Social media to shape future workplace

The next generation of employees and their technology demands will influence job decisions, hiring and a new age of work-life balance.

This is according to the second annual Cisco Connected World Technology Report, which was published last week.

Reshaad Sha, director of strategy for Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group, presented the key findings of the report at the Cisco Expo SA, at Sun City, yesterday.

“We looked at the trends and behaviours surrounding information access and expectations,” said Sha.

Sha explained the study included two surveys, one focused on college students and the other including young professionals up to the age of 30. Each survey included 100 respondents from each of the 14 different countries included in the study, with a total survey pool of 2 800 respondents.

The countries in the study were the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Russia, India, China, Japan, and Australia.

“We chose the sample groups in order to get a sense of those people who are experiencing social media as part of their everyday lives and those who have started working and who understand the limitations and possibilities the workplace presents,” said Sha.

“Mobile devices are becoming an integral part of our lives; in fact, they are the most important devices for the majority of students and employees.”

“We are undoubtedly seeing a change in the social fabric of society,” said Sha. “Social media is growing in importance - to the extent that for many people it is more important than dating and even friends.”

“I think the importance of being enabled, be it via a phone, laptop or an iPad or any of those devices that allow you to do your job better, came out very strongly in the survey.”

According to the study, the younger generations' desire to use social media and mobile devices is strong enough to influence their job choices.

The results showed young professionals want an open environment that accommodates social media, device freedom and remote working, and they will take a lower salary in order to have these benefits.

More than two of five college students (40%) and young employees (45%) said they would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice, social media access, and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility.

Cisco says: “This demand illustrates the importance of the relationship between the Internet, workforce culture, and companies' competitive advantages, and surprisingly indicates that traditional methods of attracting and retaining young employees may be less important as the 'Millennial' generation comprises more of the workforce.”

The pervasiveness of social media does, however, have its pitfalls. Sha noted that, according to the study, 84% of college students said they are interrupted at least once every hour by social media. These interruptions could include instant messages, social media updates or phone calls.

However, more than half of college students (56%) said that if a company banned social media access in the workplace, they would not accept a job offer or would find a way around corporate policy.

According to the study, multiple devices are also becoming the norm, with 77% of young employees using at least three devices for work.

Seventy-one percent of college students also said they believe company-issued devices should be allowed for personal and business use, because of the blending of work and personal communications in their daily lifestyle. A further 81% want to be able to choose their own device for their job.

The idea of a static workplace is also a foreign concept to college students, with 70% saying they believe it is unnecessary to be in an office regularly.

“In fact, one in four feel their productivity would increase if they were allowed to work from home or remotely. The global figures were mirrored by employees as well, with 69% believing office attendance was unnecessary on a regular basis,” says Cisco.

Cisco VP for enterprise segment marketing Marie Hattar says: “The next generation of global workers entering the workplace have distinct expectations and demands on how, when and where they access information.

“Tomorrow's workplace will be very different from today, and CIOs need to start preparing now for the future pressures that will be placed on their IT departments.”

Where until now, the focus has been on the consumerisation of IT, Hattar says the future is about workplace consumerisation.

“Members of the next generation of workers will combine work and personal life much more than previous generations ever have.

“This report demonstrates how generational attitudes towards informational access, mobile devices and social media are changing the nature of business communications and the future of work,” says Hattar.

The full report is available here. The findings of the report can also be found summarised in an infographic here.