Quitting is a natural part of one’s professional path. Sooner or later, and for different reasons, software engineers decide to quit their job and seek a better position elsewhere. But, for business, it is not only about losing an experienced team member. It is about high cost as well — replacing a team member can cost anywhere between 50 and 200 percent of their monthly salary.
To cut costs and not to lose experienced team members, modern businesses need to understand why do software engineers quit and what steps they need to take to increase their retention rate.
Why are software engineers quitting software engineering?
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Lack of recognition
65% of workers say they haven’t received any kind of recognition at work over the last year. Almost the same amount of professionals — 69% — say recognition is one of the top factors that helps them stay with their current employers. At the same time, 52% of employees stay with their job because they feel appreciated and valued.
Tech engineers are quitting large companies, in part, because they do not receive enough recognition and have a lot of responsibilities for their project’s success.
No possibility for growth
Professionals who have the possibility to grow at their job are 15% more engaged in their workplace. The ability to grow is one of the core possibilities when it comes to preventing software engineers from quitting. 94% of professionals say they are more likely to stay with an employer that allows them to grow and develop.
No feeling of impact
Almost every professional wants to feel they are making a difference, both in their company and in their industry. The feeling of futile effort and absence of impact can push tech professionals to quitting software engineering.
When it comes to tech, frequent monotonous tasks and the lack of room for creativity is what kills the feeling of impact and can cause fast burnout.
Communication blocks
Effective communication can increase retention — that is a fact. Bad communication can become the reason tech professionals quit software engineering. The development process should work like a well-oiled machine, which is impossible without streamlined communication.
Tech engineers are quitting large companies because there is no room for inventiveness and creativity
The tech industry is rarely seen as a creative one, which is not exactly true. Staying on with the team and making every solution user-friendly takes creativity and inventiveness, especially when it comes to development and UI/UX design.
75% of workers say their creative potential is not realized to the fullest. 80% of professionals say they are feeling the pressure to be productive rather than creative at work.
Leaving no room for creativity and heavily regulating the software engineers’ work will lead to fast burnouts and high churn within the tech team. With roadblocks along the way, a lot of pros will be prone to quitting software engineering.
No work-life balance
Since the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic, 60% of workers have been saying they have a good work-life balance. At the same time, 43% more remote workers report working overtime than in-office teams do.
Lack of the work-life balance is one of the core reasons why tech exec engineers are quitting companies. Addressing the issue and taking measures to prevent software engineers from getting burnout will help make sure the churn level of software engineers decreases overtime.
The best ways to encourage tech team not to quit software engineering
Establish streamlined communication
No matter the number of software engineers on your team, establishing streamlined communication is not only a must, it is also not as difficult as it might seem. Even when the team is expanded remotely.
For remote tech communication to be effective:
- Establish frequent team and 1-on-1 talks
- Conduct team building events and games online
- Encourage out-of-work communication
- Make sure new hires will not break your company’s culture
These small but very effective steps will help you resolve all communication issues and will help you increase your level of retention in the tech team.
Provide encouraging feedback
Do you think this code is perfect? Like the new design? Your mobile web is becoming more popular thanks to updates? Tell your software engineers!
Tech engineers are quitting large companies because, just like in any other field, they want to be encouraged and receive good feedback from their supervisors and managers. There is no reason to hold on to kind and inspiring words — share them with everyone and see your retention, productivity, and overall quality of work increase.
Ensure work-life balance
Even though developers may have a chaotic schedule — some of them prefer working in irregular hours and can even code at night. It doesn’t mean their entire lives revolve around their work. They still want and have to do whatever they enjoy.
To make sure every software engineer has well-balanced professional and personal lives:
- Monitor everyone’s workload and make sure all tasks are distributed evenly.
- Conduct anonymous satisfaction surveys to find out what your team thinks about the working process.
- Use task-distribution software like Asana or Trello.
- Follow the team’s size and adjust it to the current workload and tasks.
Setting clear schedules, workload, and making sure everyone’s workload is even are the main steps on the way to tech professionals’ work-life balance.
Scale the team as needed
Tech team’s size is never constant. With a growing workload and changes in the industry, tech teams always find themselves in need of new talent and members.
This is the requirement that is tough to satisfy, as tech hiring is usually a massive task for internal HR departments that may not know all the needs of the tech team. Here, an outstaffing partner will make a perfect addition to the hiring team.
A professional talent management services provider will not only dive deep into the project’s tech requirements, but will also help with onboarding, contract and payroll management, and so much more.
Want to scale your tech team and at the same time retain your productivity and corporate culture? Write to us at [email protected], and we will find you the most skilled and suitable tech professionals.
So, why are professionals leaving software engineering?
The answer to why do software engineers quit is quite simple. They want to feel they are making a real impact within the tech industry, they want their effort to be recognized, and they want to have that sweet work-life balance. The lack of all of that is the perfect answer to “Why are developers quitting?”.
FAQ
How many software developers quit?
Developers changing jobs is not that rare. Nearly 7 in 10 software developers quit a stable job. Frustrating tasks, bad team environment, and the lack of the work-life balance often become the reason for programmers to quit.
Do software engineers have a lot of stress?
Even though the tech industry provides the best opportunities, it is often linked to a lot of stress that can become a reason for software engineers to quit coding.
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