The research comes from Revolent at a time when women in tech are experiencing a burnout rate of 46% according to Mason Frank International. This prompted Revolent to identify the main policies and practices women in tech want to see most from their employers.

“Burnout is bad for any business of course, with its impact on productivity, but it’s more fundamentally a question of culture, care, and wellbeing,” said Zoë Morris, president of Mason Frank. “Seeing that 46% of female tech professionals have experienced burnout in the last year should give us all cause for concern.”

According to the survey of more than 800 tech professionals across multiple cloud ecosystems, the top three most desired benefits were:

1. Four or more weeks of paid time off
2. Work from home 
3. Financial bonuses

“The rankings for the most sought-after benefits here absolutely make sense. Time away from work is often critical when dealing with the impact of workplace stress. Likewise, the flexibility that remote or hybrid working offers can be a vital component in strategies to prevent burnout,” said Revolent’s Global EDI Strategy Lead Caroline Fox.

Recommended

• BT Wins £350m Contract for Scots Public Sector Connectivity
• Millions of UK Households Missing Out on Cheap Broadband
• Hunter Foundation/ScottishEDGE Pre-Scaler Programme Doubles

According to Fox, another interesting angle to the desired benefits was the financial bonus. She says that while tech work is typically a lucrative field to work in, bonuses ranking third suggests that women in tech ultimately want to be better compensated for their work, time, and energy. 

As it stands, women are being paid up to 26% less than their male counterparts in UK tech startups according to UKTN. This means that women are on average paid 74p for every £1 earned by a man in the industry, the highest unadjusted gender pay gap in Europe. 

In addition to the three desired benefits, another benefit that is highly sought after for retaining tech talent is adequate maternity and paternity leave. A report by Code First Girls shows that women who do leave the tech industry usually do it around the childbearing years, which widens the gender pay gap if proper steps are not taken to retain workers in that stage of life.