Data Centers Face Labor Shortages

Digital demand is driving data center construction and acquisition to new heights.

Need proof/? Look at Blackstone Group’s news-making deal to take data center REIT QTS private in an approximate $6.7 billion deal. 

While demand for these properties is great, the supply of workers is a problem, according to JLL. In response, some companies are paying high salaries to poach facilities management staff. 

Duy Tu, facilities engineering and operations manager at Intel, says that this poaching makes it difficult for operations to run smoothly when workers leave. It can take replacements many months or even years to learn the systems that make a data center function.

According to a 2020 survey from the Uptime Institute, half of data center operators said they were currently experiencing difficulties finding candidates for open positions. In 2018, only 38% said that was an issue. By 2025, data centers will need to hire 300,000 more staff by 2025.

The digital transformations during the pandemic have intensified the issue. But the real source of problems is the number of facilities management staff hitting retirement age, according to Bryon Price, global director of Technical Training at JLL.

Further compounding the challenge is that younger workers receive less education in the trades and are less likely to take jobs in the rural areas where hyperscale centers are located. To solve the problem, experts say there needs to be a massive training effort of new workers for high-demand roles, including technicians, analysts of power systems, control specialists and robotics managers.

Still, Price says that not all roles require formal qualifications. But hiring inexperienced workers can lead to mistakes that can take the cloud offline. To limit these issues, the biggest employers are investing in more training and education through internal programs and working with universities and technical schools, according to the Uptime study.

The Uptime report says that more diverse recruiting could help solve the labor problem. Right now, women make up less than 5% of data center staff. However, only one in four data centers have programs to recruit more women.

Augmented reality could provide an innovative option for training.  “I created a customized training program using AR goggles,” Price says. “This allows me to give them hands-on experience without actually bringing them into the facility where their mistakes have greater consequences, and also to guide them within the facility itself. It’s hard to press the wrong button when you have an arrow pointing to your next step—and I can easily draw that arrow live with the person using AR.”