More IT job opportunities in the market, poor career progression prospects within a company, concerns about business performance and redundancies, along with poor work/life balance have been cited as some of the top reasons behind why Australian IT employees quit their jobs.
As competition among IT talent heats up in the market, new Australian research has indicated that there has been an increase in turnover from permanent IT staff voluntarily leaving their post.
According to research by specialist recruitment firm Robert Half, Australian businesses are attributing this employee churn to the booming IT jobs market, placing more pressure on companies to retain and attract the right IT talent.
The research, which involved a survey of 160 CIOs, indicated that 71 per cent of Australian CIOs think voluntary employee turnover has increased over the last three years, particularly within large organisations (83 per cent), followed by medium size companies (77 per cent) and small organisations (52 per cent).
The report also indicated that 31 per cent of employees left after two years or less in the role.
Some of the top five reasons employees left were due to more IT job opportunities in the market (46 per cent); poor career progression prospects within the company (41 per cent); concern of company performance and redundancies (36 per cent); poor work/life balance (34 per cent); and a desire for more diverse career experiences (32 per cent).
“The technology market is booming, creating an abundance of opportunities for talented IT professionals as companies increasingly adopt new technologies that require specialised skill sets to manage them,” Robert Half Australia director, Andrew Morris, said.
“In this market, in-demand IT professionals who are ambitious to explore new career opportunities will seek to move elsewhere – simply because they can.”
In addition to this, Morris said losing top performers can negatively affect a company’s bottom line in many ways, from reduced productivity and staff morale to increased recruitment and training costs, as well as the loss of company knowledge and experience, highlighting the need for companies to have a proactive and well-developed staff retention strategy.
Morris advised that employers can take certain retention measures to reduce staff turnover by listening and addressing their employees’ concerns before they escalate; regular salary benchmarking; providing challenging projects and career progression opportunities as well as employee recognition.
In a recent Digital and Technology Collective Digital Skills and Salary report 2018, digital and technology professionals were earning a median salary of $131,500, about 56 per cent more than the Australian median salary of $84,000.
The median pay for a c-suite salary was about $350,000. About three quarters of employees in the industry earn more than $100,000 per year, with most respondents recognising the need skill-up in order to shift to the next pay bracket.
