The pro AV industry is beginning the long recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and they’re looking to 2021 to bring new opportunities to their integration firms.
For many, the beginning of the U.S. vaccination program is a welcome sign. As more people are vaccinated, more and more end users will be able to reopen businesses or operate at full capacity once again, though it may be well into the new year before we see some restrictions eased.
However, integrators aren’t waiting for the “all clear” from the government and local health officials before they scale up.
Instead, they’re beginning to refill sales positions lost to the pandemic, or they’re hiring new positions that will help their business hit the ground running when customers start calling about new conferencing systems to support shifting work habits or new display systems that compel people to leave their homes and go out into the public once again.
The AV sales hiring push
According to Mark Winner, managing partner and director of business development at AV recruiting firm TierPM Workforce Solutions, his company has recently been busy helping companies fill sales positions.
Although the number of infections and deaths continues to rise, there is optimism that the growing availability of a vaccine and a new administration taking over in the U.S. will start making a real dent in the yearlong economic and public health nightmare. Smart businesses are trying to stay one step ahead.
“It’s all about trying to get in front of it and get back out there and get new business,” Winner says. “They want to have the sales force in place and ready to go.”
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Likewise, your customers are probably thinking along the same lines. Workplaces will have to install new conferencing systems that can support a hybrid or remote workforce, and venues and event halls will have to make sure they’re ready to welcome back their customers will up-to-date and cutting edge solutions.
Those positions should be easy to fill, as there continues to be a large pool of AV talent that is currently looking for work after being laid off during the pandemic.
Slow to adopt a hybrid work future
Many pro AV customers learned during the course of 2020 that working remotely can help save them money and hire a more distributing workforce.
Now, many leading companies say they’re doubling down on that strategy going and are adopting a hybrid work strategy that will allow them to hire from a global talent pool.
For now at least – with a lot of skilled pro AV experts looking for work in populated areas – that has yet to translate to integration firms.
According to Winner, companies are still looking to hire people with some proximity to the office, although many employers are offering remote or hybrid opportunities – at least to start.
At the very least, they’re looking for talent – especially AV sales – in their territory.
“They still want them to be closer to the office as far as where they reside,” he says.
Pro AV job seekers, however, are largely under the assumption that these open positions are virtual.
“They’re hiring people virtually to start, but they’re not looking for someone in Alabama when they’re in Pennsylvania,” Winner says. “People out there applying and looking for jobs think this is the new normal, and it’s just not.”