1.1 Retention: More Than Just a Paycheck
Turns out, learning and development opportunities is the number one thing keeping data talent happy.
With a significant 60% of organisations reporting that offering learning and development opportunities is an important factor in retaining their data professionals, it's evident that fostering personal and career growth is key to keeping top data talent in the UK.
Following closely behind are flexible work arrangements and clear career paths, showing a growing focus on balancing work and personal life and advancing professionally. However, there’s an interesting paradox at play - the top reasons cited for data professionals leaving their current roles include competitive pay offers elsewhere (46%), better benefits and perks elsewhere (31%), and lack of career growth opportunities (28%).
Surprisingly, only 40% of data employers believe they are currently offering competitive remuneration, revealing a significant gap between the demand for data skills and their financial value.
This discrepancy extends to workplace dynamics, where despite most data professionals (73%) experiencing burnout, only 40% of organisations prioritise managing workloads.
Recognition also ranks low among retention strategies, indicating a missed chance to motivate and adequately value data professionals.
1.2 Retention Realities: Balancing Turnover and Tenure
Although our research shows that the average tenure of a data professional is a respectable 4.5 years, on average, 1 in 5 respondents reported more than five data professionals leaving in the last 12 months, indicating significant turnover challenges for some organisations, and a huge gap in resource.
According to our research, when looking at the typical number of data professionals in a team, this indicates a turnover of just under 20% within data teams annually.
CIO UK states that the average turnover rate in the technology industry is around 13.2%, so a 20% turnover rate is significantly higher than the industry average.
Why is turnover so high in data roles? Our research discovered the top reasons that data professionals are leaving their current roles.
Unsurprisingly, competitive pay and benefits are the top reasons data professionals leave their current roles, with 2 out of 5 citing better pay offers elsewhere and 1 in 3 citing better benefits and perks.
This confirms what we know about the data recruitment market – it’s highly competitive, with companies needing to offer attractive compensation packages to retain top talent.
A Corndel client who leads a data team sees this issue play out first hand:
“In our team, we see not so much turnover challenges, as recruitment challenges. It is difficult to recruit top talent. Our strategies are around development, independence and flexibility - we just cannot offer higher salaries.”
Beyond the paycheck, career growth and development opportunities are also major factors, with 28% citing lack of growth and 23% citing better promotion prospects elsewhere. This indicates data professionals are looking for clear career paths and the ability to advance their skills and responsibilities.
Other significant drivers of turnover include wanting to work with new tools/technologies (25%), seeking more meaningful projects (22%), and workload/stress issues (21%).
Factors like poor diversity, lack of learning opportunities, and unclear company culture play a role for 10-15% of data professionals, suggesting these cultural elements are also important considerations when evaluating job opportunities.
Cite lack of growth as a factor for leaving
Cite better promotion prospects elsewhere as a factor for leaving
The issue of data professionals leaving due to diversity is one which divides opinion – the Data Director at Mitie confirmed:
“Diverse teams are more creative, bringing a broader range of perspectives to help solve challenges and generate fresh ideas, so this is something we’ve really prioritised when building our teams. We know this is also important to our colleagues, so while I’ve never had a team member cite lack of diversity as a reason for moving on, our commitment is to hire colleagues that represent a range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.”
However, another data leader who works with Corndel disagrees:
“In my experience, people are leaving to seek opportunities elsewhere, or because they wanted more money, or were not motivated by our challenges. None of the leavers over the last 5 years have cited diversity as a reason for leaving.”
1.3 Productivity Peaks and Pitfalls: Recovering from Departures
When a key member of your data team leaves, the speed at which your team can recover and regain productivity is crucial. Encouragingly, most respondents (74%) reported a fast recovery time after such departures. This suggests that many organisations have effective measures in place to mitigate productivity loss.
Within this category, the most common response was a fairly fast recovery, indicating that streamlined processes and succession plans play pivotal roles in minimising disruptions.
Reported a fast or accounted-for recovery time after a key team member leaves.
However, the lingering concern is the 25% of respondents who reported slow or no recovery post-departure, signalling serious challenges in maintaining productivity levels. As a data leader, this underscores the importance of not only attracting top talent but also nurturing a resilient team culture equipped to adapt to changes.
This is an issue that rings true for the data team at Mitie:
“Strong data skills are in high demand so the answer to creating a talented and engaged team requires a 360 approach. From creating a culture of empowerment and ownership, to regular recognition, reward and communication, and constantly upskilling through training and development opportunities, we are ensuring all our colleagues feel valued and recognise that Mitie offers the right environment to nurture their long-term careers.”
Data Director, Mitie
