Return to the office full-time? No thanks, say 86% of UK and European tech professionals.
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Hybrid Working
As restrictions continue to lift and organisations prepare to bring employees back to the workplace, a new report from听hackajob听has revealed听that 86%听of technology professionals in the UK and Europe don鈥檛 want to return to the office full-time at all.
Only 14% of the 1,700 tech professionals surveyed want to go back to a company office full-time. Around one in four (26%) would like to work remote permanently, while 60% are happy to work from the office occasionally and spend the rest of the week working from home.
鈥�Hybrid working听is the听new听deal breaker听for tech professionals,鈥澨齭ays听Mark听Chaffey co-founder and CEO听at hackajob, the tech jobs marketplace behind the survey. 鈥淭he past year has allowed for greater flexibility and freedom like never before. Although working from home may not have been the easiest for individuals this past year, tech professionals clearly find the value in not being in the office every day. Employees are feeling more comfortable and happier working from home, having cultivated a work-life balance. They are just as productive when working from home, even more so in fact thanks to fewer distractions and no commute.
鈥淕iving tech professionals the freedom to choose how and where they work is key to attracting the best talent. The office should remain as an option but businesses must remember there is no one size fits all approach for a market where talent moves quickly. They must give employees what they want 鈥� a hybrid working model which provides the best of both worlds.鈥�
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Longevity in the Company
Interestingly, the survey reveals that 80% of tech professionals don鈥檛 think they will be working for the same company in two years. This suggests employees care more about听job flexibility and gratification than permanent jobs, private healthcare and pensions.
Mark adds: 鈥淔or baby boomers and Generation X, it was quite common to stay in the same company for most of their working lives. Today鈥檚 working landscape is different, with听millennials and Generation Z open to the concept of听job hopping. People changing jobs every year or two can be seen by employers as a red flag but, actually, it shows these people are ambitious, adaptable and knowledgeable 鈥� traits that every employer looks for.
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Diversity in the Workplace听
The survey also highlights the need for potential employers to ditch CVs and eliminate the bias that still exists in the hiring process today. More than half (57%) of tech professionals want to be assessed on their skills 鈥� not their CVs or indeed their gender, ethnicity, education, sexuality, disability and socio-economic status. In addition, many say blind interview processes are crucial if organisations are to both hire people based on their potential and commit to creating a diverse and inclusive culture in the workplace.
While 77% of those surveyed feel their current employer鈥檚 Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) policy is either 鈥榞ood鈥� or 鈥榚xcellent鈥�, a deeper dive into the findings shows there is more work to be done. Nearly a third (32%) of people who do not identify as male rate their company鈥檚 D&I policy as either 鈥榮atisfactory鈥� or 鈥榩oor鈥�. Looking further into the job titles of the respondents听certain specialists are not as happy with their current employers鈥� approach to diversity and inclusion as their colleagues. For example, 43% of systems architects 鈥� none of whom identify as male 鈥� rate their employer鈥檚 D&I policy as either satisfactory鈥� or 鈥榩oor鈥�. 30% of devops engineers and 28% of back end engineers feel the same sentiment.
Funding Circle is one organisation that is committed to building an inclusive culture and wants to become the best fintech company to work for in the world. Jatinder Bansal, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Funding Circle, comments: 鈥淒&I is a big part of our focus at Funding Circle. Building a diverse team, in simple terms, is great for business. Creating an inclusive culture is what will help us thrive and go further.听With the help of hackajob鈥檚 platform, we hire engineering talent from so many different backgrounds, enabling us to innovate and keep听building the place where small businesses get the funding they need to succeed.鈥�
