* Are the newbies better qualified to work remotely?
Those of us who are raising teens or have raised young adults often commiserate about how this generation exists in their own foreign world. They don’t talk on the phone to make plans, solve problems, argue, laugh, or get to know someone.
Rather, they text on their cell phones, instant message one another from their laptops, or post messages on their My Space or Facebook pages. Not only do they use these technologies, they use them simultaneously – and keep track of all the conversations. At the same time, they’re watching TV, listening to music, and doing homework. They are uber-multitaskers.
And one of the more interesting results of this new era of communications is that they rarely feel isolated, despite the fact that they may have just spent five hours alone in a bedroom or dorm room. This virtual community keeps them interested, motivated, and entertained.
That brings me (at long last) to the key point of this week’s column. The younger generation (say, the 30-and-younger crowd) may be the best group yet to work in a virtual environment.
Last week, I wrote about the key ingredients for successfully managing a virtual workplace: collaborative tools, tight processes, and the right people. Already, 83% of organizations define their companies as “virtual workplaces,” or those that support workers who are physically located away from their supervisors and/or workgroups.
This trend will continue, and managers must carefully determine which employees are best-suited for the remote-working environment. When employees try to work from home or in a remote branch office and fail, it’s often because they need personal attention – from their supervisor, their colleagues, or their workgroup partners. In many cases, these are people who have been in an office their whole career and enjoy that social structure.
The key benefit with the younger generation, though, is they are growing up in two separate worlds: the real world and the virtual world. The two can intermingle, but the point is that they perform well in either world and understand how to succeed in the virtual world much better than their senior counterparts. They have taken classes virtually, established and maintained relationships, and resolved conflicts (and sometimes created them!).
The challenge for the 30-and-older supervisors and executives is to recognize this benefit, and leverage it. Young, new hires work well in isolation because to them, they’re not actually in “isolation,” they’re simply immersed in their virtual community, rather than their physical community. This can help companies attract the right people and save on costly office space.
Further, these employees are very familiar with IT, so training on new collaborative applications is a snap. And if the hire is in the IT space, the younger generation often suggests some unique, cost-effective, and innovative ways of using technology to solve business problems. Again, the challenge they face is a skeptical, older workforce who doubts their understanding of the business problem.
But as one seasoned CIO recently said, “I listen to all my young techs, probably even more so than the older ones, because they’ve proven over and over that technology is engrained in their brains. As a result, they come up with a solution none of us has even considered.”
Bottom line: Young employees are valuable additions to a virtual workforce or an IT staff. But don’t get overly excited and forget they still need to go through the same growing pains as the rest of us when it comes to expertise, working with teams, managing people, developing strategy, and understanding the bottom line.
