In the past five years, office technology dealers have increasingly sought to lock down their most valued employees. Obviously, having long-tenured employees has always been a feather in the cap of companies that stress corporate unity and strong core values, so it’s not exactly a new phenomenon. But in the wake of the mass exodus (Great Resignation) that followed the pandemic—a period when workers in all industries took deep stock of their vocational/professional fortunes—even keeping hold of middling performers took on greater significance.
What has emerged once the smoke cleared has confounded and befuddled human resources executives the world over. What candidates seek in an employer is vastly different than it was in 2019. They want flexibility in work hours, the ability to work from home either part time or full time and inflation-addled salaries. Their expectations are certainly higher than pre-COVID, buffered by (generally speaking) the notion that there are more positions available in relation to the number of candidates on the market.
That said, we asked our Hot Takes panel the following question: How would you characterize the current hiring market? Judging by the volume of responses, hiring and retention remain critical talking points with dealer circles. Read on:
Andrew Ritschel, principal, Electronic Office Systems, Fairfield, New Jersey
“Try to get a plumber, a roofer, an electrician, a handyman.” That is what fellow townhouse owners told me the last four weekends. There are so few, and they are in such demand. Also, “their prices are outrageous.”
I have seen the trends over the years with kids going to college and studying to be accountants, lawyers, doctors or nurses. Some of the former trends were broadcasters, sports management, and marketing/public relations. Today, I get youth entering colleges that they are looking to be the mainstay professionals as well as…financial analyst at a venture capital firm or a hedge fund, a medical device salesperson a programmer, a data scientist, or a physical therapist.
Out of the last 60 or so inquiries, has anyone told me that they want to be a professional sales representative? The few that we come across consider the commercial office equipment industry product industry to be very mature. Of course, owners across the U.S. are scrambling to add additional products and service offerings such as water purification point of use dispensers, managed network services, production, shredding, website development/SEO, VoIP systems and marketing services, shredding, and recently, electric vehicle charge stations.
Several of our manufacturer’s upper management that have never sold down the street or have hired, trained, and developed a sales team to sell to end users have seem liked they have thrown in the towel and gone to blanket the internet with low ball product online pricing for A4, printers and low end A3. We are told by these executives that these are not the products we should be focusing on and selling. The fact of the matter is that our largest clients buy these products as well and these are the products that new reps need to cut their teeth on and survive by selling many and still making some profit margin for their time.
A few years ago, I met Dr. Reed of William Paterson College’s new professional sales training institute. He showed me their full training curriculum. Each student entering was assigned to be a member of a commercial office equipment company’s sales team. There they are trained all sales and marketing as if they were in our industry. He told me that this is where the best of the best salespeople in the marketplace are born out of. Last month, I met a professor at the Rutgers business school in New Brunswick, New Jersey. This individual from Panasonic was just hired to create their new professional sales curriculum.
Will colleges become the new trainers for the best of the best sales professionals, or can our industry adjust to make a career marketing our products and services lucrative again for someone young seeking a career path?
Mason Smith, president and CEO, MTS Office Systems, Greenville, South Carolina
We have found some great candidates recently and have added six new team members over the last 12 months. All but one of them had no previous office equipment experience. We prefer in most cases to hire the right person and teach them the skill sets they will require versus previous experience in the industry. We have relied upon relationships to find candidates versus hiring websites or recruiting services. Most of the new teammates we have brought on were contacted by a current employee or customer referring them to us.
Sam Stone, president, Stone’s Office Equipment, Richmond, Virginia
While we haven’t made many hires in 2024, we are seeing an uptick in the availability of people responding. For the past few years, we have gone from people not responding to responding to asking about pay and whether or not they are required to come to the office. Lately, future hires have become more interested in the business culture and the flexibility of PTO. Starting pay remains a concern in our industry because it impacts the overhead faster than we can increase pricing. Where is the point that we, the dealer, become too expensive for the end-users?
Thomas Fimian, CEO, Levifi, Charleston, South Carolina
We are not experiencing a big change in the hiring market compared to the last three years. Good people are as hard to find as always and we continue to have most success in identifying potential candidates that might be a potential good fit for our culture and then build a relationship with them.
Josh Britton, president, imageOne, Oak Park, Michigan
The availability of qualified candidates varies substantially based on the market and geography. We are focused primary on core values, with a readiness to train for skill. That has served us well in the past and we are leaning even more into that as a way of being less dependent on candidates coming in with all the skills needed.
We are creative, based on the role, of where we recruit. If a role can be hybrid or remote, we will cast a wider net than one that requires a geo presence. We also have a very robust interviewing process and use this as a way to minimize the risk that we hire bad fits. Our process is built on the notion that we want both the candidate and iO to vet each other thoughtfully. It’s a two-way street, and it’s important to serve the candidate with an unvarnished look into what working at IO is like so he/she can make the best decision for themselves.
Bob Maxwell, owner, KOMAX Bustiness Systems, South Charleston, West Virginia
Since the pandemic, this topic comes up at every industry meeting as a major concern. Our company is located in West Virginia, and certainly our state faces the same challenges of finding quality people for all positions. However, our company has been very fortunate that we’ve had very little turnover in our sales and service departments. We’re staffed with highly experienced and productive people who thrive in the environment that we’ve built over the past 25 years. This has allowed us to build strong relationships and trust with our customers and within our company.
Erik Crane, president, CPI Technologies, Springfield, Missouri
I can sum it up in one word: TOUGH. Tough to get people to show up for interviews (in-person or virtual). Tough to find skilled workers. Tough to retain skilled workers. Tough to compete with large salaries from Big Tech.
Tough times, but not as tough as CPI. We are finding a way to get it done!
Want to get in on a future panel question? Email me and I’ll add you to the list.
