So-called “Millennial” generation students and employees (those aged 14 to 27) expect to use their own technology and mobile devices for work. Moreover, this group is increasingly choosing its place of employment based on how accommodating companies are to personal technology preferences, according to a survey by management consultants Accenture.

Questions asked of more than 400 US students and employees across three age groups - 14 to 17, 18 to 22 and 23 to 27 - found an increasing demand for high-tech devices to connect with colleagues, peers, friends and family, in preference to face-to-face contact. The findings point to a disconnect between the technology that organizations provide their workers and how young workers actually want to use technology and collaborate in the workplace.

Among other findings the survey found only 40 percent of respondents said that their employers have published detailed policies related to posting work or client information on public websites. Nearly one-third (31 percent) of respondents said they don’t know if their company has such a policy; 17 percent said their employer hasn’t published such a policy, 6 percent said that whatever policy their company has published is too complex to understand and 6 percent said they will post work or client information on public sites regardless of any policy, at least when communicating with colleagues.
    
According to the survey, blogging is more myth than reality. Regardless of age, Millennials spend an average of only 30 minutes a week blogging. This is far less than the time they spend searching for information on the Internet, listening to portable devices, text messaging, instant messaging, communicating on social network sites or interacting in virtual communities.

“The message from Millennials is clear: to lure them into the workplace, prospective employers must provide state-of-the-art technologies,” says Gary Curtis, managing director of Accenture Technology Consulting. “And if their employers don’t support their preferred technologies, Millennials will acquire and use them anyway. In order to acquire and retain the best talent, organizations must understand the technologies that the new workforce expects and then find a way to support their employees without compromising enterprise security.”

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