Attrition has always been an issue across the industry and the channel feel
no differently. They are feeling the talent crunch and an undue amount of time
and money is wasted in hiring and training new batches. Moreover, channel
partners generally do not have a dedicated HR team to manage manpower and
related issues.
Principal companies are aware of channels' continuous manpower shortage.
Vendors can lend a helping hand to their channel. There are multiple roles a
vendor can play in giving support to his network of channel and in return can
earn strong business relation for longer time. They can arrange training
sessions for partners' staff to sharpen their skills. They can also organize
classrooms for enhancing managerial skills of employees at middle level or
seminars to fight HR issues. All such initiatives would encourage the employees
to adhere to one company for a longer period of time, and thereby increases
productivity of both channels and vendors.
Commenting on the participation of vendors, Shailendra Sarup of Xerox
mentioned that vendors can play a considerable role in helping the channel to
fight attrition.
A beneficial move
A well-organized program dedicated for channel can equip the vendors to
manage their channel network and evolve a scanning process of how well their
staff is skilled to execute deals. A dedicated program for manpower of partners
can ultimately help the vendors in gaining an instant snapshot of the people and
partners. This can also improve the productivity of the managers appointed with
channel.
Vendors need to keep a check on attrition at channel level and may come out
with plans through which they can interact with channel. They can also play a
role in assisting the channel in appointing new set of people. A vendor can rope
in his HR team who can assist in shortlisting and appointing the manpower in
consultancy with the channel partners.
Such programs can be beneficial for vendors, as the potential team of channel
who stays for a longer time will ensure better market coverage and a consistent
distribution of products and services.
Amrita Tejasvi
amritat@cybermedi.co.in