News

Technology Distributor Westcon Group Improves Employee Satisfaction and Retention

TARRYTOWN, NY, September 20, 2006 —Westcon Group, Inc., a $2 billion technology distributor with over 1,000 employees worldwide, sent a job-satisfaction survey to all of its employees in the fall of 2004.  It was a challenging time for the distributor, who had just completed a massive European acquisition and was coming to grips with balancing new business opportunities with a growing employee base over several continents.  Tom Dolan, then the newly appointed president and CEO, suspected that improvements could be made to enhance business efficiencies and overall company morale.

The survey, which provided a broad basis of questions across many categories, reported somewhat lackluster results in employee morale and suggested several areas of opportunity for improvement.  Westcon Group worked with all levels of management to identify and put in place the foundations for improvements: two of the key initiatives put in place were management training and improved talent attraction and retention practices. Since the survey was initiated in September, 2004, Westcon Group has increased its employee satisfaction rate by 20%, while slicing its employee resignation rate nearly in half. 

“Attracting and retaining talented employees is the absolute differentiator in how competitive we can be in the market,” commented David DeLuke, vice president of human resources for Westcon Group.  “In the last couple of years following some corporate soul-searching, we have been able to put together world-class talent retention methodologies that our employees can be proud of.  Our ultimate goal is to create a workplace that is both intellectually stimulating and personally rewarding for each of our employees, no matter what their position in the company.”

In January of 2005, Westcon Group began a worldwide management training initiative, spearheaded by Wilson Learning Group, the internationally renowned training and development firm.  Courses that were made available for employees included “Managing Interpersonal Skills,” “Coaching, Motivation and Delegation,” and many others.  Additionally, Westcon Group strengthened its overall employee benefits package with attractive healthcare and retirement components, put in place competitive variable pay incentives for top performers and increased its “fun-factor” by holding inter-departmental events at local entertainment venues.

“Westcon Group recognizes that its success begins and ends with its employees,” commented Robin Beckhard James, national account manager of Wilson Learning Group, Inc. “The market to attract and retain skilled workers has never been more demanding, in all sectors – not just technology.  No matter what country you are in, this economy demands that companies stay on the proactive side of keeping their employees engaged.  Our coursework helps Westcon stay ahead of the curve with respect to training.”

To learn more about careers at Westcon Group, interested parties should send an email to resumes@westcon.com.

About Westcon Group
Westcon Group, Inc. is a global specialty distributor of networking and communications equipment for leading technology vendors, including Cisco Systems, Inc., Nortel Networks Corporation and Avaya, Inc.  Through its Westcon, Comstor and Voda One divisions, Westcon Group sells products and services to resellers, systems integrators and service providers.  Westcon Group has particular expertise in the convergence of voice, data and video applications and technologies, including voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP, security for networking and communications systems, remote access, Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing and wireless connectivity.  For more information, visit www.westcongroup.com.

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Contacts:    
Jeffrey Touzeau   
Westcon Group, Inc.     
(914) 829-7388   
jtouzeau@westcongroup.com