Explore the Agenda
8:30 am Registration & Networking
9:00 am What it Takes to Make a LEAP a Reality
9:10 am Chair’s Opening Remarks
Operationalizing Workforce Scale in Mission‑Critical Environments
9:20 am Panel Discussion: Building Capability at Scale: Developing Data Center Talent Without Compromising Reliability or Uptime
- As data center footprints expand rapidly, which development and enablement strategies are proving most effective in accelerating time to productivity for new roles, sites, and teams?
- How are people teams designing repeatable, scalable development models that work across multiple locations, partners, and operating environments, rather than site‑by‑site solutions?
- What workforce design choices around skills mix, leadership coverage, shift structures, and handovers are most critical to protecting safety, reliability, and uptime as programs grow?
10:20 am Action: How Are You Going to Protect Reliability & Uptime While Scaling Data Center Capability?
- Where do we need to make clearer calls on what must be standardized (roles, readiness, handovers) versus where local flexibility actually adds value?
- What is one capability or enablement gap that, if left unaddressed, poses the greatest risk to reliability or safety as our footprint grows?
- How can people teams better embed capability building into workforce design decisions – skills mix, leadership coverage, and shifts – rather than treating development as a follow‑on activity?
10:40 am Speed Networking Break
Turning Hiring Scale into Deliverable Capacity
11:30 am Discover: From Hiring Volume to On‑Site Productivity: How RK Industries is Using Workforce Planning & TA Enablement to Scale Data Center Construction
- Rebuilding talent acquisition for data center construction scale by redesigning TA strategy, processes, and technology to support modular, electrical, and fabrication work, including hiring over 300 data center construction employees in one year and building a recruitment engine capable of supporting thousands of future hires across multiple states
- Turning workforce planning into real build capacity by shifting from reactive hiring to forward‑looking demand planning, addressing a skilled‑trades shortfall of more than 300,000 workers and setting clear targets across time‑to‑hire, attrition, net‑new growth, and internal mobility to ensure hiring volume translates into delivery capability on site
- Accelerating speed to productivity on data center builds by driving toward benchmarks such as sub‑25‑day time‑to‑hire, over 20% internal mobility, and clearer recruiting cycles, while strengthening frontline manager capability and educating project and business leaders on realistic talent trade‑offs that support sustainable construction growth
11:50 am Discover: Scaling Data Center Hiring Without Compromising Speed, Quality, or Operational Readiness
- How leading data center owners, operators, and critical infrastructure partners are scaling hiring at pace to support rapid site expansion, new builds, and operational growth while maintaining role fit, readiness, and workforce stability in high‑pressure, mission‑critical environments
- Inside AMS’s work supporting data center organizations to move beyond reactive hiring, designing repeatable talent acquisition models that flex with demand, improve forecasting accuracy, and reduce friction between TA, HR, and site leadership as headcount scales across locations
- Lessons learned from enabling workforce scale without treating talent acquisition as a volume exercise alone, including what HR leaders must get right around workforce planning, hiring timelines, skills alignment, and partnership with operations to ensure hiring success translates into on‑site productivity and reliability
12:10 pm Develop: What Separates Organizations That Convert Hiring Momentum into Real On‑Site Output from Those That Don’t?
This interactive Q&A explores the critical handoffs between talent acquisition, workforce planning, and operations that determine whether hiring activity results in delivery capacity. The discussion examines how organizations are aligning demand planning, hiring timelines, and manager accountability to avoid the common failure points where volume increases but performance, safety, or schedules suffer. Leaders will compare approaches to coordinating TA and operations, so workforce growth is absorbed predictably rather than creating downstream disruption.
12:30 pm Action: What Will You Change to Ensure Hiring Activity Translates into On‑Site Performance?
- Where are disconnects between TA plans and operational reality most likely to undermine delivery today?
- What information must be clearer or shared earlier between workforce planning, TA, and site leaders to prevent downstream rework or delays?
