Insights for Microsoft end users
Attraction and retention
The best way to make sure you’re offering the kind of package that will make Microsoft professionals want to join your team is to know what candidates are looking for from their dream jobs. What attracts them to a role? What makes them want to leave? And how can Microsoft end users appeal to candidates in other parts of the ecosystem?
In this section, we’ll take a look at what attracts Microsoft professionals to new career opportunities, what kind of perks and benefits they look out for, and how Microsoft customers land the talent they need to help them maximize their tech investment.
What encourages a candidate to take a role?
- A better salary and compensation package than my previous role
- More opportunities for career advancement
- Better work-life balance
- The chance to expand my skill set and experience
- The chance to work on a challenging and/or interesting project
- Better company culture
- A chance to change industry
- Desire for new challenges
- More flexibility in my working hours
- More hybrid or remote flexibility
- The chance to take on a leadership role
A Solution Architect from the United States gave an interesting take on why they chose their employer. “There is a chance for upward progression for my career and an opportunity to mentor regularly.”
Solution Architect, United States
The significance that permanent employees place on workplace benefits is still high, with 87% of these respondents telling us that benefits play an important role in the decision-making process for accepting a role, compared to 88% in our previous findings.
What perks entice a candidate to accept a role?
Are employees looking to change employer?
Over two-fifths (42%) of respondents in permanent roles expect to work for their current employer this time next year, while 36% are actively looking for a new role. A further 7% expect to leave but aren’t currently job hunting, and the remaining 14% are unsure if they will stay or go.
Intent to move employer is higher among those unsatisfied with aspects of their role.
- I plan to stay with my employer
- I am actively looking for a new role
- I expect to leave my employer, but I’m not currently job hunting
- Not sure
- I plan to stay with my employer
- I am actively looking for a new role
- I expect to leave my employer, but I’m not currently job hunting
- Not sure
- I plan to stay with my employer
- I am actively looking for a new role
- I expect to leave my employer, but I’m not currently job hunting
- Not sure
Burnout also has a small impact on individuals’ intention to leave an employer, with 47% who have suffered burnout having some intention to switch, compared to the 40% considering a move that have not experienced burnout.
What motivates an employee to consider a new role?
| A need for new challenges | 25% |
| I want to pursue more interesting/valuable work | 25% |
| To relocate to another country | 23% |
| I'm underutilized in my current role | 22% |
| Lack of leadership and vision | 21% |
| Lack of exposure to latest Microsoft products | 18% |
| To pursue a better work-life balance | 17% |
| I'm underappreciated in my current company | 17% |
| Desire/ability to work remotely | 17% |
How likely are professionals to accept a new role that involves working in the office five days a week?
Among those who are currently offered some level of remote working, 43% are unlikely to accept a role that involves working in the office five days a week.
Takeaways for Microsoft users
With just 42% of Microsoft cloud professionals expecting to be working for their current employer in a year’s time, the data shows that there are plenty of opportunities for businesses to catch the eye of would-be candidates, and expand their Microsoft team in the process.
When it comes to making your business a tempting prospect for those looking for a new role, it’s important to keep in mind that flexibility remains a major motivator for the best talent. Less than half (49%) of Microsoft professionals say they’d be likely to accept a role that was entirely office-based, meaning businesses that can offer flexibility in when and where their employees work will give themselves a competitive advantage over those that don’t.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the challenging economic conditions faced by much of the world today, a higher salary topped the list of factors most likely to cause a professional to search for a new role, with 67% of respondents citing this as their primary motivation. However, a lack of promotional and development opportunities was still a big issue for many of our respondents, indicating that a robust career pathway and support for professional growth remain areas where businesses can mark themselves out as an employer of choice. Promoting career plans and opportunities for professionals to advance within your organization can help businesses appeal to the kind of ambitious, learning-driven professionals that are so valuable to today’s Microsoft customers.
Motivation to move from a partner to an end user
More than half (54%, up from 48% in our previous study) of partner employees would consider working for an end user and cited the following factors that would encourage them to make this move:
| Ability to work remotely | 62% |
| Better work-life balance | 48% |
| Better career progression opportunities | 43% |
| Better benefits | 40% |
| Ownership over a project/system | 38% |
| Possibility to develop skills across different Microsoft products | 38% |
| More stability | 36% |
| Better training and learning opportunities | 33% |
| Consistency | 32% |
| Less stress | 23% |
| Less travel | 17% |
| Other | 4% |
Just as the number of Microsoft professionals considering changing jobs has grown this year, so has the number of partner employees who would consider working for an end user organization. More than half (54%) of Microsoft professionals currently working for a partner said they would make the switch to an end user, with the opportunity to work remotely and a better work-life balance topping the list of motivators.
