By Joe
Reele, Vice President - Solution Architects at Schneider Electric
The talent
shortage has affected every industry across the globe, as businesses struggle
to fill critical gaps and hire the right skills. The Great Resignation and an
uptick in retirement numbers have crippled the already strained talent pool,
and data center managers are feeling the pressure to maintain their staff.
In fact, studies show that the data center industry will need
to add at least 300,000 skilled workers by 2025 to keep operations running. This
comes at a time when employees are reconsidering their priorities and work-life
balance. Job seekers hold the power as thousands of open positions provide them
with new options to re-negotiate with their employers or transition to a new
role.
Fortunately,
there are a few things that employers can do to retain top talent. By
collecting candidate and employee feedback, organizations can adapt to the
emerging needs of today's workers. To address the talent shortage, there are
five ways that companies can adapt to these new demands:
1.
Attracting up-and-coming talent with
education
In consideration of the aging
workforce and a slew of retirements, it's clear that the future of data centers
rests on the ability to recruit skilled, young talent. To achieve this goal,
the industry needs to make moves to show the next generation the value of a
career in data centers. From IT to OT to trade careers, the data center is an
environment where workers of all backgrounds can thrive. The training and
inspiring of young people through trade school internships, job fairs, and STEM
programs is needed to make it clear to the future generation that data centers
provide fulfilling careers.
2.
Turning attention to transferable skills
As the industry modernizes, new
technologies, like data center automation, call for skills that can transition
into new ways of working. Data center managers can capitalize on this by
adjusting job listings to attract a broader range of candidates or altering job
requirements to accept candidates with less traditional backgrounds.
3.
Bringing DE&I into the picture
The demographic makeup of data center employees skews significantly male
- roughly 95% of data center staff are men. Promoting efforts to entice job
candidates from under-represented populations will widen the talent pool, help
the industry diversify, and cultivate an environment of creativity and innovation.
4.
Redeploying talent with new tools
Certain software and services,
including DCIM software, can increase efficiency within the data center. DCIM
tools and others that introduce monitoring, maintenance, and management
capabilities optimize working environments and can help train data center
systems. With the digital transformation fully underway, taking advantage of these
solutions is essential for recruiting top talent familiar with modern tools.
5.
Relying on partners
Fortunately, data center managers
are not entirely on their own when it comes to managing the talent shortage in
their facilities. Managed Service Providers give data center managers a method
for filling the gaps in their in-house functionality. Partners can operate as
an extension of a business by offering services that the organization does not
already have.
The Employee Experience and the Data Center Talent
Shortage
Data centers underpin the global economy, and as the world
faces a period of transition alongside new sociopolitical challenges, it is
essential that the industry retains talent. Employers can shore up their talent
pools by focusing on improvements to the employee experience. Developing a
strategy that prioritizes worker experiences is key to keeping data centers
staffed, efficient, and secure. Through enhanced education efforts, better
tools, relying on partners, and staying open to new skills and backgrounds, all
stages of the employee lifecycle will be well-supported.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Reele, Vice President, Solution Architects at
Schneider Electric, influences and inspires a large team of highly talented
professionals to provide cutting edge designs, innovative solutions and
operational models for Mission Critical Facilities/Operations. He has an
impressive track record of more than 10 years of hands-on experience in
strategic planning, business unit development and growth, project development,
operations management, and system engineering strategies. Joe provides strong
technical and leadership skills with proven ability to successfully analyze an
organization's critical operational business requirements, identify
deficiencies and potential opportunities, and develop innovative and
cost-effective solutions.