Millennials in the enterprise, part 1: strategies for supporting the new digital workforce

Table of Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Survey methodology
  3. Introduction
  4. Communications expectations
  5. Problem-solving: self, friends, collaboration
  6. Personal technology and anywhere access
  7. IT self-assessment: Are you ready to support Millennials?
  8. Outlook and next steps
  9. Key takeaways
  10. Further Reading
  11. About David Card

1. Summary

A new generation, the Millennials, is gaining a significant presence in today’s digital workplace. These young employees were born in the 1980s and later and were raised with ever-present mobile phones, ubiquitous online access and social media. Some media commentators perceive this generation as a coddled one with high expectations, but when it comes to problem solving Millennials are self-sufficient when they can be and collaborative with one another when they can’t. They’re also highly engaged with technology, and many are interested in learning more.

This report, the first in a two-part series, surveys Millennials about their use of technology at work, with a particular focus on how they communicate and learn and what they expect in regard to technology support. We examined Millennials’ attitudes and behavior regarding communication means and preferences, their approach to solving problems and their mobile and after-hours work habits in an effort to help IT organizations optimize support for this new generation.

We found that Millennials have extremely high expectations for instant response and prefer an uncommon collection of communications channels. They turn to social media for help, perhaps less often than expected, but they use Google’s search engine as a critical tool toward self-sufficiency in problem solving. Unsurprisingly, they’re highly mobile. Many of them also blend work and life, rather than creating the hard lines of separation that one might expect.