IT departments are losing their best developers left and right

IT departments are losing their best developers left and right

IT departments are failing to retain their best developers and are struggling to attract new talent, MuleSoft's latest report suggests.

The integration software company surveyed 600 CIOs and IT decision makers and found that "the big quit" made it difficult for 93% of companies to hire qualified developers. Meanwhile, 86% said that it has become much more difficult to recruit new developers in the last two years.

The Great Quit, also called in some places the Great Departure, is a constant trend in which workers quit their jobs en masse and seek employment elsewhere. The trend was triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

demand exceeds supply

While some developers are leaving for financial reasons, many others are looking for jobs that are less damaging to their mental and physical health and offer greater flexibility when it comes to remote and hybrid work.

In the last two years, developers have had to endure ever-increasing workloads and the stress of digital transformation. Furthermore, they were forced to learn new skills and adapt to new technologies and approaches.

This proved to be quite a challenge, as 76% of organizations said that the cognitive load required to learn their software architecture is so high that developers end up frustrated and unproductive.

To gain the upper hand and ensure they attract the right talent, companies need to embrace automation, the report concludes. Most (70%) already plan for AI, but struggle to manage integrations across multiple cloud platforms, struggle with limited automation of software development, data silos, governance and security, and limited access to light tools.

“Demand for digital solutions was already exceeding supply from software developers before the pandemic, but now it has skyrocketed. The churn caused by the 'big churn' is further widening this gap,” said Matt McLarty, CTO of Global Field and Vice President of MuleSoft's Office of Digital Transformation.

"For organizations to truly digitally transform, they must do two things: first, provide developers with easy-to-use tools that maximize their productivity, and second, provide the rest of the organization's knowledge workers with tools that enable them to participate in creating digital solutions, not just requirements documentation.