Today’s business communication strategy requires IT decision makers to reconsider how they anticipate workers’ communications requirements. It is no longer adequate to plan for a standard desktop and mobile device solely on job descriptions or work functions. New communication plans must take into account the diverse requirements of a multigenerational workforce that spans from aging baby boomers to the millennial generation born after 1980.
Younger workers drive change in the workforce and expect their work communication tools replicate what they have in their homes. This generation grew up using the PC, Internet, smart phones, and iphones. Today’s younger workers prefer to communicate by texting and tweeting and find these methods much more effective than voice messaging and email.
End users now exert a strong influence over communication purchases and IT managers need to support social network connectivity, diverse smart devices and tablets, as well maintain as an infrastructure for more traditional forms of communications. The growth in telecommuters also influences the type of communication devices that should be accommodated. Many businesses realize major savings, as more workers spend one or more days working from their home office and this trend will continue to grow.
Rather than assign a worker who is in the office only a few days a week a cubicle with a fixed landline phone, consider providing an environment where the employee has a shared workspace that recognizes the employee and dynamically updates the desktop telephone with the user’s profile and assigns preconfigured features, such as presence, conferencing and messaging to the desktop device. When planning for a communication upgrade look at the entire environment and ensure workers have full access to needed features across any device in a secure setting.
This does not mean that there is loss of control over the environment, only that the communication management policies take into consideration the needs of all workers and expand sensibly to accommodate the multigenerational workforce. Additionally, upgrade decisions need to consider future integration with key business applications and ensure they are simple to use. Now is time to change the conversation from how much does it cost per user to how can we make the user more productive and interactive from any place on the globe.
Related articles
- Is Gen Y changing the workplace? (business.financialpost.com)
- The Massive Workforce Shift: Bridging the Gap Between Millennials and Boomers (blogs.cisco.com)
- Generational Turf War (crossroadsconsultingllc.wordpress.com)
