When the generation shifts, so too must the workplace. IT executives across the United States are reporting that the recent surge of Millennials in the workplace is reshaping business environments and driving IT departments to adapt their infrastructures.
While approximately one third of respondents from a Randstad Technologies and IDG Research Services study said they have not addressed any issues, the rest of the respondents said they are slowly adapting a plan to address Millennials’ needs. There is a reported massive gap between what this generation wants and expects of internal IT departments and what is actually being offered.
The survey looked to CIOs, CTOs, directors and IT architects to examine perception and plans for changes that will need to be made in response to the generation shift.
HR experts believe this shift is partly due to the way Millennials have grown up. This age group wants the same technology capabilities inside work that they do outside of work. This remains true whether employers look at communication, social media, or cloud storage. Human resources experts also explain these IT shifts are absolutely necessary in order for employers to attract and retain Millennial talent.
The survey found that mobile technology is one of the most essential shifts in supporting Millennials’ needs. Over 75% of IT leaders have witnessed an increase in their organization’s mobile and remote workforce. Seventy percent of the survey’s respondents listed mobility as a technology essential to supporting the Millennial shift.
Other things listed as essential to supporting this shift included communication tools, collaboration tools to address evolving work styles and cloud computing and storage so work can be completed from locations outside of the office.
Upper management absolutely realizes that security management will also have to evolve in order to support these new technologies. Over half of the surveyed population has a plan to increase investments in security management systems over the coming year.
