Paul Schwartz
If you’re looking to get a good picture of what’s happening on the personnel side of the office technology business one of the best people to speak with is Paul Schwartz, president of Copier Careers, a personnel agency for the office technology industry and a company that’s well known throughout the business for its annual salary surveys.
Dramatic changes continue to take place on the service end of the business.
“The definition of a technician has evolved and it’s rare these days when we get a call for a traditional break-fix technician,” notes Schwartz “They have to have the break-fix skill set and the networking, if not certification practical skill set. This affects all aspects, sales, management, everything.”
Copier Careers has been doing more managed-oriented searches during the past couple of years than they’ve done in the previous decade.
“It’s because of this titanic shift in the model of the dealership,” reports Schwartz. “If you stop and think about the arc of a dealership and the arc of management in service and sales, it’s not unusual for the service or sales manager to have been around for 20 years. All of a sudden their role has significantly changed. And because it’s changed they have to make a decision if they want to relearn what they do or if it’s time for them to move on. Sometimes ownership has to deal with that issue. The question for them is, ‘is the issue my field service or my service manager?’”
From 2008-2010 Schwartz reveals there was hiring going on, but not a lot of development of new people because dealerships were afraid to grow internally. “And maybe they didn’t necessarily want to send the guy to the next class,” says Schwartz.
That seems to have affected the skills that are becoming more important to the office technology dealer community as they evolve more into services.
“There is definitely a shortage of talented people out there and the people with the skill sets, especially with the managed network skill sets specific to the document imaging industry as opposed to generic network skill sets,” states Schwartz. “That’s a hard thing to find and there’s a premium on their heads right now.”
On the sales side, Copier Careers frequently talks to many two-, three-, and five-year sales reps, convincing them to move to their clients. That’s a challenge. “Our clients must have the right environment to recruit these people to them,” says Schwartz. “Our clients have to offer a full array of solutions to attract both the technician and the sales reps because sales reps have become very savvy. They understand that if the dealership is still embracing a box-sales mentality and they can’t go in and sell professional services or solutions, they’re leaving a ton of stuff on the table and it’s going to affect their income. There’s a direct correlation between the clients’ ability to be progressive and embrace all of these things that can be sold and their ability to attract people. It’s a two-way street.”
Looking ahead Schwartz sees the need for more specialization.
“That’s become the name of the game,” he says. “The other thing we see in 2013 is just as tight a market. If you have the specific skill sets our clients are looking for there’s zero unemployment. If there’s unemployment, there’s usually a personal issue with the candidate. There just aren’t enough bodies to fill the positions that are available.”
Meanwhile, expect to see Copier Careers continue to educate their dealer clients through their salary surveys and newsletters so they have a realistic expectation of what they can help them find out in the industry. “That’s one of the most difficult things we have to deal with our clients is making them understand how rare these candidates are,” concludes Schwartz.
