Microsoft partners have long been known as the gold standard for delivering outstanding services and cutting-edge Microsoft technology solutions for businesses. With the drive to digitally transform business operations and work smarter continuing to motivate many organizations, reliance on the expertise of Microsoft partners is set to persist long into the future.
But to provide these high levels of know-how and support to businesses, partners need skilled professionals on their teams—and finding those professionals isn’t always easy.
To entice and retain top Dynamics 365 talent, Microsoft partners must offer competitive packages and an attractive employer brand. In this article, we’ll outline what partners can do to land the best talent in the market, based on the thoughts and opinions of Microsoft professionals.
Hiring: A top challenge for Microsoft partners
According to new data, hiring remains a major challenge for Microsoft partners. As partner organizations look to respond to the growing demand for smart business technology solutions, they need to build out their teams to deliver on client needs.
But the skills gap continues to cause issues, creating fierce competition, inflating salaries, and driving up time-to-hire for partners trying to fill their benches.
The Nigel Frank Careers and Hiring Guide 2024 is the world’s most comprehensive report into the Microsoft ecosystem, featuring insights based on over 146,000 data points and the experiences of over 1,100 Microsoft professionals. In this year’s edition, it’s clear that finding and keeping Dynamics 365 talent is an ongoing challenge for many partners in the industry.
In fact, 57% of hiring managers believe there’s an IT skills gap in the Microsoft Cloud community. This lack of experienced candidates is causing long hiring cycles, with hiring managers stating that it takes, on average, four months and three weeks to find a new Microsoft hire.
And those long hiring cycles are impacting progress; almost half (46%) of hiring managers cited the length of time taken to find talent as the main obstacle to bridging the skills gap in their organization.
With 89% of partners reporting that demand for Dynamics 365 has increased or remained consistent in the last 12 months, what can partners do to source and keep the talent they need to meet customer demand?
Attracting Dynamics 365 talent
Attracting Dynamics 365 talent in a market where supply is struggling to keep up with demand means that Microsoft partners need to develop an informed, and often creative, hiring strategy to land great candidates.
Here are a few steps that partners can take to make their organization as appealing as possible, based on what Microsoft professionals really want from Dynamics 365 roles.
Offer upskilling and development opportunities
Providing the kind of perks and benefits that Dynamics 365 professionals look for when seeking a new role is one of the most impactful ways to attract the interest of potential candidates. One of the things that we know professionals definitely want from their roles is development.
Microsoft partners are well-known for encouraging their teams to continuously build their skills, and that’s a benefit when it comes to hiring new talent. In the aforementioned study, a massive 57% of respondents said skills development and access to training opportunities were the most important factors when considering a role, making it the top thing Microsoft professionals look for when job hunting.
Communicating the training opportunities you offer, and the support employees can tap into to help build their skills, will help position your partner organization as one that prioritizes its people’s professional growth and make you an attractive option for candidates.
Whether it’s fully funded certifications, time off for studying, or access to training courses and industry events, shout about all the ways you invest in employee development every chance you get. Not only will it showcase you as a great potential employer, but sharing your team’s successes will also help existing employees feel appreciated for their achievements.
Invest in employee wellbeing
Although a good compensation package is always a big draw, more respondents cited employee wellbeing initiatives as being important when looking for a new role (39%) than a higher salary (35%).
Investing in the wellbeing of your employees will help attract more potential candidates, as well as reduce turnover of existing team members, instances of poor employee health, and burnout.
Employee wellbeing isn’t just about subsidized gym memberships and bowls of free fruit though. Truly committing to the long-term physical and mental health of your people means offering impactful benefits that make their lives better. Healthcare, time off (and making sure employees can take it regularly), and flexible working options are just some of the things you can and should implement to support employee wellbeing.
Don’t neglect the end user talent pool
If you’re struggling to source candidates from the Microsoft partner community, you might find what you’re looking for in the end user talent pool.
Although the working styles and the soft skills involved can vary between end users and partner organizations, there’s a huge overlap when it comes to the expertise involved. Professionals who’ve worked with Dynamics 365 in a Microsoft customer business can be trained to equip them with the consulting skills they need to work with clients.