- How can hiring targets, time‑to‑hire metrics, and productivity expectations be better aligned so success is measured in delivery outcomes, not volume alone?
12:50 pm Networking Lunch
Reducing Regretted Attrition in High‑Pressure, Hyperscale Environments
1:50 pm Discover: Fixing Career Visibility at Hyperscale: How Vantage Data Centers is Using Workforce Development to Improve Retention & Build Long Term Capability
- Diagnosing career development as the primary driver of regretted attrition by analyzing exit data and identifying that 42% of employees leaving Vantage cited lack of career growth, creating a material risk to workforce stability as data center operations expanded rapidly
- Introducing simple, structured development plans across data center roles to restore visibility and confidence in progression, contributing to a reduction to around 2% of exits citing career development as a reason for leaving, without over engineering programs or adding operational drag
- Positioning workforce development as a core lever for sustainable growth by treating career pathing and development clarity as foundational infrastructure alongside hiring, while longer term workforce development strategy continues to mature in parallel with hyperscale expansion
2:10 pm Discover: How Clayco Is Building Culture & Psychological Safety at Hyperscale to Sustain Safety, Trust, & Performance on Data Center Builds Scaling to 5,000+ Workers
- Establishing a strong, consistent job‑site culture on hyperscale data center builds, ensuring expectations, behaviors, and values hold firm as sites rapidly scale from hundreds to thousands of workers drawn from multiple markets under intense delivery pressure
- Embedding psychological safety in high‑hazard, high‑stress environments by equipping leaders to address fatigue, mental health strain, and trust on sites characterized by long hours, separation from family, and mission‑critical risk
- Extending culture leadership into the field through a SWOT team model, deploying HR, safety, and culture leaders directly on site to reinforce behaviors, intervene early, and support frontline teams before risks escalate into incidents
2:30 pm Develop: What Are the Most Effective Ways to Prevent Regretted Attrition as Growth & Pressure Intensify?
This interactive Q&A explores how organizations are reducing avoidable exits during periods of rapid expansion by addressing the conditions that most often drive people to leave. The discussion examines how clarity, consistency, and leadership presence influence whether employees stay engaged and committed under sustained pressure, and how retention outcomes improve when these factors are treated as part of the operating environment rather than standalone HR initiatives. Participants will compare how different organizations are identifying early warning signs and intervening before disengagement turns into attrition.
2:50 pm Action: What Will You Change to Reduce Regretted Attrition During Periods of Rapid Growth?
- Where are the most preventable sources of attrition showing up today: unclear progression, inconsistent expectations, leadership absence, fatigue, or sustained pressure, and which poses the greatest immediate risk?
- What is one practical intervention you can introduce to increase confidence, support, and continuity for employees during high‑pressure phases of growth?
- How will you ensure leaders are visible and accountable in the moments that most influence retention, rather than relying on programs that run alongside operations?
3:10 pm Networking Break
Redesigning Workforce Models for Multi‑Site, Mission‑Critical Delivery
3:40 pm Panel Discussion: Staffing the Hyperscale Shift: How Data Center Builds Are Forcing a Rethink of Hiring & Mobility
- What breaks when workforce models designed for regional, community-based construction are applied to hyperscale, multi-site data center programs?
- How are contractors adapting hiring profiles, deployment strategies, and workforce planning to support highly mobile, mission-critical talent in ways they haven’t had to before?
- As contractors and owner operators increasingly compete for the same scarce talent, where do their people challenges converge, and what can each side learn from the other?
4:40 pm Action: What Will You Change to Make Your Workforce Model Fit for Hyperscale Delivery?
- Where are legacy assumptions about location, tenure, or workforce stability most misaligned with today’s multi‑site data center programs?
- What decisions need to be made now about deployment, rotation, or workforce segmentation to avoid over‑reliance on a shrinking pool of mobile talent?
- How can owners and contractors better coordinate workforce planning so competition for the same people does not undermine delivery or long‑term retention?