Channel partners find the same difficulty in finding qualified talent as the rest of the industry, especially in technical positions including security, data analytics, cloud migration etc. This reflects the skill gap which is also faced by much of the IT community, states a study by BDS Marketing and ChannelE2E.
Channel partners pave way for a lot of employment. They are opening up new opportunities. “Many of their available positions are newly listed, with 68 percent unoccupied for less than three months. Nearly 40 percent of those have been listed for only a month. Slightly more than one quarter have been offered for up to six months, with only a scant eight percent open for as long as a year. Those jobs presumably are for high-level executive positions that typically take longer to fill,” it said.
“What the channel seeks is what you might expect — rainmakers that bring in business and those that deliver results. More than half (51 percent) of the available jobs are technical in nature while sales commands another 31 percent. The remainder is divided among ancillary positions — six percent for project management, administrative/finance at about five percent, marketing at two percent, executive roles at slightly less than two percent and unspecified positions at slightly less than four percent,” noted the study.
Sometimes Channel partners are restless to fill vacant positions. Around 55 percent believe they struggle to fill the position as and when required. While 13 percent gets more applicants then vacant posts, nearly nine percent said they are far behind from filling open positions. About 23 percent responded that the number of new hires matches the rate at which positions open.
The study points out that “jobs available, that’s for sure. A sufficient number of channel partner companies are hiring, mostly for technical and sales jobs. However, nearly four in 10 candidates are under qualified for the positions they seek.”