Vinny and I spent time walking the floor at The Hardware Show, catching up with long-standing clients, meeting new businesses and taking the temperature of the industry.
Many of our conversations with businesses centred on recruitment. Some companies are struggling to find experienced candidates. Others are trying to figure out how to attract younger talent. Many simply feel that hiring in the sector has become much tighter in recent years. Because we recruit exclusively within the Hardware and Building Materials sector, we have a clear view of how the talent market moves across the industry.
From that perspective, a few themes from the show stood out.
“We’ve Been Advertising for Months and Nothing Good Is Coming Through”
This was probably the most common frustration we heard. From our side of the recruitment market, it is not surprising.
When we map talent across the sector, the majority of strong candidates are already well embedded in their roles. They are running territories, managing key accounts or leading teams. They are not actively browsing job boards.
In our experience, around 70-80% of successful hires in the industry come from candidates who were not actively planning to move.
In a specialist industry like hardware and building materials, the best candidates rarely apply for jobs. They get approached about them.
“We’re Meeting Candidates, But They Don’t Understand the Industry”
Another conversation we had repeatedly at the show centred on industry familiarity. Hardware and Building Materials is a specialist environment. Routes to market are unique, product ranges are often technical and merchant relationships take time to develop.
However, when this concern comes up with clients, it often leads to a broader discussion about where talent can realistically come from. If every company tries to hire exclusively from the same small pool of experienced industry candidates, the talent market quickly becomes very tight.
That is why we often encourage businesses to think slightly wider and consider adjacent industries where the commercial skillset translates well.
The Industry Doesn’t Have a Career Problem – It Has a Visibility Problem.
Another question we heard several times over the weekend was how to attract younger people into the sector. From our perspective, the industry does not have a career problem.
It has a visibility problem.
When we look at the sector through a recruitment lens, we see commercially sharp people building strong careers, managing major accounts and running teams and territories with significant responsibility. Experienced sales professionals in the industry frequently earn packages well into the €70,000 – €90,000 range once bonuses are included.
The opportunity is there. The sector simply needs to tell that story more loudly. In addition to offering strong packages, the Hardware sector is as robust now as it’s ever been. In a country already in the midst of a housing crisis, Ireland’s population projections mean that we will need to continue building properties for many years to come. This is an industry that can offer long-term career opportunities with home-grown businesses.
Recruitment Is Becoming a Strategic Issue
If the conversations at this year’s Hardware Show were anything to go by, recruitment will remain one of the defining challenges for the industry in the years ahead.
But the companies who consistently hire well tend to approach it differently. They build relationships with talent before vacancies appear. They understand where strong candidates are likely to come from. And increasingly, they partner with a specialist recruitment agency like Tactical Talent that understands the industry, has a wide network within it and can significantly accelerate the hiring process.
In a competitive market, that level of industry insight can make a real difference
About Tactical Talent
Tactical Talent Recruitment is Ireland’s only recruitment specialist dedicated exclusively to the Hardware and Building Materials Industry. For over a decade we have worked with manufacturers, distributors and merchants across Ireland to hire commercial leaders, sales professionals and operational talent who understand the sector and can make an immediate impact.
As the only recruitment partner to Hardware Association Ireland, we work closely with the industry to support companies in solving one of their biggest challenges: finding and attracting the right people.
If recruitment is on your agenda this year, we are always happy to have a conversation.
Contact Vinny Kelly or Iseult McLaughlin on 01 9079192, visit www.tacticaltalent.ie, email info@tacticaltalent.ie.
ISEULT MCLAUGHLIN Director, Tactical Talent
