How to Ease the Very Hard Job of Finding and Hiring the Right People

Hiring the right people for IT jobs is always a critical chore, from systems security to sales, research, engineering, partner programs and more. But successful hiring has to start with first finding the right candidates and that can be a huge battle in itself.

To provide some helpful insights, three channel leaders will join James Bier, the co-founder and chief channel development officer at VAR Staffing, at the 2020 Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas for a panel discussion about best practices to attract top talent. The March 11 panel, Recruiting the ‘Right’ Talent, part of the business best practices conference track sponsored by Nextiva, will include Sam Chawkat, chief operating officer of Dynamic Networking Solutions; Troy Gelsky, director of client services for VAR Staffing; and James Laszko, chief technology officer of Mythos Technology.

We spoke with the panelists prior to the event to talk about their recruitment secrets. Their remarks are edited for clarity and brevity.

Channel Futures: How does proactively recruiting specific talent allow organizations to separate themselves from their competition?

VAR Staffing’s Troy Gelsky

Troy Gelsky: If your organization subscribes to the idea of proactively recruiting, and your recruiting team is good at what they do, there will hopefully be a constant inflow of candidates that you are speaking with on a monthly basis. You never want to feel like you are running to catch the bus you already missed.

Sam Chawkat: You need to be always hiring and always proactively looking for talent or you will be left behind. New blood fuels creativity [and] fuels new business avenues to explore that were not explored before. It fuels culture and it fuels a little competition to strive to do better. If you are not always on the hunt for the right person, you are going to miss them through all shuffle.

CF: How should organizations find or mine such talent acquisition?

TG: We remind our partners to spread the word in different ways. Mixing it up between job postings on CareerBuilder, Dice, LinkedIn and Monster, word of mouth inside your channel community, and one of the most valuable and less utilized is the compensated employee referral. We also suggest partnering with local universities and trade schools, as that is a great revolving door for “green talent.”

CF: What are some of the ways to find qualified workers when unemployment rates are low and quality candidates are not bringing themselves to your door?

TG: It’s hard to find “hidden talent” because most of what you are looking for is gainfully employed at the moment. Typically speaking, the best employees are not on the job boards posting their resumes to find a job, so you need to be proactive and have a good message to attract them to your organization.

Dynamic Networking Solutions’ Sam Chawkat

SC: For us, it’s working with key business affiliates, working with academic institutions, having a strong internship program and offering a finder’s fee for employee referrals as well as customer referrals.

CF:  What new interviewing methods are needed when you have to go out and recruit applicants?

James Laszko: For us, adapting our process to include peer interviews was a giant leap. We’ve had many applicants wash out of the process due to a gut feel or clash with one of our existing team members. Our team feels empowered because they are listened to and we’re potentially avoiding a conflict in hiring a wrong fit.

CF: What are the right messages to put out there to attract good candidates to get them to come in to talk?

JL: In an industry that has such super low unemployment rates, it’s a tough gig. We’re not located in a major metropolitan area, so our wages are a bit lower than large cities. However, we feel that the team and company culture is the biggest driver for success for us. In our interview process we make sure to …