The time has come. Millennials are on their way to your offices. As previously predicted by The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, this hyper-connected, tech savvy generation is on the rise and will make up 75% of the workforce by 2030.
Usually the first ones to try new technology, 18-to 29-year olds possess some of the most forward-thinking minds. Born into an age where dial-up Internet access and older technologies no longer exist, this generation likes to be connected to the outside world 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In order to attract millennials—and keep them—your enterprise has to be ready for their arrival.
In a recent Wired article, Alastair Mitchell talks about the habits and pet peeves of millennials that organizations should keep in mind:
Having grown up with technology at their fingertips, millennials won’t put up with poor enterprise technology. Rather than being able to communicate, share and work on files and content with everyone involved in a project, they could find themselves working in silos.
Millennials are a generation that will seek to solve problems themselves. If they’re not satisfied with the technology being offered to them, they’ll find something else to use. In order to keep them happy, there needs to be a balance between maintaining security measures and control over corporate data while enabling people to get their jobs done quickly and efficiently. Innovative, enterprise-grade cloud technologies now exist that enable effective communication and collaboration. These tools not only meet the IT department’s strict security requirements, but also the usability demands of millennials.
By providing intuitive and easy to use services to office workers, enterprises avoid the issue of workers purchasing and using alternative technologies under the IT department’s radar, which leaves organizations wide open to the risk of security breaches and data leaks. Although daunting for businesses, deploying tools that encourage open collaboration and idea sharing across and between organizations will be vital for attracting and maintaining the brightest sparks of this generation. This is a set of workers that wants to share their creativity, ideas and knowledge with others, as well as learn from those around them, so knowledge has to flow seamlessly across boundaries.
For more information on attracting millennials to your organization, see the full article on Wired.com.
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