THE REVERSE IS TRUE FOR THE DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY , WITH VERY FEW WORKERS COMING INTO THE INDUSTRY AND A MUCH HIGHER CONCENTRATION OF STAFF AROUND THE 14 – 15 YEARS EXPERIENCE MARK .
EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
HOW CAN DATA CENTRE MANAGERS FOSTER AN ENVIRONMENT THAT ENCOURAGES NEW TALENT AND INCENTIVISES PROGRESSION IN THE DATA CENTRE SPACE ?
he data centre industry is
T in danger of succumbing to crippling growing pains if it does not pause to take notice of what lies in front of it and – importantly – act before it is too late .
New data from Rabih Bashroush , Professor of Digital Infrastructure and Director of Enterprise Research Lab , University of East London , shows what is happening in the data centre ’ s labour market . He presented his latest labour market findings at Portman Partner ’ s recent Talent event .
To establish a holistic view of the data centre workforce and trends , Professor Bashroush ’ s research team has taken hundreds of millions of people registered on LinkedIn around the world and filtered the data to see the characteristics of those LinkedIn users who work in the data centre world .
The data shows a cliff edge in as little as five to 10 years – as the challenges of an ageing workforce come home to roost – and this is in stark contrast to the healthy distribution of the workforce across the global economy .
The typical distribution curve of the global workforce shows that the bulk of employees are in the early years of their careers , coming into the workforce to be trained . However , Professor Bashroush ’ s 2020 data set shows that the reverse is true for the data centre industry , with very few workers coming into the industry and a much higher concentration of staff around the 14 – 15 years experience mark and also at 20 years .
The data centre industry is growing significantly faster than the rest of the market in C-level positions ; with a 28 % increase compared to 1 % in the rest of
THE REVERSE IS TRUE FOR THE DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY , WITH VERY FEW WORKERS COMING INTO THE INDUSTRY AND A MUCH HIGHER CONCENTRATION OF STAFF AROUND THE 14 – 15 YEARS EXPERIENCE MARK .
the market . The number of people at the VP level increased by 25 % compared to 4 %, and Director level increased by 37 % compared to a 10 % increase for the rest of the market .
The LinkedIn data also shows that the two company sizes within the data centre industry that have the fastest increase in employees between 2020 and 2023 are organisations with 10,000 employees – with a 24 % increase in three years compared to 18 % in the rest of the market – and start-ups with one to 10 employees , which have seen a 31 % increase compared to 21 % at the rest of the market .
The data also validates the anecdotal trend that it is attracting people from other sectors in significant numbers because it shows the number of people in the industry at senior levels or who have more than 15 years ’ experience appears to be increasing despite low volumes of people with less experience .
In light of this research , we hear from three data centre experts who tell us how the industry can encourage new talent and incentivise progression . www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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