Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Millennials’ Use of Tech in the Workplace: Challenge and Opportunity

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You may have noticed some chatter lately about the influence of so-called Millennials on workplace tools and technologies. People that grew up using the Internet naturally want to use technologies that mimic the usability they’ve grown accustomed to from the web. While businesses try to figure out how new tools can fit into their processes, Millennials are making their own decisions about the technologies they want to use, without IT approval.

A report released yesterday by Accenture throws some compelling data behind this trend, based on a survey of 5,595 Millennials across 13 countries. Here’s a quick recap of highlights:

* Globally, about one-half of Millennials have accessed online collaborative tools, online applications, and open-source technologies when their company’s offerings were absent or lacking

* A staggering 60% of Millennials surveyed don’t abide by corporate IT policies, often because they’re unaware of their existence or find them too complicated and restrictive

* When considering potential employers, 52% of Millennials said that technology featured most prominently in their decision making

These numbers might seem alarming to IT managers, but Accenture thinks the shift presents an opportunity where everyone can win. While change can be disruptive, it also presents a chance for businesses to rethink current IT policies and adopt new technologies that will ultimately empower workers and enhance productivity.

But what about security concerns? Accenture advises that “it’s fruitless to assume that any given restrictive policy will be followed.” But an ad hoc, choose-your-own-technology approach is clearly not the solution. Rather, IT leaders should look for flexible, user-friendly business applications that meet the expectations of today’s knowledge workers and give them the tools they need to succeed. Employees will inevitably go around cumbersome platforms, but when web-based tools make it easy to share and collaborate, people will actually use them, thereby staying within IT’s visibility.

Ultimately, we think ease-of-use is good for everyone, especially IT. Solutions that are deployed and adopted by everyone maximize the visibility and tracking that IT departments want to have. While the expectations and demands of today’s workers are indeed evolving, we believe this can be a force for good.

How do you see tech savvy workers driving change in your organization? Comment here or tweet @boxdotnet.

Post by Ashley Mayer, Community Manager

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