Millennials are rapidly becoming a big part of the workforce, which has many companies wondering how the digital workplace needs to adapt. Millennials are projected to make up 36 percent of the U.S. workforce this year and 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025, an article from Forbes reports. So how can companies prepare for this tidal wave of younger, technology-centric workers?
For starters, when redesigning your workplace for millennials, it’s important to remember that collaboration isn’t always planned. Well-designed physical environments are highly flexible, with movable desks to allow people to naturally form teams, develop ideas and work alone when they need some quiet time. The same should hold true in a virtual work environment, where gathering online should come as close as possible to replicating the in-person experience.
Millennials often choose first where they want to live and then look for a job, the article notes. That means many companies need to provide great remote work experiences to attract and retain the best workers. One example provided is the TelePresence room in the Arlington, Va. office of Accenture. The room provides a natural feeling meeting experience for a dispersed workforce using an array of LCD screens and cameras.
Of course, collaboration solutions for remote workers don’t have to be that fancy. For instance, using desktop solutions like Microsoft Lync with presence awareness you’re able to set up groups of people, allowing you to immediately see who’s available for an impromptu online meeting. It’s also important for users to be able to have a bit of privacy in this always-on environment. Using status and location settings users can communicate to the team when they are available and can also hang out the “do not disturb” sign when they are on a deadline. It’s the virtual equivalent of closing your office door. In addition, you can group people according to projects you might be working on, making it easy to keep in touch with team members that you regularly communicate with.
The ultimate objective of the digital workplace is to have everything in the context of what you’re working on. In other words, it’s about the people you need to get in touch with, and the documents and resources necessary to do your job. This makes the unplanned collaboration moments that much more productive.
Source: Forbes, 2014
