Do tech pros feel valued at their jobs? Most tech pros do, but a resounding number are on the fence or downright unhappy at work. Last week, we queried our tech pro readership to discover if they felt valued. It’s a touchy subject, because value doesn’t always mean pay, but that’s the point: What does value mean to you, and are you feeling appreciated at work? We chose to focus on pay and benefits, since that’s how most of us would define value. (We also covered what would make tech pros quit in a previous survey, leaving more room for a discussion on pay and benefits this time around.) Our survey results show 64 percent of respondents are at least unhappy enough to look for work somewhere else. The slight majority of this crowd (33 percent overall) are happy at work, but want to find something that pays more and has better benefits. 31 percent say their pay “sucks” and the benefits are “laughable.”
Around 11 percent say their benefits packages keep them around (but they wish the pay was better), while 20 percent say they’re “happy enough,” and consider their total pay/perks package to be congruous with what other tech pros in their area are earning. Only five percent of respondents say they’re paid “really well” and the perks they have at work are “excellent.” Our findings can be appreciated several ways. The truest way to look at it is that 64 percent (a full two-thirds!) of employed tech pros are unhappy with their pay and perks package to the point they’re looking to leave their current jobs. Separately, 25 percent say they’re happy with their current job and benefits. We can expand that to 36 percent if we include the crowd that wants better pay, but is happy with their perks. There’s also a huge middle ground. Excluding the percentage of respondents who are either really happy or totally dissatisfied with their pay and perks package, 64 percent are effectively on the fence. This crowd ranges from “happy enough” to “casually looking for a new job.” Tech pros looking for new jobs aren’t alone. Our survey proves a vast majority of those in tech are at least willing to entertain a new job offer or brave the interview process. Recruiters can also glean a lot from this: 75 to 95 percent of tech pros are open to new employment (the 95 percent mark is reached if we include the 20 percent who are “happy enough” at work, a segment not exactly happy enough to tell a recruiter to go away without hearing them out first). Only five percent would be hard to budge from their current desks, and most are ready and willing to find a new job. Our findings also suggest employers have to do better. Nobody’s going to leave their current job if the pay and perks aren’t worth the fuss of transitioning. We know working from home and unlimited time off are attractive to tech pros. Dangling those kinds of incentives could help boost hiring and retention rates.
