The U.S. labor market has been characterized as “low-hire, low-fire” as of late – a stark contrast to the massive turnover, talent shortages and bidding wars during the great resignation four to five years ago.
The most recent overall hiring rate hovers around 3.3%, a drop from the 4.2% averages seen in 2022, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. On a national scale, employers seem to be choosing to retain current staff rather than aggressively expand headcount.
That’s not the case at The Kanata Group, PPAI 100’s No. 55 supplier, which has added and filled nearly a dozen positions, including multiple vice president roles, since 2025.
“We’re fortunate to be in hyper growth mode,” says Joe Huber, senior vice president of sales at The Kanata Group. “We saw the opportunity to bring in a few valuable team members to drive further growth, while adding in other areas of the company to support our sales growth without it being a pain point for our customers.”
Jeff Roberts
CEO, iClick
On a similar hiring spree, iClick, PPAI 100’s No. 38 supplier, added more than 25 roles spanning different levels of the company to improve connections with its distributor partners.
“Our decision to increase staffing was largely driven by the need to build back our sales force after making reductions during the COVID years and then being slow to build it back,” says iClick CEO Jeff Roberts.
In fact, multiple branded merchandise companies reported increasing staffing in their 2026 PPAI 100 submissions. PPAI Media has inquired about the status of the current labor market, what adjustments these firms had to make (if any) to acquire talent and whether they faced any challenges with scaling up their teams.
‘Depth Of The Talent Pool‘
Several branded merch firms claim hiring has been easier over the past year than during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve seen a noticeable increase in both the number of applicants and the depth of the talent pool,” says Katlyn Stechschulte, director of brand identity at Proforma, PPAI 100’s No. 5 distributor, which expanded its support center team following its acquisition of Safeguard in February.
Stechschulte credits Proforma’s remote-first culture as a meaningful advantage, especially as many companies have returned to in-office schedules. “We’re fortunate to attract talented professionals who are not only experts in their fields but also genuinely collaborative people who fit well within our culture,” Stechschulte says.
Katlyn Stechschulte
Director of Brand Identity, Proforma
Meanwhile, Kate Alavez, president of PromoShop, PPAI 100’s No. 22 distributor, says the Los Angeles-based firm has no trouble filling roles with top talent.
“Our recruiting initiative isn’t an accidental byproduct,” says Alavez, a member of the PPAI Board of Directors. “The current program was assembled over many years with intentional work in talent pools while building communities, connecting both virtually and in person and cultivating a pipeline. As a result, our placement rate is consistent – it takes 12.5 days from the day the position goes up to the day we receive a signed offer.”
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But hiring challenges, such as finding quality candidates in office staff and hourly production roles, persist for other companies, including The Kanata Group.
“Our customer-facing positions were all filled from previous relationships formed with individuals when they were with other organizations,” Huber says. “We had a strong idea of who we were looking to add to those roles, thus making it easier to fill sales and account lead roles. Finding the other positions took much longer and remains a challenge, but we’ve been fortunate to have a strong employee network and many strong connections from previous employers.”
Joe Huber
SVP of Sales, The Kanata Group
- Across the board, branded merch firms cited that they sought candidates with industry experience for customer-facing positions.
The U.S. labor market mirrors the international labor market, as demand is lower than 2025 levels across many regions. France (-25%), the U.S. (-23%), and India and the Netherlands (both -22%) have experienced the largest drop in job postings year over year, according to global management consulting agency Bain & Company.
- Global unemployment is projected to remain unchanged at 4.9%, according to the International Labour Organization.
- By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.2% for September, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The hiring market is currently extremely competitive, which has made finding the right people for specific roles significantly more challenging,” says Andre Noordwijk, director of Netherlands-based BeGlobal B.V., PPAI 100’s No. 56 distributor. “Fortunately, our strong reputation in the market has been a major asset in attracting top talent despite these difficulties.”
Sweetening The Pot
To maintain that reputation, BeGlobal has enhanced its benefits and perks, recently launching a traineeship program that includes international experience and specialized sales training.
Additionally, the company has placed a stronger focus on employee engagement, creating a party team and assigning it a budget to organize quarterly bonding activities, Noordwijk says. To celebrate when the company meets a certain target, BeGlobal takes its team on a trip abroad – Lisbon was the destination this year.
Of course, not every firm can afford to take its employees on lavish adventures. But job seekers aren’t expecting that, anyway. Most want excellent compensation and benefits (63%) above all else, followed by work-life balance (49%), flexibility (44%), job security (34%) and advancement opportunities (33%), according to LinkedIn data.
