Only a third of computer programmers working at banks think their superiors care about them — a worrying statistic for financial firms already struggling to attract and retain talented technologists.

According to a poll by the salary benchmarking site Emolument.com, just 36% of software developers working for banks believe their bosses put their interests first, compared with 66% of other UK bank staff.

The Emolument survey, which polled more than 1,800 bank employees, additionally found programmers were less likely to say their company contributed to society than the average bank employee.

Russ Shaw, the founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates, said the results were "disappointing, but not surprising". He said people working in technology were often "idealistic and inspired by change" and that banks needed to find a way of appealing to those types of employees.

The figures are a concern for banks, which have attempted to restyle themselves as tech-friendly places of work by introducing, among other things, dress down policies and hackathons — events where computer programmers work together on developing new software.

Andrew White, chief executive of fintech firm FundApps, said many technologists were unhappy because they were working on old-fashioned, legacy technology at banks. “Ten years ago the titans of the industry could pick the best people but now they have legacy technology and nobody wants to work there. It’s a horrible environment to work in,” he said.

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Jamie Khurshid, the CEO of fintech firm Boat Services who has worked at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, added that bank technologists had also come under pressure to "deliver an enormous amount of hardly exciting regulatory [and] mandatory work".

In 2014, JPMorgan revamped its technology and operations hub in Bournemouth in a bid to make it more like a large tech company. It spent almost $50m on the offices, which included colourful breakout lounges to allow staff to work collectively and more collaboratively.

Speaking at a Financial News breakfast briefing earlier this week, Andrea Orcel, the head of UBS's investment bank, spoke about the difficulties of reconciling a tech culture, which is typically very flexible, with the more bureaucratic environment that can exist within a big bank.

He said: "Even for our IT department internally we try to create subsets that sit in the business but sit on the side. Because if we truly put them on the mainstream [of the bank], it’s very difficult, you do not attract the people that want to work in that environment."

David Hesketh, the founder of regulatory technology firm TradingHub, added: "Because of the environment in banks — you can lose millions in seconds — it can be quite stressful. Everyone that is not a trader is a service provider. They get shouted at when something breaks. So of course they don’t feel recognised by their leaders."

To contact the authors of this story with feedback or news, email Becky Pritchard and Yolanda Bobeldijk