Fierce competition for job candidates in the Irish labour market is compelling employers such as Accenture to become imaginative about how they attract and retain staff.

"In the early to mid-1990s, you could run a few ads and get a huge amount of applications. This doesn't work anymore," said Mark Ryan, managing director of Accenture in Ireland. "There is a very hot jobs market and that's not going to change."

The consulting firm, which is creating 100 new jobs in Dublin, hopes to catch the eye of potential employees by placing ads on the main Dart and Luas lines, on top of mainstream TV and radio campaigns. The ads will direct job applicants to a website dedicated to careers events at Accenture.

The company strives to make itself more attractive to graduates and experienced jobseekers alike by getting them to meet peers working at Accenture and discuss what it's like to work for the firm, Mr Ryan said.

The so-called "Careers Time" events are also held on college campuses.

"Our people sell the organisation very well. Candidates can talk to people at their level in the organisation, which is a very powerful recruitment tool," Mr Ryan said. "A lot of the time there are people out there who don't even realise what we do. These events can be hugely powerful in changing that."

Accenture currently employs 1,500 in three different areas of business in Ireland: its traditional consulting division; the European service centre it set up in 1999; and its outsourcing business. Its clients include Bank of Ireland, Dell and Microsoft.

The Accenture brand was introduced and the company was floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001, less than a year after its bitter split with accountants Arthur Andersen. The accountancy firm was implicated in the Enron scandal and subsequently went out of business.

Accenture now employs more than 146,000 people in 49 countries, and works with over two-thirds of the Fortune Global 500 companies.

The company aims to prevent its employees from leaving by ensuring that the staff, whose average age is 27, "like their jobs", Mr Ryan said. As a result, it gives employees access to sports clubs, cultural events, and social networking for gay and lesbian staff. Employees who want to volunteer for an overseas charity can take between six and nine months' leave and still receive half their salary.

Accenture is particularly keen on ensuring female employees stay on with the company after they have children so it doesn't have to recruit and train replacements.

Each employee is allocated a counsellor and mentor when they join the company. When a female staff member goes on maternity leave, their counsellor and mentors meet with them on a regular basis to help them keep up to speed with the latest developments in the company and the industry.

Accenture provides flexible arrangements, such as part-time work and remote working, for when women return from leave.

"It is far cheaper to invest in the retention of an employee than in the recruitment of one," Mr Ryan said.