'The Big Stay' is emerging as a new trend among young Australian tech professionals, with increased job satisfaction and a softening labour market. In 2023, only 18% of tech professionals aged 20-30 planned to quit their job, a stark decrease from 63% in 2022, according to new a study.

The research conducted by HiBob surveyed 1,000 Australian tech professionals aged 20–30. Comparisons with last year show a significant shift in job satisfaction and intent to stay in current roles - 80% are happy with their work-life balance in 2023, up from 39% in 2022. Additionally, 51% liked their immediate team most about their current workplace in 2023, up from 23% in 2022.

“Even against the backdrop of a softening labour market, young tech professionals are optimistic about the year ahead,” said Damien Andreasen, APJ vice president at HiBob. “This increased job satisfaction, combined with the cooling job market, has created the perfect storm for ‘The Big Stay’ to hit Aussie shores. Employers looking to attract top talent will need to reassess their strategies to ensure they are providing the right incentives — surprisingly, more responsibilities and management opportunities (53%) beat out a better compensation package (52%) as the top reason new opportunities are explored.”

The research also found that 96% of young Aussie tech workers are satisfied or very satisfied in their role, and 74% say their work experience meets or exceeds their expectations. Reasons for job satisfaction include trust to do their job (57%), having necessary resources (53%), good work-life balance (80%), and independence at work (49%).

Despite the trend of remote work, 47% of young tech professionals were required to be in the office five days a week in 2023. While 49% prefer working from the office, 39% favour a work-from-home arrangement.

“This growing preference for office-based work begs the question — is the tide turning on the work-from-home trend for this generation?” said Andreasen. “Not necessarily — greater flexibility is still one of the key reasons employees look elsewhere (40%), but one thing is clear: being in the office with peers and seniors enables people to learn faster through proximity. This has been a critical gap for onboarding, ramping, and training new talent since WFH began.”

HiBob is an HR platform that supports operations across distributed workforces with its HCM 'Bob'. It is used by over 3,500 global businesses and hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide.