But just as the recession stalled infrastructure upgrades, it also stalled the career development of young IT professionals. New graduates were not gaining crucial on-the-job experience, were not “cutting their teeth working on real projects” during the slow years, according to Kazmierczak.

“The challenge is that there’s been a pipeline disruption. People coming up weren’t getting the skills they needed,” he said.

Now, with the surge in spending, there just are too few IT techs who can “onboard and get involved in a project quickly,” Kazmierczak said.

So as smaller solution providers compete for that limited pool of talent, they have found that their recruiting pitch must involve “offering more empowerment over their careers,” Kazmierczak said.

Platte River encourages employees to plot their own career path – the company pays for the personal certification programs that employees decide they want to pursue. That is a critical incentive in an industry where technology is constantly evolving and platforms are shifting.

Engineers stuck in one environment, working on one system for one client, eventually find their jobs monotonous and get bored, according to DeCamillis.  

So it helps to throw in another incentive: make the workplace fun.

“We have a lot of cool activities and events and happy hours, making it more of a fun place to work. And that’s why they stick,” DeCamillis said.

The “keep it fun” strategy is one Sierra w/o Wires also takes seriously.

CEO/CTO Bruce Freshwater said his Pittsburgh-based company strives to retain employees by creating an office culture that is focused on “keeping them having fun, laughing.”

The right office culture, one that is oriented on team and family, is achieved through offering good benefits, an open-office layout and flexible schedules that allow employees to devote time to their families, Freshwater said.

Alex McGillivray, President and CEO of Sure Systems, said he attracts and retains talented employees by cultivating an environment immersed in “nerd culture.”

At the company’s Calgary office, “there is never a shortage of Rock Band or Nerf guns,” McGillivray said.

In that loose, casual environment, talented professionals can perfect their technical skill within a supportive, team environment, he said.

Hiring and retention is a unique conundrum that every solution provider now struggles with. Executives succeeding in retaining the talent they need to meet the overwhelming demands of a surging IT market agree that the best strategy is creating a unique office culture geared to the professional ambitions and personal demands of the employees they want to keep satisfied.

Empowering employees, offering them diverse training and professional variety in an engaging and supportive environment can counter the lure of more money for an in-house position.

It is a crucial strategy at a time when so many businesses are ready to again invest in capital intensive network infrastructure projects that will take advantage of cheaper equipment, cloud computing capabilities and an increased awareness around cyber security, said Kazmierczak.

Before Techcess CEO Hugh Sazegar figured that out, he saw many engineers walk out the door. Some of them have now come back.

Techcess supports some 150 networks, Sazegar said, and employees who left the company soon got frustrated working full-time on only one, never expanding their knowledge beyond that platform.

The returning employees realized at Techcess they could continually diversify their professional knowledge, which would ultimately enable them to achieve more success in their careers.

Cultivating that kind of workplace environment has made all the difference.

“We learned to always keep them on their toes, always challenge them,” Sazegar said.