A study shows that finding and retaining staff is the biggest challenge for data center operators. Women are also rather rare in a data center. Some Belgian operators give evidence of how they deal with the shortages in the labor market.

The Uptime Institute asked more than 600 data center operators about their biggest challenges. 54 percent named “personnel and organization” as the main bottleneck, sustainability in second place (46 percent). After all, 69 percent of the operators state that vacancies cannot be filled.

We listened to some Belgian operators and learned that the issues also play a role in our country. According to Eva De Blander, communications manager at Digital Realty (owner of Interxion), which runs three data centers in Zaventem, the lack of staff is caused by a lack of knowledge about data centers among the general public.

“It’s a misconception that we primarily need IT professionals in data centers, but actually we’re looking for technically trained staff. There is a lot of demand for this on the job market,” says De Blander. In addition to technical profiles, logistics staff, engineers and salespeople are also harder to find, adds LCL’s Valérie Van Roy.

Not just tightening, but also keeping

Staff retention proves almost as challenging as recruitment. In 42 percent of data centers, employees regularly move to competitors and other industries. Van Roy testifies how LCL, which operates five locations in our country, is trying to keep employees on board.

“We have invested a lot of resources in recruiting new employees in recent years in order to let our company grow quickly. Now we are also dedicating ourselves to stabilizing the workforce. Our name and reputation in the industry can help, but we also focus on employer branding and an active training policy,” Van Roy tells our editors.

“Attracting and developing the right talent is critical to the future success of our industry,” says De Blander. “If we don’t have a skilled workforce, we could potentially fall significantly behind and damage our position as the central nervous system of the digital economy. As new technologies continue to evolve and be deployed globally, it’s imperative that we simultaneously work to build an ecosystem of skilled workers who are passionate about building our digital foundations of tomorrow.”

Attracting and developing the right talent is critical to the future success of our industry. If we don’t have a skilled workforce, we could potentially fall behind significantly.

Eva De Blander, Communications Manager Digital Realty

Lack of female staff

The Uptime Institute study also highlights the lack of diversity in data centers. Within the walls of a data center, women seem to be the exception rather than the rule. In just four percent of data centers, women make up half of the workforce. In most data centers, this is between one and ten percent; at twenty percent there are not even female employees to be found.

At Digital Realty, 25 percent of the workforce is women, with LCL doing slightly better at 29 percent, although both companies are said to be in the top 20 percent in the survey. Women generally fill “support roles” such as finance, human resources, communications, marketing and sales. The sought-after technical profiles in Belgium are also usually men. This has to do with the fact that more men simply complete such courses.

“There has been a lot more attention to diversity in recent years,” says Van Roy. “We try to reduce discrimination in the recruitment process as much as possible. For example, names and personal information are omitted from resumes, so only relevant education and experience is selected.”

AI is not (yet) the solution

A third and final part of the study deals with the role of artificial intelligence in data centers. Can AI make a significant contribution to eliminating staff shortages? The operators are only moderately enthusiastic about it. 19 percent think they can fully automate certain functions within five years, but more than half (52 percent) see AI as a solution in more than five years.

Even LCL does not see AI as emergency aid. Van Roy: “One would think that we are ideally placed in the industry to jump on artificial intelligence. But precisely because we provide tailor-made services for customers, there is still a lot of human work behind it. We already automate many back office projects and our customer portal. AI can be a long-term solution, but that’s hard to predict.”