And according to research, many are more than willing to take on that kind of training to work for a partner. More than half (59%) of professionals currently working for an end user would consider working for a Microsoft partner—almost three-quarters are motivated by the opportunity to expand their Microsoft skill set.
How to retain the best Dynamics 365 professionals
As any Microsoft partner knows, hiring great Dynamics 365 talent is only half the battle. In a competitive talent market where partners and end users alike are vying for candidates from a limited talent pool, focusing on retention is just as important.
The key to holding onto your best talent is not that dissimilar from the key to attracting them: find out what they really want from their professional lives, and try to provide it.
Offer flexible working options
Offering benefits that professionals in the Microsoft community desire the most is a surefire way to boost employee satisfaction and maintain loyalty.
According to Nigel Frank’s survey, the majority of Microsoft professionals now favor a more flexible model that’s not focused on full-time office-based work. Only 15% say they’d be happy to work from an office full-time, with almost half (45%) preferring hybrid working and 37% stating they’d like to work fully remotely.
Of course, completely home-based working isn’t always possible for a Microsoft partner to offer, but it’s important to note these preferences so you can be versatile where you can and reduce your chances of losing talent to a partner offering more flexible roles.
Create clear career pathways
Since Microsoft professionals care so deeply about growing their skills, it’s not surprising that they also place a lot of importance on professional development.
When professionals were asked what would attract them to a role at a partner organization, 69% cited professional development opportunities. Candidates see the Microsoft partner environment as one where they can grow and advance in their careers, so being able to offer this kind of growth is crucial if you want to keep hold of talent.
Create clear pathways that give employees goals to work towards and lay out the steps they need to take to move their career to the next level. To help them move along these professional pathways, you can take advantage of the resources and benefits offered by the Microsoft Partner Network, such as training, certification, and events. You can also encourage your employees to use Microsoft Learn to access self-paced training.
It’s critical that this theoretical learning is aligned with career goals and practical learning to ensure employees are equipped to take on more advanced roles. Provide opportunities for employees to learn new skills through hands-on experience and mentorship, assign projects that involve different teams and departments to broaden their perspectives and skill sets, and organize internal workshops and seminars led by experts within your organization or external speakers.
Fund employee certifications
Despite the high regard Microsoft certifications are held in, only 54% of professionals are currently certified. But almost half (46%) say that employer funding for certifications would motivate them to earn official accreditations.
Investing in certifications for your employees is a great way to add new skills to your team and show talent that you’re serious about their development; it’s a win-win.
However, paying for certification exams isn’t the only step to take to help employees feel valued and invested in. Employees also need time to be able to study for exams, especially when it comes to the more advanced certifications that will benefit your organization most. When asked about barriers to getting certified, 68% of professionals said the top reason they struggled to earn badges was a lack of time to study due to high workloads. So, make sure you set aside time for team members to study and set them up for success.
Need help accessing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central talent? Consider the ReSKILL program.
If you’re looking for Dynamics 365 Business Central talent ready to make an impact from day one, there is a smarter way to hire.
The ReSKILL program for Business Central allows partners to access untapped talent pools by offering a career transition to individuals with prior industry experience. Developed by Microsoft and its collaborators, the ReSKILL model is an innovative and proven way to access in-demand Business Central Functional Consultants or Developers that’s both impactful and cost-effective.
How it works:
Hire
We recruit talent tailored to your unique requirements or we can help you seamlessly integrate your own new hires.
Train
We equip your new Business Central Functional Consultants or Developers with comprehensive product knowledge, practical skills, and professional consultancy training to help them earn official Microsoft certifications.
Coach
We continue to elevate your new hires’ success with individual coaching and consistent community activities to refine their skills and boost retention.
The program is also having an impact on the partner community, delivering the next generation of Dynamics talent where they’re needed most. “The people we hired via the program are very eager to learn and were rapidly integrated into our whole team,” said Steven Arrazola de Oñate, CEO, Oxygen Group. “After a few weeks, we involved them in our existing customer projects, and they were already billable after two or three months for at least 50%.”
“We started in late summer last year and found our first employee within two weeks,” said Managing Director at Socitas, Jan Pelloth. “After a few months, they were billable in our projects.”