Along with the SCN Top 50 Systems Integrators 2023 list, we polled a selection of leading firms on industry hot topics.
How challenging is hiring and retaining talent these days?
Brad Righi, President, Constant Technologies
Due to the tight labor market, finding new hires that have the right mix of technical skills and work ethic can be challenging. As specialists in mission-critical audiovisual integration, our employees have the privilege of collaborating with some of the world's leading organizations and entities. This continues to foster a dynamic work environment and contributes to our high employee retention rate once we can find the right talent.
[Top Integrators 2023: Biggest Buzzwords]
Kevin Lyons, VP, Sales and Marketing, Inter Technologies Corporation
Our company has great success retaining talent. The challenge is finding new talent or investing time into further skills development.
Eric Hutto, CEO, Diversified
The workforce has changed. Employees don’t just want jobs but are seeking out environments that foster equity, flexibility, and growth. At Diversified, our projects not only draw the industry’s top players because of the size, complexity, and cool factor, but we also embrace flexible and/or remote work arrangements, which helps us attract and retain the best and brightest regardless of location. In addition, we combine emerging professionals with industry heavyweights, creating outstanding opportunities for learning, growth, and innovation. By offering remote opportunities, we're not only broadening our hiring pool but guaranteeing a diverse mix of perspectives.
Vero Tabares, Marketing Director, WPS | Washington Professional Systems
The AV industry is not immune to the labor shortages affecting many organizations in the U.S. Because of the niche nature of our industry, finding green, young talent has been challenging, and we are actively working with local universities to provide a career pipeline for students.
Jessica Hair, HR/People Operations Manager, CCS Southwest
Positions that require more experience with a specific AV industry-related skillset are generally tougher to fill. More entry-level positions are a bit easier, but we spend time and resources training techs. As far as retaining talent goes, that is directly attributed to the culture and ongoing training program within the organization. CCS has a fantastic culture, and we are consistently expanding our training and certification programs.
Jeffrey Mele, CTO, Metinteractive
We’d always like to meet more folks, but it’s going quite well. For example, one person said during an interview they want to be here so “I can say that I work for Metinteractive.” That’s quite the heartening statement. That said, we’re not perfect and always trying to be better.
[Top Integrators 2023: Hybrid Office Systems]
Lance Bowers, COO, Avidex
Hiring and retaining talent continues to be one of our biggest challenges. For Avidex, the “right” talent is someone who combines technical skill with a customer-first disposition and mindset to fit comfortably into our customer-first company culture. We’ve really focused on this in recent years, making investments to improve our onboarding and ongoing training programs, which not only helps us better serve our customers, but has proven to boost employee satisfaction and support talent retention.
