Workplace Productivity: 3 Millennial Trends

The millennial generation now makes up the largest demographic in the American workforce – at 54 million. As a whole, they are tech savvy, enterprising, and collaborative in nature. Millennials are the first generation comprised of “digital natives”, meaning that they were born after 1980 when digital technologies came online. As a result they are comfortable with technology and see no clear delineation between their online personas and their self-identities. Their avid use of technology also extend into their professional lives. Two common platforms being introduced into the workplace are Jive and Yammer, which mimic the social media mechanisms learned from the consumer platforms they learned first and are so comfortable with. Technology also influences how Millennials collaborate with one another in a live setting. This group prefers small, more intimate meetings where participants are expected to contribute ideas and share content, not sit back and idly absorb a presentation. The 3 millennials trends listed below are changing the workplace for the better by increasing workplace productivity.

fixed, scheduled meetings are out

According to a survey conducted by the PCMA Education Foundation, millennials prefer to work in small groups, with less structure, utilizing open floor plans. These preferences have spawned a change in approach across many industries. For example, office space design has responded by incorporating huddle spaces and breakout areas which cater to the collaborative tendencies of the millennial generation in order to drive workplace productivity.

collaboration replaces presentation

Collaboration increases user engagement, which drives workplace productivity. The days of one-to-many presentations are numbered. Millennials require near-constant engagement and prefer an iterative, collaborative work process. Teamwork is at the center of this change, and it’s changing meetings for the better by making them more productive and yielding better results. One glaring positive of collaboration in place of presentation is it encourages more ideas to be shared among the group – which can be evaluated and tested before implementation

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