Do the math. Organizations are pyramids – albeit flatter nowadays. But there are more people at the bottom than the top. And those at the bottom are more likely to be younger than those at the top. And as companies are becoming leaner they are removing layers of middle management which means that there are proportionally even more Gen Y employees.

So why does this matter? They are becoming a far more important proportion of the workforce not just due to pure numbers, but for three other critical reasons.

Firstly, “technology is not technology if it was invented before you were born”.  So Gen Y were born after the internet, websites, Google, mobile phones and laptops were invented. They simply accept and expect them as part of their daily working lives. 

Secondly, they spend time in their private lives using cool, compelling and innovative websites, applications and devices. That sets an expectation about what they want to use at work. And they are often disappointed. So they use their own solutions which Cloud Computing now makes possible.

Finally, in a service-based industry they are touching the customer; setting the customer’s perception of the company’s culture and intent. In the insurance sector, they are taking on liabilities for the company which could last for years. In many industries they need to demonstrate they are following policies and procedures for regulatory and compliance reasons.

So there is a very strong need to ensure that Gen Y is engaged. But engaging Gen Y is far more difficult than previous generations. 

So what is your company doing about it?  Are they even trying to understand the needs, aspirations and desires of Gen Y?

What are your software vendors doing to produce applications with interfaces which appeal to Gen Y? Are they also offering an interface which appeals to other demographic groups?

At Nimbus it is something we are taking very seriously. It is critical that our business process management application, Nimbus Control, is adopted by everyone in the organisation because it delivers an organisation’s Online Operations Manual.

For compliance, business improvement, risk and governance reasons it is critical that every person in the organisation is able – and wants to – access the processes and related procedures, systems, policies forms and documents.  That is why we have developed a number of different user interfaces on the web and also one which has a "desktop music player" feel and another which runs on the iPhone and iPad