A woman and man work together on laptops at night in an office with code on the screens.

Winning the race for talent: building a sustainable future for the data centre workforce

3 min read 19 February 2026 By Laura McKim and Beth Holman, experts in Organisation, People and Change

In today’s data-driven economy, the Data Centre industry stands at the heart of digital transformation. The explosion of AI has put a spotlight on the increased demand for Data Centre capacity. As demand soars and competition intensifies, a race has quietly begun in the background - the race for talent. People leaders are facing an urgent need to recruit, develop, and retain the brightest minds to keep the lights on in a sector that never sleeps. Firms are offering increasingly lucrative packages to attract talent, and while this is an effective short-term solution it is unsustainable, increasing costs and eating into margins. Salary alone is also an increasingly insufficient lever to pull for talent attraction, as employee expectations have shifted to prioritise organisational purpose and a workplace culture that aligns with their own values. All of these factors demonstrate the urgent need for Data Centres to develop a sustainable approach to attracting, developing and retaining the next generation of talent.

The challenge: talent demand and scarcity

The Data Centre industry is experiencing a perfect storm. Demand for skilled professionals – from engineers and technicians to cybersecurity specialists and sustainability experts – far outstrips supply. Traditional talent pipelines are running dry as educational pathways struggle to keep pace with technology advancement ^{[1, 2]}, while experienced professionals are lured away by hyper-competitive packages from rival firms ^[3] and adjacent sectors.

From recent work with clients, we see a disproportionate focus on escalating reward packages as a short-term strategy to secure talent, sharing hallmarks with the tech industry’s unsustainable hiring boom and salary inflation of the early 2020s. We are know this approach is unsustainable and are regularly engaged by clients to develop alternative strategies for attracting, retaining and growing talent such as such as implementing capability acceleration programmes, which prioritise workforce upskilling, or rethinking leadership development to ensure future leaders are equipped to drive long-term growth while fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation.

Without a proactive approach to close the talent gap, delivery of customer focused solutions will be impacted and the growth potential of the sector as a whole limited.

The opportunity: reimagining employee experience as the ultimate differentiator

From our work supporting clients with talent challenges we’ve found that leaders who put employee experience at the heart of their talent strategy are best placed to win the race for talent, by offering a workplace environment that the best performers don’t want to leave.

Infographic

Promoting purpose – Surveys show that employees increasingly prioritise purpose alongside pay, with 52% of jobseekers rejecting job offers when they don’t agree with a company’s purpose ^[4]. The opportunity for data centres here is to articulate the critical role they play in facilitating everything from remote healthcare services to climate-conscious energy solutions. Successfully driving this purpose and organisational strategy down to frontline employees engages the workforce on a deeper level.
Upskilling as a competitive advantage– Creating long-term opportunities for learning, career progression and professional growth which simultaneously fuel organisational growth, while investing in tailored learning pathways to upskill employees develops sought-after capabilities from within ^[5]. With 93% of UK companies citing they have a tech skills gap ^[6], it’s not about finding the right talent, but creating it.
Going beyond compensation – The talent of today values autonomy, flexibility, diversity, and sustainability more than ever, with 80% of UK employees reporting that working flexibly has increased their quality of life ^[7]. Creating adaptive ways of working which distribute accountability amongst empowered employees to enable rapid decision-making as close to the customer as possible enables these values to be embedded into the DNA of the organisation.

The result? Higher engagement, improved retention, and a reputation as an employer of choice – all imperative in a sector where talent is the time-critical competitive advantage.

How Baringa can help

At Baringa, we know that finding and keeping great talent requires a tailored approach. With years of experience partnering with leading organisations in the Data Centre and Technology sectors, we help people leaders unlock their workforce potential, building cultures where people – and businesses – thrive through:

Infographic

In a market where the competition for talent is only set to intensify, now is the time to act. By reimagining the employee experience, data centres can not only attract and retain the best talent but also build adaptive teams needed to connect the future.