Educator Laurence Peter turned the phrase, “managers rise to their level of incompetence.” In pro AV hiring terms, this means that a great AV technician may not make a great manager/leader; a great manager/leader may not make a great sales representative, etc.
At the end of the day, firms need to allocate and monitor their A/V labor force based on capability and motivation. But many can’t seem to find qualified technicians to begin with.
While many blame it on “employee poaching” from competitors, a case can be made that firms don’t invest enough time into creating a culture of understanding: why did the last tech leave? Were they fulfilled, challenged, or trained enough?
So some firms focus purely on that — and try not to “poach” from competitors. But meanwhile, they flounder trying to find qualified, fresh faces to fill their A/V labor needs.
Successful Pro AV Hiring Often Requires Insider Knowledge
Nick Lanska, vice president of business development at the Mason Group, says a company’s time, money, and morale all suffer when firms make a bad hire.
“The market is so tight in our industry where candidates do notice when another person left XYZ company. We try to get ahead of those projected needs before this happens and save companies from making decisions based on desperation.”
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The Mason Group covers security, AV, electrical, building and communications technologies with 20 regional reps.
“We are almost an arm for these clients where we’re able to sell a company to prospects. A lot of candidates don’t know the culture, don’t know where the company is going, don’t know they just landed a big project.”
“So we, as a strategic partner reaching out to these top passive candidates, we know the back story of the company that excites these candidates.”
Sorting Through the Mass Resume Pile
One of the benefits to using The Mason Group candidate searches is that they find the mythical young, talented individuals that many firms might be tempted to give up on.
“Because we are industry-specific, The Mason Group is able to track passive AV labor candidates who aren’t really looking,” Lanska says.
“If you’re looking for a technician with a certain certification or specialty, we’re going to be able to send you a couple of qualified candidates instead of one hundred resumes of people who aren’t in the industry.”
Lessons learned in the above video interview on pro AV hiring:
- Make sure to invest enough time in placing employees in situations that match their strengths while taking even more time to understand why any of them leave
- Know that there ARE fresh faces out there — you just may need a little help finding them
Learn more about The Mason Group here.
This content originally appeared in CE Pro's sister publication Commercial Integrator.
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