A significant concern looms over the IT sector as a quarter of professionals contemplate leaving their roles in the next six months, which could lead to a staggering financial loss of over 145 billion dollars for US companies, warns a report by Ivanti. The statistics underscore the urgent need for organizations to address the mounting strain on IT experts caused by the transition to hybrid and remote work environments.
Disturbingly, IT professionals are shown to be 1.4 times more likely to disengage and “quietly quit” their jobs compared to other knowledge workers, with only a mere 8% of organizations prioritizing automation to ease the workload burden.
The challenges faced by IT professionals and security experts are highlighted, with a 73% increase in workloads attributed to hybrid or remote work arrangements, resulting in 1 in 4 individuals reporting burnout.
Additionally, 23% note a loss of connection to colleagues, a sentiment shared by just 17% of office workers. The report reveals that IT professionals are 2.5 times more likely to work longer hours while remote, and alarmingly, 31% of those contemplating job departure attribute their decision to suffering mental health. Despite these challenges, a majority (84%) express a desire to continue remote work, albeit to a certain extent.
Jeff Abbott, CEO at Ivanti, stresses the vital role IT teams play in enabling remote work but notes the weighty workload they grapple with. Organizations’ struggle to retain IT talent has longstanding repercussions, affecting productivity and the bottom line. Abbott emphasizes the urgency of embracing automation to alleviate these pressures and foster an environment that retains premier IT professionals, ultimately contributing to a competitive edge. The report underscores that IT talent’s disengagement, “quiet quitting,” and turnover stem not from remote work itself, but from a lack of resources, tools, and support available to them.
The report provides actionable strategies to curb the potential loss of IT talent, including diagnosing work-life pressure points through internal surveys, tracking digital employee experiences to address dissatisfaction, prioritizing automation for repetitive tasks, deploying proactive solutions like AI-driven self-healing systems, and offering flexible work choices to boost recruitment and retention.
Ivanti conducted a comprehensive survey involving 1,800 IT professionals and C-level executives worldwide to gauge the impact of hybrid work models on workloads, emphasizing the imperative for organizations to support and retain high-value IT talent in the evolving landscape of work.
