Covid-19 Insights: Vaccination is in order

In 2021 swiss made software conducted its swiss developer survey for the third time.Almost 900 people took part, most of them from Switzerland. 

The survey took place from mid-September to mid-October.Thus, the results do not reflect recent developments.  Nevertheless, this should have little impact on the results, as the following results show.

It should hardly come as a surprise that at the time of the survey, 45 percent of the participants stated that they still practically only work from home. Another 18 percent were there most of the time, and only 16 percent had returned to the office entirely. This percentage likely dropped even further in the weeks following the survey.

Developers aren't unhappy with the home office situation either: just under half like it a lot, and another 35 percent appreciate it. Only 4 percent don't like it at all.

New apartment?

The home office wave has also recently been a media topic in terms of the increased space requirements of transplanted employees. As a result, the demand for larger apartments has increased throughout Switzerland. It is therefore interesting to ask whether the developers have moved? This was the case for 17 percent of those surveyed. Almost 80 percent, however, have stayed. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that developers were already enjoying the benefits of home offices more frequently before the pandemic and therefore already live in suitable accommodation. 

This is likely to remain the case, as most companies want to maintain the arrangement even after the end of the pandemic - according to 87 percent of those surveyed. So it's a good thing that the respondents are not yet showing any signs of fatigue with regard to video conferencing: 66 percent can still live with it well or very well. However, 33 percent can imagine more pleasant communication options. However, the proportion of those who are annoyed has only increased by one percent compared with the previous year.

Workload remained consistent, as it did last year. This confirms once again that the IT sector has been relatively unaffected by the crisis.

The answers to the question of whether companies and/or their customers want to increase the proportion of remote work from outside Switzerland are also interesting. Although around 20 percent did not want to or could not comment, the trend among the others is clear: 32 percent said a clear "no" here, and a further 29 percent said "rather no". Only 5 percent are definitely confronted with more outsourcing and for another 14 percent it seems to be at least partly an issue. So it looks like the offshoring pressure will not hit the Swiss developer community massively harder.

Pro Vaccination

The survey participants see the future rather less rosy - only 10 percent think that Corona will disappear within 12 months. Another 27 percent are relatively optimistic, 40 percent cautiously pessimistic. 16 percent said they could practically not imagine the near future without Corona.

The frequently postulated split in society does not seem to exist among developers - at least not with regard to vaccinations. More than 88 percent have already been vaccinated or received their first jab.

Nevertheless, many developers see the pandemic as a strong driver of social change. 20 percent are fully behind this statement (2020: 12 percent), and another 42 percent (2020: 43 percent) are very likely. Only 7 percent (2020: 6 percent) really rule it out, while 30 percent (2020: 36 percent) have doubts. However, these assessments could also be related to the fact that people in IT tend to be "pro-disruption" anyway.