Human behavior has been changing a lot over the last decade or so. Social media has become the main media for communication – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, WordPress, Google, Yahoo, etc are a part and parcel of all our lives today – irrespective of age, occupation, social class, geography or any other parameter.
We believe in instant communication and the internet has more than helped us connect to people all over the world. We share every bit of news and information about ourselves and about others on the net. If we don’t we feel left out it is because everybody we know and even those we do not know are baring their innermost thoughts and feelings on social media. It is now the done thing to live in a connected, collaborative world where we can exchange information with others any time we want and in any way we want.
Spilling into our professional lives
This new behavior that we are engaging in, in our personal lives, is also spilling into our professional lives, i.e. it is now affecting the way we are behaving in the world of business. Companies have been operating on collaborative platforms for a while now – we use emails, we use technology for various operations within the organization. But the new behavior has not been assimilated fully into the corporate world, as yet.
Companies that want to excel in the future of work are now looking for ways to use the new behavior to guide the way they operate in business. This new behavior is the major motivator that is inducing organizations to find new approaches to share information in the most optimal way, to avoid duplication of work and content, to collaborate with co-workers and the community. The new behavior of people is challenging how work is done currently in companies; it is changing employee expectations from their employers.
Sustainability, community, sharing and collaboration
The millennials who are expected to become the largest proportion of the workforce by 2025 have a new set of values, a different attitude towards work and new ways of doing work. They believe in sustainability, community, sharing and collaboration. They inhabit a world where they are connected to one another 24×7; they work anywhere and everywhere – in cafes, in parks, at home and on the move. They do not like to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day, nor do they spend the larger part of the day looking for information, data or people – they believe in an “instant” world with all resources being available on the tips of their fingers i.e. on their mobile devices.
This is the kind of technology and support they expect from the companies where they work. So in order to attract and retain this generation of workers, companies have to start investing in the technology necessary to provide millennials with the kind of working environment they desire and where they can contribute their best.
Thus to succeed in the future of work, organizations have to take into consideration the new behavior of individuals as also the expectations that millennials have from these organizations.
