'We're all fighting over the same resource pools' - industry bosses on addressing the Great Resignation and post-Covid work culture

A host of top reseller, MSP and distributor bosses came together in London last night to share ideas about how the industry can overcome recruitment challenges and adapt to the needs of a post-Covid workforce.

Photos from the evening, which was in association with CRN A-List sponsor Agilitas, can be viewed here and the full line-up of guests who attended can be found below.

Top on the agenda of discussion was how the industry can overcome recruitment challenges amid a so-called Great Resignation across the tech sector.

Guests agreed that business leaders must do more to look beyond the channel in order to foster the next generation of talent in the industry.

SHI's UK managing director Donavan Hutchinson said that his firm has put a lot of time and effort into hiring outside of the IT channel through its graduate programme.

He said that the scheme is working, claiming that the graduate programme so far has a 100 per cent retention rate.

"Our top graduate used to be a plumber, I've got a neuroscientist graduate who is the second top performer. We only started the programme eight months ago, but we've got a 100 per cent retention rate. That's important, because these people would never have gone into the IT industry. We're also looking at diverse groups, like people who were in the armed forces.

"We're all fighting over the same resource pools. Rather than recycling the same people we need to look at developing people from outside of the industry and bringing them into the industry," he said.

Nuvias' UK MD and VP for South Europe, Lee Driscoll, added that the distributor is hiring ex-armed forces staff from its base in Cirencester and is also finding talent in young people finishing school, A-Level or B Tech qualifications.

Driscoll added that bosses should accept that staff leaving is always going to be part and parcel of the IT channel and highlighted that there might not always be a solution to keep hold of talent if they wish to move on.

"We're not a business that's going to attract people with a table tennis table, a pool table and a slide that goes from the first floor into a pool of M&Ms on the ground floor. Some people want to leave because they've got a two-bedroom flat and a baby on the way and they want a three-bed semi with a garden for their kid. And you've just got a wish the well and move on," he said.

Distology CEO Hayley Roberts highlighted that recruitment challenges in the industry must be tackled at a young age to ensure the next generation of talent knows there's a career for them in tech.

"We have to break the chain. There's the perception that tech is Google, Microsoft and Apple - it's not. There are thousands of businesses out there and we need to make sure that us or our children don't say, ‘you're good at maths, you should be an accountant' or ‘you're good at science, you should be a doctor'. Its more a question of ‘you're good at something, what are the problems you want to solve, what are the things you want to do, how do you want to help? What's your ideal job role, what do you enjoy?" she said.

"That's what we need to do much more of at primary school age, because we're never going to have the volume of people we need in our industry. Hiring will always be a problem in this industry. In five years' time, we'll be here again and be talking about staffing issues. Because this isn't a Covid issue, this is a worldwide issue."

Alex Louth, UK&I MD at Logicalis, said that remote working has made it much more viable to recruit disabled people in the UK, opening up a new talent pool for the channel.

"There is no reason for any of us not to recruit disabled people today," he said. "A couple of years ago it was a lot harder - offices weren't always wheelchair accessible and traveling to work is much more difficult.

"There's a whole workforce out there now because we've been forced as businesses to embrace working from home as a normal event. That's such a low hanging fruit for us to work on now."

Guests also discussed how they have adapted their businesses to a post-Covid work culture. Many execs agreed that deciding on a clear-cut work from home policy has been a challenge as offices reopened.

"If people come to the office just to sit on your laptop from 9 to 5:30pm, why would you bother? Why would you spend your money commuting to do that? It's better if you were to come to the office to collaborate and for teamwork," said Louth.

"When we look at the new talent now, if I was a 20-something, would I have joined Logicalis ten years ago, going into a structured and quite boring office where everyone looks pretty much identical to the person next to them? I probably wouldn't have joined. But now I think we've got something to offer thanks to how we've modernised ourselves. So from a team point of view, I think it's really good."

Hutchinson said that SHI has adopted a hybrid working policy, but said some teams are required to be in the office at least two days a week.

"It's changed our hiring efforts and the way that we attract talent, because every single interview people are asking if they can work from home and if they have the ability to work from home," he said.

"We've taken an approach dependent on the role. For graduate programmes we want people to be in an office because its important for them to be able to share ideas and also learn and develop their skills by having people close to them."

Agilitas CEO Shaun Lynn said that employee engagement and loyalty will definite successful businesses in the future.

"It was encouraging to hear so many leaders echo my thoughts that the successful businesses of the future will drive employee engagement and loyalty by focusing all their efforts on their workforces specifically empowering those that aspire to make the difference and go the extra mile," he said.

"It was great to be back hosting this special A-List dinner alongside our friends at CRN," added Agilitas CMO Richard Eglon. "With so many interesting topics being discussed throughout the evening, the consistent theme being shared across all the leaders was how important it was to keep investing in your people in order for channel businesses to succeed. Alongside this was how vital diversity and inclusion was to channel leaders future recruitment plans, in terms of obtaining new talent from outside the industry who brought fresh impetus to a evolving workplace through diversity and a passion to make a change."

Full A-List dinner line-up:

Graham Charlton, CFO, Softcat

Mike Danson, CEO, Natilik

Lee Driscoll, UK MD and VP South Europe, Nuvias

Richard Eglon, CMO, Agilitas

Tim Griffin, MD, Exertis

Howard Hall, MD, DTP Group

Donavan Hutchinson, MD, SHI

Alex Louth, MD, Logicalis UK&I

Shaun Lynn, CEO, Agilitas

Gareth Meyer, COO, Ultima

Steve Norman, commercial director, pure technology group