There is apparently a high need to keep employees satisfied in their work, according to the CEB study. It found that 70 percent of employees in its survey were dissatisfied with career opportunities at their businesses.

Even so, employees are staying in their roles longer, on average, which limits the breadth of their growth, CEB found. "This lack of movement means they often fail to get the broad range of development opportunities they need in order to perform effectively in more senior roles," the study said. "In response, some employees end up making a bad lateral move" just for the sake of making a career move.

The channel also faces a problem that's tied to societal demographics, according to the IT trade group CompTIA. It believes an "aging" channel will lead to the retirements of about 40 percent of those who work for solution providers over the next decade. "As an industry, a number of steps from aggressive training to mentoring will play an important role in inspiring [millennials] to pursue careers in the channel," CompTIA said in a report it published last year, The Sixth Annual State of the Channel.

Part of the issue with retaining technical employees is to keep them passionate about their work, according to Glidewell, at Adapture.

"In order for them to perform at the highest levels, they need to come to work every day feeling passionate about what they are doing," she said. "So we are very flexible when it comes to giving our technical consultants the space they need to pursue what they are passionate about."