One of our fastest growing and most valuable industries, the technology sector is a vital source of innovation for all businesses. And in an industry centered on information more than physical products, the most essential resource is people. So measuring employee sentiment is just as important as any sales forecast or market evaluation.

We looked at employee survey responses from 14,439 tech employees in a one-year period between April 1, 2015, and April 1, 2016 in order to see how their workforces are faring. Our questions ranged across all dimensions of employee engagement and retention, measuring how workers feel about their companies, managers, and job satisfaction.
To give the data context, we compared these responses to ones from 8,174 tech employees in the period between April 1, 2014, and April 1, 2015. We also pulled responses from 60,983 employees across all other industries in the 2015–2016 period in order to create a benchmark of general employee sentiments.

 

The most eye-catching and concerning of our findings is how likely employees are to leave their current companies. When asked if they would be at the same company in one year, the tech industry was less likely to say yes than other industries — or the tech industry average from last year.