One of the most pressing issues facing Data Centre management today is ready access to qualified staff. The 2015 Uptime Institute Industry Survey suggested that staffing was one of the three most pressing matters that kept senior executives awake at night; a raft of other sources suggest similar difficulties.
Whilst data centres are not alone in facing skills and labour shortages, there is limited current and robust intelligence as to why this is so and, more importantly, how the sector can go about resolving the issue for the short and long term.
To address this, Cassini Reviews and Dr Terri Simpkin, Anglia Ruskin University, are embarking on a wide ranging programme of research to determine current issues and barriers to a resolution of labour market supply problems. The research is designed to map skills and labour shortages, to investigate the effectiveness of current means of addressing mismatches of skills and to inform sector wide approaches to achieve more effective responses to labour market difficulties.
Work such as this needs input from those active across all areas of the sector in all jurisdictions. Most particularly, the research team would like to hear from human resources managers and general managers with a staffing responsibility. There’s no more effort beyond a telephone conversation with a researcher and you’ll have access to the findings once compiled. A broader programme of investigation will follow to examine specific issues in more depth.
You are urged to express your interest in this important piece of work to ensure that a robust examination of current and potential issues is made. Please contact Paul or Puni in the first instance to explore next steps.