Andre Noordwijk
Director, BeGlobal B.V.
“We regularly benchmark compensation and benefits to ensure our offerings remain competitive in the market,” Alavez says. “We also stay actively engaged in the hiring and talent pipeline through industry networks, recruiting initiatives and career events, which help us understand changing candidate expectations.
“Staying connected and in tune with candidates and employees allows us to keep focused attention on what’s most important for our team members and adjust to increase value-add opportunities whenever possible.”
During its most recent hiring spree, The Kanata Group had to make some adjustments to acquire the most desirable talent. “A few positions required us to go above our set upper limit on compensation to bring on the candidate we knew would be the best fit,” Huber says.
Onboarding Obstacles
IDLine, PPAI 100’s No. 91 supplier, acquired Conquest Bindery – a non-branded merch firm – toward the end of 2025. Because that company’s growth was limited by staffing, IDLine President Patrick Napurski says he took the opportunity to evaluate staffing of both organizations, partnering with Sansom Staffing to build for growth.
“We were able to add a HR professional from Conquest who made the scaling even more efficient,” Napurski says. “Bringing her up to speed on what we do was a hurdle, but it has led to a smoother and an even better experience.”
Getting industry newcomers up to speed is a common challenge for branded merch firms.
Patrick Napurski
President, IDLine
“Being a smaller company, any time we decide to add to our staff, it involves a serious time commitment from our managers,” Huber says. “Time is by far our most precious resource as a team. We set routine huddles with all new team members to make sure we’re providing ample teaching time as well as giving them time to ask their questions.”
Being a mostly remote organization adds another layer of complexity to training and culture-building, according to Jill Rogers, vice president of marketing at iClick. “Bandwidth is tight,” Rogers says. “We intentionally streamlined the team to rebuild it deliberately, so there’s little time to both find the right person and onboard them well.”
Hiring Smarter: Navigating Language Needs And Out-Of-State Rules
Welcoming new team members can be a challenge for large firms as well. Following the Safeguard acquisition, Proforma added more than 140 distributors to its network, which necessitated aligning systems and processes to ensure clear communication and a consistent experience.
“Throughout it all, our priority was maintaining the culture and level of support that define Proforma,” Stechschulte says. “The experience reinforced the importance of staying adaptable, communicating openly and keeping people at the center of every decision. Looking back, it strengthened our organization and positioned both Proforma and our distributor network for continued growth.”
Kate Alavez
President, PromoShop
Scaling up also presented onboarding issues for BeGlobal, whose leadership team realized a more structured approach was needed. As a result, the company developed a comprehensive onboarding program and trained current managers on how to effectively ingratiate new hires into the culture. “Furthermore, our HR department had to evolve by adopting more professional and standardized evaluation processes to manage the growing team,” Noordwijk says.
Meeting everyone’s learning style with the right tools and resources for onboarding has also been a challenge for PromoShop. However, Alavez says the obstacle has prepared leadership to think more broadly about success for every member of a team in a new way.
“Training, learning and development is a moveable feast – not everyone needs the same content, as everyone starts from a different place,” Alavez says. “Without sounding like a Hallmark movie, it’s about establishing some core offerings that are standard, mandatory training, then tailoring the path to ensure we lift each team member by providing support in the areas where it’s needed.”
Before You Decide To Hire
Sometimes, the onboarding challenges are insurmountable and it’s best for all parties involved to part ways with your new hire.
That was the case with a distributor who recently worked with Charlie Rhea, professional EOS implementer at EOS Worldwide, a new PPAI business services member specializing in business operations.
“Instead of immediately blaming recruiting and simply hiring more people, the owner stepped back and looked at the bigger picture,” Rhea says. “Rather than building the structure around the people they already had, the owner began thinking structure first and people second, clarifying the seats, responsibilities, expectations and how established reps could eventually transition relationships and opportunities to the next generation.”
Charlie Rhea
Professional EOS Implementer, EOS Worldwide
Of course, that’s especially important in a merch firm because a salesperson doesn’t operate alone. Every new account creates work for customer service, art, purchasing, production, suppliers, finance and fulfillment.
Rhea urges business leaders to define their future sales structure, get crystal clear about what success looks like in each seat, improve how people are selected and onboarded and then create a thoughtful plan for transferring knowledge and relationships from legacy producers.
“Don’t forget to measure the leading activities that show whether the new model is actually working,” Rhea says. “That’s when hiring stops being about filling an empty chair and becomes part of building a sales organization that is sustainable beyond any one salesperson or the owner.”
