Make way for the new generation
Research from the Uptime Institute reveals that in developed markets in the US and Europe, 25% of data centre staff are over 55 years old.
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This means that within the next decade, a quarter of the workforce will retire – and that’s against a backdrop of needing far more skilled and experienced people to meet current demand growth.
The same research shows that only 18% of the data centre workforce in these regions is under 30. As others have commented, we face not only a skills shortage but a labour shortage. The Uptime Institute’s figures reveal that we’ll struggle to stand still, let alone grow.
The solution sounds simple - attract more people to work in the sector - but the reality is more challenging. Planning can often be short-term, which is understandably focused on fulfilling immediate needs. However, to prosper, the industry needs to think further ahead.
It needs to increase the visibility, desirability, and accessibility of careers in data centres to compete for and attract the best recruits and build the workforce of the future.
Step out of the shadows
Step one is making more people, especially young people, aware of the industry and its opportunities. The digital economy is increasingly THE economy.
People from all walks of life around the world connect and use digital services on a daily basis. Whether it is digitising supply chains for farmers in emerging markets, interacting with eHealth or digital financial platforms, or just consuming entertainment, most people have some contact with digital services.
However, the vast majority do not connect these life-enhancing applications with the critical data centre infrastructure needed to deliver them.
Until recently, ours has been an industry with limited visibility. Collectively, we can do more to raise awareness amongst the general population to build understanding.
This can start early – even at primary school level. Creating excitement around STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) at an early age creates awareness of the relevance of these subjects to the modern world and connects them to the experiences that ‘digital natives’ take for granted.
At STACK, we have created a broad awareness programme tailored to these young children to share essential knowledge and skills whilst enthusing them with immersive data centre visits. It is also important at this early stage to demonstrate the wide range of skills and opportunities available within the sector, and the multiple routes into them.
Values of attraction
Awareness of the industry has grown in recent years, but the focus has often been relatively narrow. To capture interest and engage with younger generations – particularly millennials and Gen Z - it needs to be clearly articulated that the sector offers a host of exciting opportunities for ambitious individuals.
The data centre industry is not alone in this regard. Deloitte’s recent survey of Millennials and Gen Z suggested that prospective employers aligning with an individual’s personal ethics or beliefs is increasingly important to the younger generation. As the industry grows it should proudly and proactively promote the social and ethical policies that protect the environment, create opportunities for the less privileged and play a positive role in the communities around its facilities.
Showing young people that working in the data centre sector is a future-orientated and socially positive step is vital if we are to attract dedicated workers.
Roundtables, technical college partnerships, and internships all help demonstrate the value of data centres, and their staff, to wider communities and economies.
Our recently announced scholarship scheme in the UK is designed specifically to increase social mobility by creating opportunities for young women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to experience and secure roles in our industry.
Make it easy and open
That final aspect of accessibility is crucial. We need to create clear routes into the industry that are available to all. Diversity and inclusion are essential. We want to provide exciting, fulfilling and aspirational careers that reflect the diversity of our communities.
Participation in career fairs at universities, colleges, and associations is a minimum level of engagement – demonstrating to graduates the breadth of roles available to individuals with a whole range of skills and experiences.
We need to make diverse applicants feel comfortable and confident that they will ‘fit in’ and be welcomed. The only way to do that is to use every opportunity to demonstrate diversity across the business.
It is also important to provide easily accessible paths for tradespeople outside of the industry to join us.
Construction workers, welders, electricians and hundreds of other specialists can find reliable, fulfilling, and remunerative work in the sector. By offering on-the-job training and specialist qualifications, we attract experienced workers from outside the sector to help drive our growth.
Gateway to the Future
Much of this is business as usual in other sectors. From banks to the civil service, and from FMCG multinationals to local manufacturers, attracting the next generation of workers through a blend of visibility, desirability, and accessibility is becoming more commonplace.
Organisations within the data centre sector must evolve their own strategies - and STACK is doing exactly that.
We're proud that DE&I, education and community outreach is at the heart of our offering. Building these approaches, best practices, and effective recruitment policies takes time, but must start now.
Our sector is a sector of the future, a career in data centres means working at the heart of the digital economy.
We need to start telling that story to the next generation at every available opportunity to ensure we can meet our potential and allow them to meet theirs.
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