Mind The Gap!

Current Data Centre Skills Gap

Research shows that the length of time that people stay in jobs is decreasing, people could be looking to move on after 2 years, the biggest factors are often career advancement, work-life balance and company culture.

The website www.peoplemanagement.co.uk found in recent analysis the ‘Two in five workers could leave their workplaces in the next six to 12 months, with the majority citing lack of available career prospects, a survey has found. The poll by Go1, which looked at data from 2,000 workers who have changed jobs at least once in their career, found that 40 per cent of employees were looking to leave their jobs in the next six to 12 months. The most common reason, cited by 60 per cent of employees, was to seek better career prospects. The analysis revealed this turnover could cost the UK economy up to ￡17bn.’?

For the last 10years there has been a regular ‘wringing of hands’ in conference sessions bemoaning the lack of data centre talent within the industry globally. Given the aforementioned statistics do we have a right to be worried??

Of course we do, however, the data center industry is often it’s own worst enemy in scoring own goals. Why is that??

Adverts ask for several years’ worth of industry specific experience, countless qualifications but show no career path from the position advertised to where a person can move on to. Countless rounds of interviews. On top of this are the infamous ‘Non-Disclosure Agreements’ which say you can work here but can’t tell anyone about it. It does make you wonder how the advert got out there in the first place, but are not current employees the best advert for future employees? However, if I can’t tell you about it how will you know? Does this help to foster a toxic environment? This is a problem.?

How to increase the opportunities that address the data center skills shortage?

Look at retaining those that are already here, if people are going to move for career advancement what can be done for them in the organization that they are currently employed by? Can further data center training or educational opportunities be given? As the industry moves very quickly training needs to keep pace with this. The ability to retain staff is vital or the knowledge will walk out of the door, either as part of the impending ‘silver tsunami’ of retiring talent or people moving onto other opportunities as noted above.

How diverse is your organization? Historically this industry has been male dominated, however, with flexible working opportunities will you be able to attract those returning to work from full time parenting to a possible part-time or job-share arrangements. These ones have built up so many skills in managing households, there are life skills learnt there which cannot be taught, but the strategies are very applicable to the workspace.

Consider the latest newsletter from Stella Matutina Karangwa on how Disruptive Minds Reshaping Our World as a really interesting piece of neurodiverse thought-leadership, go subscribe today!

The initiative by Adelle Desouza and the The Rising Star Programme and the DCA with Steve Hone , to bring students to ?Data Centre World London on 6-7 March is one real way to make sure that pre-career people have an immersion into the industry. The work of UTC Heathrow on their Digital Futures Programme should really be applauded. What are YOU doing about introducing the industry to young people? ?

If you are doing NOTHING you should be ashamed of yourself and your organization!

What are YOU doing about International Data Center Day on March 20 2024? Look at the various events that were put on around the world in the 2023 Activities Recap ?

Data Center Apprenticeships

Much is talked about in respect of data center apprenticeships, although the argument maybe around semantics, are these now ‘careerships’? The historic thought of being apprenticed to a craft still pervades the industry and although some will cry that this is just ‘spin’ it shows that this is a career in professional services rather than an ‘on-the-tools’ trade.

Many organizations have felt some of the ramifications of the points mentioned before.

What can be done to help ease this talent shortage?

1.???? Often apprentices were taken on as ‘fixed term or temporary’ employees. This does not give security of tenure or add value to the training being given. Should not apprentices be full-time employees with no ‘expiration date’. This gives security of tenure, the ability to step onto the property ladder and values the training that these ones have had both on the job and at their training establishment.

2.???? The ability to upskill people is important, however, to be able to undertake that journey at your own pace and on the path that you feel is most beneficial to you is vital. Sometimes there are other skills at we need to learn such as public speaking or even TikTok marketing! John Booth MBCS, CDCAP, CDCSP and I have been introduced to TikTok marketing by Laura Allwood and Joshua Au runs his data center TikTok channel.?Data Centre Tiktok

By putting all of this into place, what does this do for people? It creates a sense of belonging. Additionally, there is a ‘stickiness’ factor in this to help with the retention of staff. However, very little of this helps with the knowledge of data centers….or does it.?

Data Center Training & Education – A Call to Action?

Once you create a learning environment, the addition of opportunities becomes easier, and people become motivated to learn. To be able then to showcase the additional learning inside the data centre industry becomes important. Yes, it is not cheap, the risk is that you can lose staff once they have been trained. However, if you bemoan the lack of trained staff and are not training your own, you will become a self-fulfilling prophecy and part of the problem.?

Places like the National Data Centre Academy are to be applauded, in their initiative to create a ‘hands on’ learning environment to give practical experience alongside classroom instruction. As mentioned earlier the work of UTC Heathrow Data Centre training/education and data center apprenticeships (careerships) are all important and we need to make the opportunities available now, if not we are again part of the problem. Organizations need to embrace these facilities and make the best use possible of them.?

What have I done??

In 2023 I won the DCS Data Centre Industry Contribution of the Year Award for my work promoting young talent

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Had an article published by DCD Why you should care about International Data Center Day 2023?

And in December at the https://wwwData Center Dynamics Awards 2023,I along with three other luminaries in the data center industry were called out, as part of the Lifetime Achievement Roll-Call, again, for me, for the work I have been doing promoting the industry.