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The Cloud Generation

The cloud generation is comprised of later Gen X and millennials. Having grown up with information at their fingertips, their expectations in the workplace are different from previous generations.

What is Cloud Technology?

Cloud technology is any software or application that is hosted online, and delivered as a service via a browser or operating system. Read more about cloud technology. 

The Workforce Today

1946 – 1964: Baby boomers. Workers aged between 53-71 are early IT adopters, prioritising job security with their main method of communication being via telephone. 1965 – 1980: Gen X workers aged between 37-51 care about having a work life balance with a preferred method of contact being email. 1981 – 2000: Millennials aged 17-31 are digital natives, seeking freedom and flexible working – mainly using text messaging/social media to communicate. 2001 onwards are Gen Z, aged 0-17. With Facetime as their means of contact, they are “digital die-hards”. In 2017, millennials make up 40% of the workforce – and by 2025, this will rocket up to 70% of millennials.

The Millennial Drivers

There are three key drivers for millennials:

  1. Flexibility.
  2. Automation.
  3. Real-time information.

Millennials need to be flexible. They need to be able to work anywhere, at any time, on any device. Due to having technology and devices so readily available, the need the power to control their own user experience and continually improve their environments. The ability to automate repetitive tasks is vital. Millennials need to be able to control how and when information is presented to them, and to tweak systems to suit their needs. Real-time information at all times means an open and collaborative information sharing place, in a “google-style” search environment.  Millennials take having information readily available for granted. If they cannot immediately find what they want or if it’s too hard to find, they’ll seek it elsewhere.

The millennial as a colleague

Millennials are more driven by the opportunity for education and training rather than money, as their salary expectations are not as high as previous generations. This creates a need for organisations to focus on staff acquisition and retention; if they cannot keep millennials happy then they’ll leave – resulting in high recruitment rates. With a priority for this generation listed as flexible working, investment in cloud systems is important for businesses. With access to information anytime, anywhere, it creates an open and collaborative working environment to enable millennials to work harder and smarter. By 2040, businesses are estimated to have less office space due to remote flexible working. Get in touch with one of our experts for more information about cloud technology. This content was originally used in a talk at the CFO Symposium. If you’d like to download the full slide deck, please enter your details below.