Home > Columns > Piers Linney

Why Gen Y is good for your business

Generation Y represents more reward than risk if managed well and properly understood, says Outsourcery’s joint chief executive Piers Linney

Free guides

Editor's Choice

Generation Y represents more reward than risk if managed well and properly understood, says Outsourcery’s joint chief executive Piers Linney

The rising stars of today will be the business leaders of tomorrow, and they are used to receiving everything almost instantly. They are a generation that has grown up using instant messaging, social media, mobile phones and apps, and they expect to interact with colleagues, suppliers and customers in similar ways. However, many are confronted with legacy systems, ‘old’ hardware and restrictive policies at work. How far do you go to empower your new hires and rising stars without increasing business risk, and what’s the upside?

Generation game

GenYers were teenagers as the internet and high-speed connectivity became ubiquitous. They can manage multiple streams of information across time zones and multi-task with ease. To them technology is cool, empowering and woven into the fabric of their lives. They are already reliant on instant messaging: waiting two days for a reply to an email means it is no longer fit for purpose as an effective means of communication.

Now picture GenYers leaving home each morning and the comfort of their own ‘wired’ world. The last connection to that world is lost when they turn off their ‘personal’ smartphone and switch to the device their employer has issued to them. They then enter a clumsy and slightly paranoid world of corporate IT policy, locked-down hardware, surfing blacklists and operating systems and software that can be over five years old – a long time in technology. It leaves them frustrated by a backward step in time as they enter the workplace.

Youth appeal

To attract and retain the best talent, many larger companies have implemented cultural and IT refresh programmes. However, a detailed CSR plan, working from home once a week, a few funky chairs and a Wii in a designated chill-out area are not going to cut it.

Gen Y expects more. Even if they have accepted the typical corporate IT experience, they could be far more productive with the tools they are familiar with. This is already happening in the smartphone market, as devices are increasingly capable of supporting our work and personal lives. Such developments are the result of the accelerating consumerisation of IT, which Gartner expects to be the most influential trend affecting the technology sector over the next decade. An empowered Gen Y could increase productivity and even generate competitive advantage. However, employee freedom to choose devices and applications does need to be managed to protect business information. Research by Symantec found 69% of Gen Y would use whatever they wanted anyway, despite the corporate policy. In my own business we often ask each other whether we are ‘on net’ or ‘off net’ as we transition to an open architecture.

Tomorrow’s decision-makers

GenYers are now twenty-somethings and are set to become the management and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. They are expected to work for more than 10 different employers during their careers and may move for reasons other than remuneration.

They are becoming the decision-makers and IT is no longer a black art. To them IT is something that just works and doesn’t involve lots of kit. In time, they are going to have to recruit and retain an even more demanding group – Gen Z, the Net Generation. The Net Generation doesn’t use email, can’t remember the world before Facebook or YouTube and doesn’t buy mobile phones to make phone calls. It’s time to act and empower Generation Y.