A new survey suggests IT staff are more likely to leave their employer than non-IT staff. 

Globally, a new survey from Gartner suggests IT workers are more inclined to quit their jobs, with a 10.2 per cent lower “intent to stay” than non-IT employees. IT staff record the lowest intent to stay out of all corporate functions in the survey. 

Additionally, IT employees in Australia and New Zealand reported lower “intent to stay” figures than most other regions. 

The survey conducted late last year has found that only 29.1 per cent of IT workers have high intent to stay with their current employer. The number is much lower in Asia (19.6%), Australia and New Zealand (23.6%), and Latin America (26.9%). However 38.8% of IT workers in Europe said they have high intent to stay.

There appeared to be a generational split in workers’ attachment to their employers, with only 19.9 per cent of IT workers aged 18 to 29 reporting a high likelihood to stay with their current company, compared to 48.1 per cent of those aged 50 to 70 years.

Reasons for staying and leaving have shifted too. 

Compensation had been the main attractor for IT employees in Australia and New Zealand, but that was replaced in late 2021 with ‘work-life balance’ cited as the number one attractor.

“Work-life balance can mean a lot of different things, but for a lot of people a big component is ‘How often I’m being asked to go to an office and therefore how can I balance my family life and my work life?’,” says Graham Waller, an analyst at Gartner. 

“A lot of people are looking not to commute into a big city all the time and would rather live near the beach and surf [for example]. Certainly, progressive organisations are offering within their employee base options to work anywhere.”

Mr Waller says the research also found that if hybrid working was properly implemented, it could improve ‘intent to stay’ by 44 per cent and improve performance by 28 per cent.

 “Most organisations are telling us that when the dust settles [they will be operating] in some form of hybrid work. The key finding from our research is that there’s a huge difference between implementing hybrid well versus poorly,” he said.