Clearly, many of those working in a partner environment are looking for a role with more flexibility; one that offers them a chance to find greater equilibrium between their work and personal lives. If end user organizations want to appeal to professionals in the partner space, emphasizing any flexible working options you offer will give you the best chance of attracting those looking for a change.
Partners, on the other hand, can try and mitigate this rise in employees tempted by roles in end user organizations by making efforts to give their professionals what they’re looking for, so they don’t feel they have to look elsewhere in the first place.
Though the ability to better balance work and personal responsibilities though remote work or flexible working models ranked highly on the list of desires for partner employees, the chance to develop in their careers was also a major aspiration. Partners looking to boost retention and hold on to their best talent should focus on offering employees whatever autonomy they can over their working schedules, perhaps accommodating remote work whenever employees aren’t on site with clients. But wherever employees are working, they should know what the next step is for them in their careers within a partner organization—and exactly what’s required to get there.
As partner organizations are often already highly motivated to get employees certified, leaders have a pre-built framework to help ensure there are clear development pathways throughout their teams. Make sure that certification for partner employees isn’t just driven by the needs of the business, but also by the desire to invest in talent and support flourishing, sustainable careers. Reward certification and professional development, and empower employees to grow their skills for their own benefit by giving them clear targets to aim for.
Discover what motivates end user employees to work for a partner organization.
What do employers need to prioritize to maximize employee happiness and retention?
How satisfied are employees?
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colleagues | 77% | 16% | 6% |
| Working hours | 73% | 17% | 10% |
| Work-life balance | 67% | 19% | 14% |
| Company culture | 65% | 22% | 14% |
| Benefits | 62% | 22% | 14% |
| Career progression | 52% | 28% | 20% |
| Training and development | 50% | 27% | 22% |
Colleagues
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 77% | 16% | 6% |
Working hours
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 73% | 17% | 10% |
Work-life balance
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 67% | 19% | 14% |
Company culture
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 65% | 22% | 14% |
Benefits
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 62% | 24% | 14% |
Career progression
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 52% | 28% | 20% |
Training and development
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 50% | 27% | 22% |
How do employees rate their job satisfaction year over year?
Over the past three years, job satisfaction among Microsoft professionals has had its ups and downs. However, our most recent findings indicate a decline compared to our previous results. Will this downward trend persist into the next year? And will current wider economic events have an impact on respondents’ ratings?
The percentage of respondents satisfied with their work-life balance has also dropped to 67%, from 68% in our last study, and more are reporting dissatisfaction with their training and development (22% dissatisfied now compared to 17% in 2023).
2024
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 65% | 23% | 13% |
2023
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 70% | 21% | 10% |
2022
| Satisfied | Neutral | Dissatisfied |
|---|---|---|
| 66% | 22% | 11% |
How can you boost employee satisfaction?
Tracking employee satisfaction is essential not only for maintaining a healthy, productive working environment, but also for acquiring the talent you need in the future.
The best way to increase employee satisfaction (and cut turnover) is to invest in the parts of their working lives that employees are least satisfied with. And according to this year’s survey results, there are a few clear areas that are lacking for Microsoft professionals…
Benefits have dropped down the satisfaction rankings this year, indicating that some employers may be cutting spending on perks and benefits due to tough economic conditions. Benefits are an important part of creating a positive employee experience. A good benefits package can help employees do their best work by taking care of common sources of stress, like healthcare. Even seemingly small perks can improve morale and loyalty by making employees feel valued and appreciated.
Employee frustration with a lack of training and development opportunities is something that comes up over and over in our research. Given how quickly things evolve in the Microsoft cloud space, keeping employee skills up-to-date is crucial if employers want to get maximum value from their tech. But supporting employee growth and giving them new challenges to tackle is just as critical for the long-term success of any organization. Employees will be more productive, more engaged, and more likely to stick around if they feel that their professional development is being taken seriously. Make time for upskilling, offer financial support for certifications, and create internal mentorship schemes that facilitate knowledge-sharing.
On the subject of professional development, employees also want to know that there’s space for them to grow and advance their careers as they learn new skills. Knowing what the next step up in their career is, what they need to do to get there, and what support is available to them along the way helps keep employees motivated and driven. But they have to be able to see the next checkpoint. Career paths through your cloud team should be clearly mapped out, well-communicated, and most importantly, equally achievable to everyone.
How satisfied are employees with their salary?
Half (51%, compared to 62% from our previous survey) of professionals are satisfied with their salary.
The 20% of respondents who are dissatisfied cited the following reasons:
- Considering my skills and experience, I’m earning below the market rate
- My salary is not in line with the industry standard
- Wages have not kept up with inflation
- I’ve taken on more work and responsibility, but my salary hasn’t changed
- I’ve had no pay increases or salary review in over a year
What training and development do Microsoft professionals feel they lack?
