New report takes a close look at developer job motivation and frustration — revealing ways to keep developers for the long term

 OutSystems, a global leader in high-performance application development, today released a new developer jobs report identifying the factors that motivate developers to stay with their companies and the frustrations that drive them away. The new report, Developer Engagement Report: Are Your Developers Happy or Halfway Out The Door?, draws on data from 860 developers worldwide, including over 180 from the Asia Pacific region, to identify trends regarding developer satisfaction and retention, and provide best practices for IT leaders to avoid developer burnout and turnover.

“As Asia Pacific becomes a major technology hub, enterprise leaders have started to look beyond hiring talent with relevant expertise to meet their digital transformation and innovation goals. They have recognized the need to turn to innovative digital solutions that will optimize resources, alleviate workloads, and supercharge productivity. In this regard, adopting a digital solution such as low-code development platforms could ease friction, toil, and resource issues that continually test developer motivation and frustration.” said Mark Weaser, Vice President APAC, OutSystems.

The report findings show IT team and C-level executive insights for retaining talented developers, and opportunities to attract new developer talent as competition tightens. Key findings include:

• Developers love their jobs, but retention is a challenge: In India, 54% developers say they love their jobs, compared to the APAC region where 59% of respondents say the same. However, 59% of developers in India said they would be with their current company a year from now (compared to 48% of global developers) — and that percentage falls to 44% (compared to 29% of global developers) when looking two years out.
• Only 19% of developers in India say they are very satisfied with their salary/benefits, compared to 49% of global respondents. Meanwhile, only 16% believe that there are so many opportunities that they could easily get a better position right now.
• In general, developers in APAC seem to love their jobs less than the global average. Despite this, developers in Australia buck the trend, as 76% of Australian developers love their jobs with 81% strongly agreeing that they really like the work they do, the highest among all the countries surveyed. On the other hand, developers in Singapore are much less satisfied with their current situation, with only 15% saying they were satisfied with personal productivity.

Development Techniques Matter – The Impact of Low-Code Solutions

With the significant rise of low-code as a streamlined development technique, the report investigates developers who use low-code as a subset of the larger developer community. Results indicate low-code users – most of whom also use traditional coding languages alongside – experience greater satisfaction around workload, shorter work weeks, more career growth, and fewer other factors that contribute to burnout.

The global data revealed that:

• More than half of low-code developers reported that they were very satisfied with both team productivity (59%) and the quality of tools at their disposal to complete their work (57%). Conversely, less than half of traditional code users reported similar feelings around team productivity (41%) and developer tools (36%).
• More than 71% of low-code users said they were able to stick to the typical 40-hour work week, compared to only 44% of traditional developers. Additionally, 60% of low-code developers indicate they are happy with their salary and benefits, compared to 40% of traditional developers.
• Low-code developers have received an average of 3.5 job promotions at their current company, while traditional developers have been promoted just 2.0 times.