The Mobile Moxy of Millennials

The workforce is aging and many organizations are having trouble recruiting younger talent. By the year 2025, Millennials will make up 75% of the workforce. Creating a familiar and engaging work environment is critical in attracting these young workers.

It’s no question: The proliferation of mobile devices is driving major behavioral changes in the Millennial workforce. In their personal lives, Millennials video chat with friends, find restaurant recommendations, and purchase concert tickets at the touch of a finger. They learn to do almost anything through online videos and readily store and share everything in the cloud.  They expect anytime, anywhere access to anyone or anything.

Meanwhile, Millennials often work in what, in their eyes, appears to be an antiquated cookie-cutter cubicle world of email and desk phones. The information they need to do their jobs is often siloed—trapped in a spider’s web of labyrinthine intranets. And often even the most minor tasks often requires manual, inefficient processes.

When you take all this into consideration, it’s easy to see why attracting millennials has proven challenging. Worse, employee engagement among all workers is at an all-time low – at only 32% in the United States and much lower in many other parts of the world.

That’s a hard pill to swallow: Employees are the heart of your organization and the key to its success. But employees, especially millennials, are not as engaged as they could be in their jobs. For most organizations, employee pay is the second largest operational expense. This lack of engagement is costing roughly one-third of that line item. This comes at a major cost when you consider that 64% of private-sector digital value at stake is tied to people-centric connections. Something must change or many of these organizations will soon lose the most valuable employees to nimble startups with work environments where millennials thrive.

The entire culture of “work” must undergo a radical transformation. It’s time to rethink the workplace model, communications processes, and work cultures. New ways to connect and collaborate, made possible by the digitization of work, enable organizations to build a work culture that attracts, engages, and retains Millennials.

Companies such as Cisco, Nike, American Express, and GlaxoSmithKline have already begun to rethink their entire work environment. They’re casting a strategic and holistic approach to connecting people, spaces, and things. And they’re reaping the benefits of increased employee engagement and work productivity.

What about your organization? Use the comments to let us know how you’re connecting and engaging your workforce.