The data center industry has been hit harder than most by the global skills crisis. Much has been said about the exponential growth in data center demand, and where businesses are more regularly having to stray into Tier II and III markets, finding talent becomes even more difficult. Increasingly, data center operators are turning to previously untapped pools of labor to make up the shortfall, and often this has led to huge successes.

In the latest DCD>Talks episode, Kat Sullivan met up with Don Anderson, senior vice president, of global critical environment (CE) operations at facilities management company, BGIS, to discuss exactly where these untapped labor markets are, what they can bring to the party, and how they can be harnessed to significant effect in the data center industry.

Anderson points out that the vast majority of people don’t fully understand how content appears on their devices, or indeed how and why the internet works at all. “They don't know that it comes out of a building,” he muses, “So we need to get better awareness associated with that.”

With some estimates suggesting there will be 8500 data centers, globally, by 2030, Anderson points out that we need to find labor from somewhere in order to build and provision these facilities. That doesn’t just mean finding data center professionals, it means pivoting skilled labor from the construction, electrical, and engineering sectors.

To this end, BGIS is targeting young people, particularly those at technical colleges, to ensure that they understand what data centers are, and the many opportunities available in the sector. This can encompass creating classroom-based work, or practical on-site visits.

Of course, not everyone wants to go to college, and it’s these young people who can hold the key to staffing data centers, providing that they’re given the information they need to move into the sector. Anderson points to success stories from this approach, citing one at the company’s Chicago base:

“We've got a local community group that we're working with, and getting through to those individuals that don't know about data centers, and starting to work with them, giving them the skills they need to succeed. One such individual that we took on, didn't want to go to college, so we trained him up as a maintenance tech. That individual now travels for us, goes to multiple different data centers, and does a fantastic job.”

For Anderson, the key is attitude and aptitude. If the right candidate shows potential and a keenness to learn, then previous experience is certainly not a prerequisite. The company grows, but so does the individual as they become upskilled further.

College graduates are another rich seam. The secret here is not just to look for electrical and mechanical engineering qualifications, which are the lower-hanging fruit, but to cast the net wider to individuals with other specialisms, where skills are transferrable.

BGIS offers what it calls the “Critical Environment Program,” which exposes trainees to the key standards, processes, and procedures through a structured program.

“For individuals that maybe are coming to school or college that don't have that structure, then that helps put them into a structure, guides them, and gives them the rules to play by, if you will,” adds Anderson who then goes on to point to Military veterans as another great source of skilled labor, not least of all because the armed forces provide a rigid structure, giving a head start to candidates.

“They can see everything is documented, so it's simple for them to go through it. It’s standardized globally for us, so we're able to take an individual if they want to relocate, and move them around, into another environment, same program, same structure – 20 percent can be different based on the client or region, but 80 percent is standardized.”

For Anderson, industry outreach is the key:

“As an industry, we all have to work together and get the message out there, so people are aware of data centers and the trades it needs, and are coming and working towards being a part of them,” before adding, “There is no way we can continue to grow and build data centers with nobody to operate them, because no matter what, things break, and we'll need maintenance, and that needs the right skilled people.”

He believes that this needs to happen as soon as possible because the rate of take-up will need time to ramp up, at a time when the need is already urgent.

“We have to get the message out, get people more knowledgeable on what we do and why it's so important globally, and that'll start to change things. Ask the right questions – what's the biggest misconception they've come across? What is it that they don't quite understand, and what is it that changes that perception?”

At the heart of the solution is demystifying data centers. At which point, we give Anderson the final word:

“I think people don't realize that all the data goes through a building somewhere. They just think of magic. Everybody talks about the cloud, so they think it just magically comes wirelessly to their devices, and don't think about the back end and what is involved.”

To hear the full DCD>Talk click here.