Intelligent Data Centres Issue 14 | Page 23

INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY THE DCA investigated all other options. Be sure to investigate what government help there might be, talk to suppliers about deferring payments or come to an agreement about a repayment plan. Whatever it is you do, try and keep those people employed for as long as you can. There are several good reasons for this: it shows good leadership within the industry; that you value and care about your staff; and that you are willing to invest in them long term, despite challenges such as these. itself further down the line. In my role as Chair, I am constantly meeting with colleagues and peers to talk about the difficulty of getting people on board with the right kind of skills. You must question whether you want to add to the problem by getting rid of all those people with great knowledge of your organisation. Of course, you don’t, because when your business improves and starts picking up again you want to be there taking advantage and hit the ground running with all the resources you need when that starting gun is fired. So, hold onto people for as long as you can, get whatever grants you can or loan deferrals there are available because this will subside and you need those people who know what you want to increase your business and succeed. As previously mentioned, it is likely there will be a huge amount of work presenting I hope that you, your family, colleagues and business remain healthy. ◊ Whether it’s the cleaning company, security or plant maintenance in the data centre, it is vital that you understand what they’re doing to maintain the services they provide to you. preparing industry insight, writing articles, blogs and whitepapers or even improving your skills by taking online training courses. It is understandable that lots of plans are currently on hold but there will inevitably come a point where demand will suddenly increase, so the better prepared you are, the more likely you are to benefit. 7) Only make people redundant as a very last resort My final point is a plea not to fire or make people redundant until you absolutely must and until you have seriously www.intelligentdatacentres.com Issue 14 23