Management consultancy Accenture recently studied the computing habits of 400 young Americans and discovered that this "millennial" generation has strong feelings about technology that is being overlooked by employers. John Stokdyk looks at the results.

Prospective employers looking to recruit young students need to be aware of their technology tastes and provide the tools and equipment they are accustomed to using in their personal lives, Accenture said in its recent study of 14-27-year-olds in the US, Millennials at the Gates.

"If employers don’t support their preferred technologies, Millennials are
likely to use them anyway - regardless of corporate policy," the report concluded.

More than half (52%) of the respondents said state-of-the-art technology was an important consideration in selecting an employer. This figure rose with age, to the point where 67% of the university-age respondents said an organisation's technology use was an important factor when choosing where to work.

Further findings from the survey highlighted the discrepancies between young workers' expectations and the technology that employers provided:

• More than 20% of the respondents stated that employer-provided technologies did not meet expectations; respondents were particularly dissatisfied with employer-provided virtual communities (39%), online collaboration tools (30%), and enterprise wikis (26%).




• In the mid-Millennial age group (18-22), 32% said they expected to use the computer of their choice and 34% said they wanted to access their preferred applications.




• Where employers' systems were not up to scratch, 39% of mid-Millennials used their own mobile phones, 28% by-passed company policies to visit social networking sites and 27% used unsanctioned instant messaging services. Another 19% used non-supported open source technology software and 12% accessed online applications.




• If software was not available at work, the mid-Millennial group showed few qualms about downloading non-standard technology from free public websites outside of work. Three-quarters of this group accessed online collaborative tools and 71% used online applications from free public websites.

Corporate IT policies

Accenture's Millennial generation study poses some big challenges for IT mangers. Across all age groups, 40% of respondents said their employers had detailed policies related to posting information on public websites and 17% said there was no such policy. Another 31% didn't know if their company had such a policy; 6% said their company's policy was too complex to understand, and 6% said they would post work or client information on public sites regardless of any policy.

Accenture suggested employers undertake proactive reviews of their IT policies and consult with Millennial members of their team to develop a better understanding of emerging technologies and how they might be used to benefit the organisation.

"In order to acquire and retain the best talent, organisations must understand the technologies that the new workforce expects and then find a way to support their employees without compromising enterprise security," said Accenture Technology Consulting managing director Gary Curtis.

While the results are drawn from north American respondents, organisations elsewhere should take note, as technology trends originating in the US are usually make their way across the Atlantic within 18 months.