Cisco Systems is continuing its talent initiative to help VARs attract and develop talent, according to Celia Harper-Guerra, senior director for worldwide channels at Cisco. Here’s some background.
For the past 10 months, Cisco has focused on four partner HR efforts: recruit, develop, retain and a partner talent portal. The recruitment effort includes a playbook to guide VARs through recruitment issues. On the development front, two million students have gone through Cisco’s Networking Academy. Now, the company is striving to connect those students with internships and job opportunities within solution provider organizations.
Toward that end, the partner talent portal connects solutions providers with applicants through job fairs, job boards, media ads, Second Life social networking and the Networking Academy.
Roughly 600 applicants worldwide have gone through the portal and are in an interviewing process. However, Cisco is not tracking the hiring rate because that would involve reporting metrics back to the government.
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