For many years, finding and keeping competent data center employees has been a major business challenge, according to Dr. Paul Carton, Research Vice President at Uptime Institute in his latest blog post. This issue would still pose serious difficulties for data center managers all over the globe. According to the Uptime Institute’s 2022 Management and Operations Study, data center operators’ top needs are personnel and organization (54%).
In Uptime’s 2022 Global Data Center Study, more than half (53%) of participants say that it is challenging for their companies to locate suitable applicants, up from 47% in the poll from last year and 38% in 2018.
Another problem is staff attrition; 42% of respondents say their company has trouble keeping employees because other companies are hiring them away, up from 17% four years ago. In addition, the bulk of those shifting employment are recruited by rival companies.
Women Still a Minority in Data Center Workforce
Women have historically been underrepresented on data center design and management teams, and this trend hasn’t changed much since Uptime Institute began tracking gender trends in our data center polls in 2018.
With no shift from 2018, more than 75% of owners say they only hire 10% or fewer women. Surprisingly, 20% of respondents – down from 26% in 2018 – still do not have a single female employee on their design or management staff.
Briefly put, the data center industry needs to do much more to take advantage of the latent potential of the female workforce given the rising number of open jobs and the low and stagnant percentage of women employees, according to Dr. Paul Carton.
Artificial Intelligence
Additionally, when the Uptime Institute requested respondents to list the main difficulties they had faced in the previous two years, personnel problems received by far the most responses (at 30%).
They are experiencing a ‘loss of accessible and competent personnel for both technological and organizational duties,’ as one respondent put it. One respondent claims that their company has ‘insufficient amounts of operation and repair employees,’ while another identifies ‘staff attrition and poor training / experience’ as the greatest trouble point for their business.
It’s not yet obvious when or if artificial intelligence (AI) will start to displace data center workers, despite the fact that AI-based components are presently being integrated into data center electricity and ventilation systems.
Only 19% of respondents – down from 29% in 2019 – believe AI will result in a reduction in data center management personnel numbers within the next five years when questioned about the topic. This decline suggests that business standards have been reduced to reflect the powers of AI that will be available soon.
Over half (52%) of respondents anticipate AI will eventually result in fewer employees, but not within the next five years.
Bottom Line: Data Center Hiring is Still a Significant Issue
Uptime Institute forecasts that worldwide labor needs will increase from about 2.0 million full-time equivalents in 2019 to nearly 2.3 million by 2025, according to its most current data center worker projection.
However, managers are finding it harder and harder to cover key data center roles and keep employees in these positions as the demand for skilled workers rises. Furthermore, an increasing number of the present workers in more developed data center marketplaces, like North America and Western Europe, will leave at the same time, leaving data centers with a shortage of both numbers and expertise.
Jobseekers’ low awareness of the data center industry would often negate hiring efforts, but some companies are looking at more efficient methods to draw in and keep talent, such as training and mentorship programs and enhancing their diversity and inclusion initiatives, Dr. Paul Carton concluded in his blog post.
