A recruiter's dream: As the channel enters growth mode, the search is on for top-tier talent

After two difficult years for recruitment, the market is flooded with high quality candidates - but who gets access to the top talent?

Recruiters see a light at the end of the tunnel after a difficult year and a half for the IT channel, but for applicants and mid-tier channel businesses, the pressure is on.

According to Zoe Chatley, founder of The Channel Recruiter and Marc Sumner, CEO of Robertson Sumner, recruitment is picking up as of the end of Q3, but Q1 2025 is set to bring the real deluge of senior management roles for highly skilled candidates, particularly across the top VARs.

"Even though financial results have been quite flat in recent months, we're now seeing a real fluid market of salespeople and marketeers, and a real influx of new leaders," Sumner tells CRN.

"Currently we have a lot of new leaders in situ, because over the summer, over the last 5-8 weeks, we've had so many people swapping in and out of roles."

Chatley echoes this, pointing to a surge in sales recruiting – and not just at the senior level.

"The biggest shift I am seeing is strategic hiring of hungry, driven salespeople. The industry cannot afford to be happy with "order takers" they need proactive, driven salespeople at all levels," Chatley explains.

"We are seeing more positions come in for account managers, senior account managers and account directors.

"New SDs and CROs are coming in and bringing in hungrier talent.

"You'll have noticed also that business critical hires are still happening, whereas lots of back office, IT services and operations are being laid off, but making way for more salespeople."

Growth mode means finding "better talent"

"We are seeing this in both private and public sector markets."

Sumner has also witnessed this decisive approach across Robertson Sumner's client base.

More and more leaders are changing places. Often, this is off the back of poor results, and we see, especially MSPs, swap someone into the company, potentially the underperformers."

According to Chatley, the key reason behind the spike in recruiting is straightforward – the channel is looking to growth mode – and senior leaders are not afraid to make drastic decisions to achieve it.

"Growth, always growth, if the last few years have taught us anything is that no one really is safe unless they are delivering major numbers, of course," she says.

"2020/21 saw a boom, since then the market has dipped right across the channel, VARs have really felt this and still are.

"The answer for a lot of companies has been layoffs, get 'better talent' in even at C-suite level."

IT jobs drop as candidate availability increases

But the executive swaps we've been covering over the past few months and the wider pool of talent don't seem to indicate overall growth in hiring, according to KPMG.

According to a September blog from the consulting firm, vacancies across the board saw a steep decline in August, with notable drops across IT and computing.

There was a steep decline in permanent and temporary vacancies for IT & Computing positions, KPMG said.

However, the drop has a silver lining, with a reduction in vacancies corresponding to a rise in average pay, the firm continued, albeit the lowest increase since March.

Consolidation at the top

CRN has covered a staggering amount of M&A deals over the past few years, with 2024 so far being no exception.

According to Sumner, this consolidation doesn't just affect bottom lines – it has had a knock-on effect on candidate preferences as well.

"I've personally spoken to many people looking to transition into larger companies, including the big VARs, he suggests.

"Many of these individuals come from smaller companies that are struggling with cashflow or profitability.

"Naturally, candidates are looking to move into more seeking more reliable and secure partners—companies like CDW and SCC - because of their stronger global capabilities and broader insights."

According to Chatley, the trend is also bolstered by declining company cultures and morale at companies, as the commercial pressure increases – a perfect storm, resulting in an abundance of candidates at the top of the industry.

"The morale within businesses over the last 12-18 months has been quite poor.

"Uncertainty and worries of being put at risk will bring any company culture down, no matter how hard a business's try to reassure, she notes.

"Whilst salespeople for example are being told they are safe, they are also being told that if they do not hit their number, they'll be at risk.

"This will naturally cause anxiety in any individual or team."

An oversaturated market means a handful of companies may get the pick of the litter – while the majority of the industry may need to reconsider incentives or culture in order to attract high-quality talent to increasingly high-pressure positions.

"We have been seeing more and more people contacting us to purely make us aware of them and keep in contact should the worst happen, Chatley continues.

"Equally we are getting people who cannot stay despite being safe and are proactively looking for new opportunities, due to the morale internally.

"Recently we posted a senior account manager position for a VAR and received over 600 applications!

"I have never seen such a huge response for a reseller, and more importantly there were a lot of highly relevant candidates, compared to normal where most are irrelevant."