, Birr, Edenderry, Clara, Banagher, Ferbane, Kilcormac, Daingean and Rhode, including the Offaly side of Portarlington, and into the wider commuter market around Athlone, Portlaoise, Mullingar and Roscrea.

Do you recruit in Tullamore?

Yes. Tullamore is Offaly’s county town and main employment centre, with the Midland Regional Hospital, the county council, food and drink producers and most professional roles.

Do you recruit in Birr and West Offaly?

Yes. Much of the county’s wind energy work is in West Offaly, and Birr and Banagher also draw candidates from North Tipperary and East Galway.

Can you help us find candidates from outside Offaly?

Yes. We search Athlone, Portlaoise, Kildare and Dublin commuters, and Offaly people working away who’d come home for the right job, using a 150,000+ candidate network and national sourcing capability.

Do you provide permanent recruitment in Offaly?

Yes, through Hartley People Recruitment: permanent hiring across all 19 specialisms, delivered by our recruitment team.

Do you provide temporary staff in Offaly?

Yes, through Flexiforce, part of the same group: temporary staffing, high-volume recruitment and workforce solutions for Offaly employers.

Do you recruit for manufacturers in Offaly?

Yes. Manufacturing is the largest sector for Offaly’s resident workforce, and experienced production, maintenance and quality people are rarely job-hunting, so direct search matters more than advertising.

Do you recruit for retailers in Offaly?

Yes. Wholesale and retail is Offaly’s second-largest employment sector, and we recruit store, warehouse, distribution, transport and area management roles across Tullamore and the wider Midlands.

Do you recruit for healthcare employers in Offaly?

Yes. Health and social work is one of Offaly’s three largest employment sectors, and we help employers compete with the public sector for administrative, finance, facilities and management talent.

Do you provide executive search in Offaly?

Yes, through Burton Sinclair, our specialist executive search business, and through SearchPLUS for senior and hard-to-fill appointments within Hartley People Recruitment.

How do you find passive candidates in Offaly?

Through our 150,000+ candidate network, direct sourcing, LinkedIn Recruiter, market mapping and referral networks, combined with recruiters who understand who’s actually working where across Offaly and the Midlands.

Can you help with difficult-to-fill Offaly roles?

Yes, through SearchPLUS, our specialist sourcing solution for difficult-to-fill, strategic and mid-to-senior appointments where advertising alone won’t reach the right candidates.

What does a recruitment agency in Offaly cost?

Fees depend on the seniority and complexity of the role and which service is involved: permanent, temporary or executive. Get in touch and we’ll talk you through pricing for your specific requirement, no obligation.

How quickly can you start a search?

It depends on the seniority of the role and how niche the requirement is. We’ll give you a realistic timeline once we understand what the hire needs to achieve.

Who Do You Need to Hire in Offaly?

Tell our recruitment team about the role, team or workforce challenge. We’ll talk through the Offaly candidate market, the people you need and the recruitment approach that makes sense for your business.

  • 25+ Years Recruiting in Ireland
  • 150,000+ Candidate Network
  • Permanent | Temporary | Executive

Discuss My Offaly Hiring Requirement

Fill in a few details and a member of our recruitment team will be in touch.

We’ll only use your details to respond to your enquiry. No spam, ever.

Talk to Our Offaly Team
Untitled design

Hartley People

Upload your CV to our team