What data talent wants
Flexibility is Non-Negotiable - what data professionals really want from hybrid working in 2025
In the early days of remote work, flexibility was a perk. In 2025, it’s a dealbreaker.
This year’s State of Data 2025 report makes that crystal clear:
63% of UK data professionals say they would consider leaving their job if hybrid flexibility were reduced.
That’s not a soft preference. That’s a hard line in the sand and a clear signal to employers.
What the Data Says
While most professionals still work between 1–3 days per week in the office, expectations have changed. The hybrid model isn’t just about location anymore, it’s about purpose.
Are team days being used effectively?
Are office requirements tied to collaboration, client-facing needs or development goals, or just legacy thinking?
Is flexibility offered equally, or are policies manager-dependent?
The report reveals that role-based, purpose-driven presence policies are increasingly preferred and organisations embracing these are seeing stronger engagement and retention.
Why flexibility matters in the data industry
Data professionals, especially engineers, analysts and AI specialists, often need:
Long stretches of deep focus
Access to distributed teams and systems
Asynchronous collaboration
Autonomy to solve complex problems
Rigid, in-office mandates interrupt these workflows. Worse, they risk sending a message that trust is conditional and output is measured by visibility, not impact.
The organisations thriving in 2025 are rethinking hybrid presence as part of intentional workplace design, and they’re doing things like:
Scheduling collaborative office days around projects, not policies
Designing workflows that don’t rely on real-time approvals
Offering clarity on “why” in-office time matters for specific roles
And that makes a difference.
The risk of inflexibility
Flexibility isn’t a perk for this talent pool, it’s part of what makes high-performing data teams effective and the data shows companies that ignore this shift risk:
Losing top performers
Slowing delivery
Struggling to hire, especially in candidate-short specialties
Meanwhile, those who embrace role-appropriate hybrid working are better positioned to attract and retain the most in-demand talent.
Next in the blog series: Why poor leadership, not salary, is driving data professionals to leave.
