"Contrary to popular rants on blog sites, the quality of management is not an issue and most people surveyed feel that they have a good relationship with their manager.

"Therefore, implementing a challenging work environment should not be an issue."

While "lifestyle" is much-vaunted as a compensation that local employers can offer to counteract higher salaries overseas, the commentary notes: "We would be naive to believe that we can retain talent on the whims of lifestyle."

While there was "consistency about the desire to move overseas across all age groups as well as all income brackets", the desire to shift wasn't as pronounced among non-New Zealand nationals living here who took part in the survey.

Of the survey participants, 89 percent had more than five years' ICT experience, 71 percent were aged 35 or over, 75 percent were tertiary-qualified, while 58 percent of those surveyed earned $100,000 or more per annum.