Although 22% could not name any training they were missing, there were plenty of areas mentioned specifically by respondents—these are the areas businesses should look into to satiate their employees’ desire to learn new skills:
- Microsoft-specific technical training—including certifications and more exposure to different products in the Microsoft range
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning
- Data science, engineering, and warehousing
- Cloud security
- Leadership or management training
- Project management training or certification
Some respondents would simply like the time within their working week to undertake training.
As we’ve seen throughout this report already, Microsoft professionals want to develop their careers—and not giving them the time, opportunity, or support to do so can result in dissatisfaction and attrition. Offering comprehensive and tailored training and development resources for employees is a win-win situation: businesses get additional skills, loyal employees, and a competitive edge, and professionals feel like they’re constantly growing, and exploring new frontiers that keep them engaged.
Though keeping your team up-to-date in the fast-changing world of Microsoft cloud technology can be challenging, the consequences of neglecting learning and development are destructive and far-reaching. Businesses who want to reduce turnover in their organization and find solutions to the digital skills gap must view L&D as a critical investment in the future of the organization.
Has your organization implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365 or Azure in the last year?
- Yes, they've implemented Microsoft Azure
- Yes, they've implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365
- No
- Not sure
Who supported the organization through the implementation?
Dynamics implementation support
| Microsoft Partner/Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) | 63% |
| In-house employee(s)/internal resources | 47% |
| Independent contractor | 33% |
| Not sure | 6% |
Of those organizations that used in-house employees to implement Dynamics 365, 57% (up from 52% in our last study) also enlisted the help of a Microsoft Partner. Fewer organizations choose to use independent contractors, with 39% seeking help from free agents to support their internal staff; a decline from 48% last year. This indicates a trend of organizations opting to work with trusted, resource-rich CSPs on their Microsoft projects.
Azure implementation support
| In-house employee(s)/internal resources | 56% |
| Microsoft Partner/Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) | 50% |
| Independent contractor | 24% |
| Not sure | 9% |
Of those organizations that used in-house employees to implement Azure, 40% (up from 33% in our last survey) also enlisted the help of a Microsoft Partner. In contrast, 21% (which matches the percentage from our previous findings) sought help from an independent contractor to support their internal staff.
What challenges might you expect when working with a partner?
Expert Insight
David Johnson, Operations Director at 26-time Microsoft Partner of the Year HSO, shares his insights on finding the ideal migration partner.
What to look for in a Microsoft implementation or migration partner
Someone who will provide leadership, aligns with your industry expertise and experience, and has a track record of both digital transformational change and functional and technical knowledge around how the Microsoft solution hangs together.
Some organizations will focus on purely the change side of the journey, without being able to handle the functional implementation technical side. Some people will be coming from a technical angle but won’t necessarily understand the business. Some will have relevant change and implementation experience, but probably not the sector expertise needed to address specific nuances.
So if you can find someone who can provide all of those—the functional and technical expertise, together with the track record within that industry—I think you’re onto a winner.
Visit our blog to hear more from David on where D365 could be headed in the near future
According to partners, what challenges do end users face when migrating to Microsoft products?
Dynamics 365 end user implementation challenges
- Data mapping and migration from legacy system
- Lack of technical knowledge in-house to manage and execute the project
- User adoption, engagement, and training challenges
- Lack of change management processes on the client’s end
- Issues sticking to the project timeline
- Incorrect budgeting of the costs involved
- Confusion over product offerings and expectations around what Microsoft Dynamics 365 can do and its limitations
- Lack of clear project scope—including providing accurate and precise requirements of what they’d like D365 to do
- Difficulties in business process mapping with product features
“The cost is often underestimated, and there is frequently a lack of in-house talent to manage the project.”
Solution Architect, United States
Azure end user implementation challenges
- Skills shortage in-house—including a lack of expertise and knowledge of operating cloud infrastructure
- User adoption challenges
- Lack of data cleansing
- Incorrect estimation of the cost of the project
- Improper scoping of the project
- Security and data privacy issues
- Difficulties in understanding the intricacies of moving from on-prem to the cloud
“To keep costs down, data cleansing should be performed before it’s uploaded—because the project grinds to a halt if resource is not assigned specifically to complete this.”
