Exclusive: In the office full-time? No thanks, say 86 per cent of tech professionals - CityAM

As restrictions continue to lift and companies prepare to bring employees back to the workplace, many workers don’t want to return to the office full-time.

Technology professionals are no exception. In fact, 86 per cent of them want a work from home arrangement after the pandemic, according to a survey by tech job market platform Hackajob, which shared its findings exclusively with City A.M.

Only 14 per cent of the 1,700 tech professionals surveyed want to go back to a company office full-time, while around one in four would like to work remote permanently.

Sixty per cent are happy to work from the office occasionally and spend the rest of the week working from home.

“Hybrid working is the new deal breaker for tech professionals,” stressed Mark Chaffey, co-founder and CEO of Hackajob.

“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,” Chaffey told City A.M.

He added tech professionals are just as productive when working from home, even more so in fact thanks to fewer distractions and no commute.

Interestingly, the survey reveals that 80 per cent of tech professionals don’t think they will be working for the same company in two years.

This suggests employees care more about job flexibility and gratification than permanent jobs, private healthcare and pensions, Chaffey said.

“For baby boomers and Generation X, it was quite common to stay in the same company for most of their working lives. Today’s working landscape is different, with millennials and Generation Z open to the concept of job hopping,” he continued.

“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, traits that every employer looks for.”

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 per cent) of tech professionals want to be assessed on their skills, 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 per cent of those surveyed feel their current employer’s Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) policy is either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, a deeper dive into the findings shows there is more work to be done.

Nearly a third (32 per cent) of people who do not identify as male rate their company’s D&I policy as either ‘satisfactory’ or ‘poor’.

Looking further into the job titles of the respondents certain specialists are not as happy with their current employers’ approach to diversity and inclusion as their colleagues, according to the survey.