We spoke to MSD Carlow’s plant manager and HR business partner to learn more about working life at the facility.
After first establishing a base in Ireland more than 50 years ago, healthcare company MSD now employs 2,500 people across the country, with sites in Tipperary, Cork, Carlow and Dublin. This year, the company will welcome an additional 400 new hires to its facilities.
Speaking to MSD about its recruitment plans, we learned that the pharma company is still hiring during the Covid-19 pandemic. “We’ve adapted and evolved our hiring process in light of the current outbreak to ensure we can continue to attract top talent to the company and support them effectively throughout the process,” it said.
“Technology and new ways of working are ensuring we can review candidates, engage with them productively and facilitate an innovative hiring experience.”
MSD also highlighted its new onboarding process, through which it hopes to help new joiners “feel part of the team from day one”.
Why MSD?
Before the coronavirus pandemic, we got the chance to visit MSD’s site in Carlow. We talked to the facility’s plant manager, Marie Martin, who told us why she would recommend people consider it as a place to work.
“MSD is a really exciting company and is going through a massive growth phase at this point in time.” Martin said. She explained that MSD Carlow offers employees a “great opportunity” to work on “really exciting products”, while learning about tech transfers and bringing innovative medicines to commercialisation.
‘A great breadth of experience’
Caroline O’Connor, a HR business partner at MSD Carlow, gave us insight into the culture at the site, describing it as “different” and “highly collaborative”.
“It’s a very flexible place to work,” she said. “As an employee, there are great opportunities for people who work here, from whether they want to develop in their own function or throughout the organisation.
“So, it really allows for a great breadth of experience to be developed while working at MSD.”