Are companies ready for their tech savvy Generation Y employees?
Never before have organisations needed to adapt themselves to their future employees quite like they do now. New technology trends and innovation have changed the learning spectrum to such an extent that in order to employ the next generation, Generation Y, organisations need to relook their own technology and software adaptability in order to accommodate this new tech savvy generation.
Over the years businesses and employees alike have had to adopt, and adapt, to the ever evolving technology landscape. This is sometimes done with a certain amount of resentment where staff and systems have been entrenched over a period of years. It is, however, evident that each new generation adapt to these new technology trends with greater ease making company transitions and change management a far simpler excercise.
Generation Y’ers, for example, have grown up with social media and are therefore far more attracted to social learning than the previous generation.
This group actively seek social context to help them make decisions and to learn how to solve specific problems. These tech savvy youngsters may also not be interested in traditional benefits and prefer access to learning and training at a time that’s convenient, rather than having to be at a certain place at a certain time. Of course this need is not exclusive to the Generation Y audience, but it is certainly more prevalent amongst them.
That said, it is not surprising that innovations in technology have, and are, changing the way HR approaches learning. The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture and social media have completely redefined the learning landscape and more and more organisations are responding to these trends by offering their employees more flexible ways to learn. Mobile and social learning in particular are two of the hottest learning technology trends gaining prominence.
Social learning has become a big hit for businesses and enables HR to leverage both internal and external expertise. It enables informal learning by giving employees the opportunity to collaborate and share knowledge on any topic, provide a richer learning experience, and improve knowledge retention.
Social learning is not actually a new concept. Albert Bandura came up with it in the late 70s. He claimed that people learn in a social context by observing, modelling and then being rewarded. For example, I watch somebody doing something. I like it, I try it, get rewarded and I repeat it. It is this concept that drives social learning. People more readily get to see what others are doing and, if they have the opportunity to model it successfully, will probably repeat the learnt behaviour.
Another point to consider is the fact that mobile workers are always on the hunt for new information and that they use their mobile devices to get quick answers when they need an immediate answer. We need to realise that the mobile worker is always connected, in fact, research shows that this ‘linked in’ attitude can mean that mobile workers on average work 240 hours more a year than desk-bound employees.
As impressive as these extra work hours sound, this linked in and BYOD culture does provide a security headache for businesses. With employees always connected and using their own devises, how do companies and organisations regulate and protect and secure their confidential or sensitive information?
The answer to the problem lies in creating a secure platform in which employees can collaborate and network. The crucial issue for businesses is to ensure that, as a company, you can and do provide these collaborative and networking options in a secure environment. If not, because the technology exists and because we are dealing with very tech savvy individuals, employees will find a way to perform the task they feel they need to perform on insecure systems or networks, and therefore they may potentially expose your sensitive data.
Given the fact that most of the baby boomers worldwide are going to retire and be replaced by Generation Y’ers in the next five to seven years, organisations need to start making their learning and training systems and technology a core priority.
Times have changed and learning has become people centred rather than product centred. I believe there are two questions organisations need to ask themselves: the first is: Are we ready for our tech savvy Generation Y employees? The second is: Does the technology we have today allow for adequate and secure social and mobile learning? The time has come to give people what they need, when they need it.
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Gavin Olivier is a partner in, and managing executive at, performance company, LRMG. |
