The Developer Crisis: Mental Health, Burnout, and Retention

With an estimated 705,000 tech vacancies due to appear across the UK by 2025, the UK clearly has a shortage of talent needed to meet the growing demand for software development. This problem is compounded by inadequate work-life balances caused by excessive unpaid overtime and undue stress levels at work.

Sixty-seven percent of developers have left a job or know someone who has to avoid pressures to minimize deployment errors. Of those who resisted the urge to quit, 28% cited lowered productivity due to excessive stress.

Developers are mentally and emotionally exhausted — almost three-quarters have experienced burnout on the job. This is an affliction that can heavily impact mental health, especially when contending with software’s traditionally long working hours.

If steps aren’t taken to address the mental health of developers at work, burnout will become more common, take effect more quickly, and seriously inhibit the progress of critical projects. Software companies must seriously consider their strategies to win and retain skilled developers while mindful of this growing risk.

Consider Their Mental Health

out of 10 developers state that job satisfaction is the most important factor. Unplanned extra tasks and excessive overtime will have developers looking for the door. Businesses need to make it clear to both existing and new hires that they will do everything they can to respect these boundaries.

Developers encounter constant roadblocks in their work, so time is precious. To help devs maintain a “flow state” (total focus on the task), businesses should consider re-evaluating their calendars to reduce unnecessary meetings. If not implemented, software development frameworks could help dev teams better organize their work and progress through projects faster.

As with any operational change, feedback is critical. If you want to know what developers need to work productively and stress-free, the best way to find out is to ask them, ideally as often as possible. Learning how developers use their time at work can help restructure workflows, identify helpful tools, and shorten lead times by up to 40%.

Forty-seven percent of burned-out devs use self-help tools to track their health, with some stating that exercise and sleep motivate them to work far better than fiddling with their IDE (integrated development environment) does. Self-help apps might help but don’t address the root cause of the problem, which is their day-to-day routine. That said, employer-sponsored mental health provisions as an additional step go a long way — whether via private healthcare schemes or the often-maligned “mental health day,” this kind of support can be highly motivating for devs in their job moves.

Select the Right (and Drop the Wrong) Resources

Offering periodical training, whether on essential work practices or to develop skills that your business might someday need, is an easy way to keep developers progressing and learning new things. By giving developers a chance to develop their knowledge of the latest technologies, businesses can close the skills gap while ensuring their team acquires valuable skills on the job.

When considering training materials such as online courses, consider time frames. Intensive courses or programs can do the opposite of their intended and make devs more likely to quit because they take up too much time and cause more on-the-job stress. If structured learning risks hindering productivity, businesses could consider more flexible resources. However it happens, it is crucial that devs have easy access to what they need to learn new things and bolster their skills in between work priorities.

Additionally, businesses should continually assess the effectiveness of developer tools and resources to help employees work with minimal interruption. Devs are constantly slowed down when searching for information — 44% of them aren’t always sure which system or resource should be used to answer a question. These roadblocks can easily snowball into frustration for developers and deplete their productivity.

Dev teams should be regularly asked to submit feedback on tools to ensure they aren’t burdened by platforms they don’t find useful and to ensure they are shown the complete capabilities of their toolkit to avoid work delays.

Invest in Tech to Alleviate the More Menial Tasks

Developers love what they do. Coding is a hobby and an intellectual pursuit as much as it is work, which is why up to 70% of developers code in their spare time for fun. But for many in-house developers, the majority of their time is spent fixing laborious backend code bugs and hygiene issues, which ultimately leads to boredom and stress. Creating spaces for them to code freely is, therefore, pivotal in allowing them to stay passionate about their work.

By freeing developers from burdensome backend duties, they can stay creative and focus on developing innovative new frontend solutions to improve a customer’s overall experience. This makes brilliant business sense, particularly in the case of e-commerce, where standard feature developments, which would otherwise take up tons of developer resources, can be handled much more efficiently by a tech platform. As a result, developers have the time back to experiment and create exciting new frontend solutions to improve the online experience for customers, which is why they originally signed up for the job.

Employers and employees will lose out if developers aren’t given the right environment, tools, and sufficient time. With talent wars as competitive as they are today, businesses need to meet developers where they’re at and treat them like the valued employees they are.