Digital Natives: They are changing the workplace culture
• Currently 5.0/5 Stars.5.0 from 2 votes Posted on 09/17/2015, by: Hannah Hahn
CBRE Global Workplace Solutions
The tech-savvy generation now entering the workforce is expected to have a significant impact on workplace culture as its affinity for technological innovation drives social interactions, access to information and expectations in the workplace.
These so-called Digital Natives are those 30- years- old and younger who grew up with digital technologies and integrated them into their lives from a very early age. They grew up with the Internet as the supporting technology for their lifestyle and describe it as an extension of their bodies.
In a survey of more than 2,800 young adults …show more content…
With the need for flexibility and their mobile working mentality, Digital Natives do not want to be tied to an office, but expect to work from a variety of locations to accomplish their work efficiently.
But do they play nice?
What happens when the “always-on” lifestyle of Digital Natives meets the predilections of the baby boomer and Gen-X generations in the workplace?
Our current question-and-response environment has produced collaborators who live and breathe the concept of a sharing society that exchanges information, experiences and data. Digital Natives have dealt with information sent and received in real time in social media platforms from their very early days. Previous generations, on the other hand, whose brains were developed before the advancements of digital and social technologies, have had to learn and adapt to this new way of communication.
For all their technological savvy, Digital Natives, have commonalities with older generations. They describe themselves as the “same, same but different.” It’s not what they do that’s different, they say, rather it’s how they do it. The differences include:
• How they approach daily work
• The way they integrate technology and the internet into their …show more content…
Within the online communities, user-generated content (UGC) is widely shared and can be accessed by every user. This type of collaborative content allows others to add, improve, complete and critique entries, which increases the accuracy of the content. This team approach of collective intelligence supports the mindset that all information is out there, and a quick question to the crowd will generate an immediate answer.
What should businesses be doing?
Companies can leverage the positive attributes of Digital Natives to improve efficiency and collaboration, but businesses cannot expect integration to happen organically.
By focusing on the following areas, companies will have a greater chance to recruit and retain younger workers:
• Create greater access to technology in the workplace
• Cloud computing for easier updating and distribution of information
• Internal knowledge management to support collaboration
• A more comfortable working environment, as the lines between work and private life blur
• Integrating technologies within the office, such as Wi-Fi, booking systems and video conferencing, allows workers are able to easily transition work from the office to their
• Currently 5.0/5 Stars.5.0 from 2 votes Posted on 09/17/2015, by: Hannah Hahn
CBRE Global Workplace Solutions
The tech-savvy generation now entering the workforce is expected to have a significant impact on workplace culture as its affinity for technological innovation drives social interactions, access to information and expectations in the workplace.
These so-called Digital Natives are those 30- years- old and younger who grew up with digital technologies and integrated them into their lives from a very early age. They grew up with the Internet as the supporting technology for their lifestyle and describe it as an extension of their bodies.
In a survey of more than 2,800 young adults …show more content…
With the need for flexibility and their mobile working mentality, Digital Natives do not want to be tied to an office, but expect to work from a variety of locations to accomplish their work efficiently.
But do they play nice?
What happens when the “always-on” lifestyle of Digital Natives meets the predilections of the baby boomer and Gen-X generations in the workplace?
Our current question-and-response environment has produced collaborators who live and breathe the concept of a sharing society that exchanges information, experiences and data. Digital Natives have dealt with information sent and received in real time in social media platforms from their very early days. Previous generations, on the other hand, whose brains were developed before the advancements of digital and social technologies, have had to learn and adapt to this new way of communication.
For all their technological savvy, Digital Natives, have commonalities with older generations. They describe themselves as the “same, same but different.” It’s not what they do that’s different, they say, rather it’s how they do it. The differences include:
• How they approach daily work
• The way they integrate technology and the internet into their …show more content…
Within the online communities, user-generated content (UGC) is widely shared and can be accessed by every user. This type of collaborative content allows others to add, improve, complete and critique entries, which increases the accuracy of the content. This team approach of collective intelligence supports the mindset that all information is out there, and a quick question to the crowd will generate an immediate answer.
What should businesses be doing?
Companies can leverage the positive attributes of Digital Natives to improve efficiency and collaboration, but businesses cannot expect integration to happen organically.
By focusing on the following areas, companies will have a greater chance to recruit and retain younger workers:
• Create greater access to technology in the workplace
• Cloud computing for easier updating and distribution of information
• Internal knowledge management to support collaboration
• A more comfortable working environment, as the lines between work and private life blur
• Integrating technologies within the office, such as Wi-Fi, booking systems and video conferencing, allows workers are able to easily transition work from the office to their