Cultivating home-grown talent

According to the Robert Half results, more firms represented in the survey are, like IT Weapons, looking to grow their own talent, investing more in developing high-potential employees and hiring more at the entry level. Employers are also more willing to help a candidate fit into a certain role rather than wait to find someone who meets all of their hiring criteria.

As CEO of a small, eight-person VAR, Kevin Sena believes his company is especially vulnerable to losing talented technical employees to bigger – and better heeled – companies. Sena says his company, Viperline Solutions of Birmingham, Ala., also prefers to use its size as a recruiting tool, offering the professional learning experience along with a paycheck.

“I’ve got to leverage the cards that I have,” said Sena, who hopes to add two new hires by the middle of 2016 “if we can find the right people.”