RECENT RESEARCH IS A CLEAR WARNING THAT IF THE INDUSTRY DOES NOT ACT ON ITS IMPERATIVE TO BUILD A FUTURE TALENT POOL , IT DOESN ’ T HAVE A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE .
EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
MIKE MEYER , MANAGING DIRECTOR , PORTMAN PARTNERS
s an executive search company working with
A digital infrastructure leadership teams and investors , we are relied upon to provide real-time market information and identify emerging trends – our role in the hiring of senior people means that we are seeing this growth first-hand . We know , for example , that we have to look outside of the data centre industry to identify potential candidates with transferable skills .
A big focus of recruitment efforts has historically been recruiting ex-military personnel , who bring with them missioncritical experience . But if we are to safely veer away from the cliff edge , the industry needs to widen the net for other types of career-changers , even those in the early stages of their careers with fewer years of experience .
The industry needs to find more people with transferrable skills and – importantly – it needs to fix the poor visibility of the sector for jobseekers starting out ; we need to help jobseekers find the path to the digital infrastructure industry – something which they may never have heard of before .
Attracting and retaining talent is a widespread problem and worsening . In a 2022 survey carried out by the Uptime Institute , over half ( 53 %) of operators surveyed said that finding qualified candidates for open jobs was difficult – this is up from 47 % who reported this difficulty in 2021 and 38 % in 2018 .
The exponential growth of many businesses is also disrupting employee retention , with 42 % reporting that staff are being hired away by other data centre competitors , compared to a 2018 figure of 17 %.
The challenge is no doubt compounded by the demographic imbalances in the industry , meaning that many potential candidates with the right skills or aptitudes are easily deterred because they do not see enough ‘ likeness ’. On all matters of diversity and inclusion , leaders across the industry need to urgently devise and execute action plans and put their full commitment behind them .
Attracting people from underrepresented groups to build a workforce with more diversity in terms of gender , ethnicity and socio-economic backgrounds , as well as people with cognitive diversity who can offer different problem-solving abilities and new perspectives . For sustainable workforce growth , we need people who can shine a light on the data centre industry , who act
RECENT RESEARCH IS A CLEAR WARNING THAT IF THE INDUSTRY DOES NOT ACT ON ITS IMPERATIVE TO BUILD A FUTURE TALENT POOL , IT DOESN ’ T HAVE A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE .
as role models and leave footprints for more people to find successful careers within our critical industry .
Recent research is a clear warning that if the industry does not act on its imperative to build a future talent pool , it doesn ’ t have a sustainable future . A major pillar in the industry ’ s future success is attracting people with the potential to grow the industry , people with different skills and occupational expertise – people who want to carve out a full career in the industry .
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