Technical Support, United Kingdom
Expert Insight
How to avoid the most common Azure implementation challenges—from an Azure expert
Steven’s top tip for Azure implementation success
Governance. Governance. Governance. A cloud solution can never reach its full potential without a well-defined Governance Framework. Some of the most critical components of this framework include monitoring, alerts, RBAC, resource organization, tagging, disaster recovery, and regular assessments and reviews. In most organizations, this concept is captured within a Governance Policy, encompassing a wide array of crucial aspects such as cost management, resource allocation, security measures, compliance protocols, and more. Planning and organizational change management will help ensure that the policy is well-documented, accessible, communicated to the right people at the right time, and properly enforced.
Want to set your Azure implementation up for success? Then read more from Steven in our blog.
Why are organizations choosing to implement Microsoft Cloud?
Reasons for choosing Dynamics 365
68%
41%
Desire to move to the cloud
| Need to increase business responsiveness | 36% |
| Need for global capabilities | 36% |
| Trusted products/services | 36% |
| Ease of implementation | 31% |
| Ease of user adoption/user-friendliness | 29% |
| Ability to integrate with third-party vendors | 36% |
| Variety of products/services | 26% |
| Desire to reduce costs | 25% |
| Post-implementation support offered | 15% |
| Lack of confidence in previous vendor | 12% |
| Not sure | 6% |
| Other | 6% |
Reasons for choosing Azure
60%
The functionality of the product/services
57%
the cloud
| Desire to reduce costs | 41% |
| Trusted products/ services | 41% |
| Ease of implementation | 34% |
| Variety of products/services | 34% |
| Need to increase business responsiveness | 33% |
| Need for global capabilities | 32% |
| Ability to integrate with third-party vendors | 28% |
| Ease of user adoption/user-friendliness | 22% |
| Post-implementation support offered | 16% |
| Lack of confidence in previous vendor | 3% |
| Not sure | 7% |
| Other | 2% |
Top 10 challenges that organizations faced during an implementation
Challenges implementing Dynamics 365
1.
52%
2.
37%
challenges
3.
31%
4.
26%
| 5 | Customization challenges | 26% |
| 6 | Poor project management | 25% |
| 7 | Rescoping of the project/changing needs of the project during implementation | 25% |
| 8 | Lack of stakeholder buy-in | 25% |
| 9 | Lack of appropriate skills available in the market | 23% |
| 10 | Difficulties dealing with partners | 23% |
Challenges implementing Azure
1.
45%
2.
27%
3.
25%
4.
24%
| 5 | The cost of custom integration | 17% |
| 6 | Customization challenges | 16% |
| 7 | The business was not ready for the change | 16% |
| 8 | Rescoping of the project/changing needs of the project during implementation | 15% |
| 9 | Poor project management | 14% |
| 10 | Lack of appropriate skills available in the market | 12% |
Our data suggests there is still a shortage of Microsoft-related skills in the industry, as many organizations encountered difficulties implementing Dynamics 365 and Azure (52% and 45%, respectively) due to a lack of in-house expertise.
Are you struggling to solve your Microsoft skills gaps? Is a lack of cloud knowledge impacting your project?
How long do migrations to Microsoft Cloud take?
Dynamics 365 migration length
Our respondents tell us their migration took, on average, 1 year and 4 months to complete.
| 0-3 months | 3% |
| 4-6 months | 5% |
| 7-9 months | 14% |
| 10-12 months | 35% |
| 13-15 months | 32% |
| 16+ months | 11% |
Azure migration length
Our respondents tell us their migration took, on average, 9 months to complete.
| 0-3 months | 32% |
| 4-6 months | 18% |
| 7-9 months | 12% |
| 10-12 months | 18% |
| 13+ months | 21% |
Microsoft go-live delays
Delays to Dynamics 365
Half (50%) of organizations experienced a delay to their scheduled Dynamics 365 go-live.
How long were these delays?
What factors caused the delay?
| Rescoping of the project/changing needs of the project during implementation | 48% |
| Unforeseen customizations | 46% |
| Poor planning prior to implementation | 42% |
| Lack of skills in-house to manage/work on the project | 30% |
| Issues dealing with partner/consultancy | 28% |
| Staff shortage | 26% |
| Poor project management | 24% |
| Data migration issues | 20% |
| Delay in training staff | 14% |
| Issues with testing | 12% |
| Budget shortage | 10% |
Delays to Azure
Over a fifth (22%) of organizations experienced a delay to their scheduled Azure go-live.
How long were these delays?
What factors caused the delay?
| Staff shortage | 44% |
| Lack of skills in-house to manage/work on the project | 32% |
| Poor planning prior to implementation | 32% |
| Rescoping of the project/changing needs of the project during implementation | 32% |
| Data migration issues | 28% |
| Unforeseen customizations | 24% |
| Issues dealing with partner/consultancy | 20% |
| Poor project management | 16% |
| Issues with testing | 12% |
| Budget shortage | 8% |
| Delay in training staff | 4% |
