Data centres are the physical foundation of the digital economy. Every transaction, model and message depends on buildings that have to be delivered at speed, to exacting standards, and increasingly in places where the grid, the planning system and the local labour market are all under strain.

Europe is in the middle of the largest build-out the sector has seen. Hyperscale campuses and colocation facilities are rising across the Netherlands, Ireland, the Nordics, Spain and Germany, often on compressed programmes, with mechanical and electrical packages awarded to specialist contractors from several countries at once.

That delivery model creates a workforce that is large, mobile and layered. A single site can hold hundreds of workers across dozens of subcontractors, each with its own employment arrangements, postings, tax positions and documentation. Getting that right is now as critical to the programme as the concrete and the cooling.