Millennials are getting older. They’re moving up the career ladder and bringing along a new set of standards for workplace culture and environment – ones which position seamless telecommunications as a high priority. Millennials may be stereotypes, but the assumptions are true – they want things faster, more reliable and easy to use.
These standards are likely to influence whether millennials decide to stay at a company or move on. They don’t want to work for a business that shackles them to a desk by a curly phone cable. They want access to a full suite of systems that allow them to efficiently work where they want, so they can do the best job they can. Actually, it’s less of a ‘want’ and more of an ‘expectation’.
Providing this can be tough for resource restricted SMEs. But they need to find a way of avoiding deterring great new talent. In today’s talent hungry market, all businesses have a critical need to provide their employees with the tools that allow them to work flexibly, seamlessly and from anywhere.Millennials love to talk
As the modern workplace is no longer resigned to an office, communications need to be as mobile as possible. Particularly for SMEs, who may have limited office space, thereby increasing the need for remote working. One channel that is often neglected in its flexibility is the more traditional means of conversation, the phone call.
It’s easy to make the assumption that, to a millennial, the thought of picking up the phone rather than pinging a text, leaves them cold. But in a business capacity, there’s still the acknowledgment that discussing something over the phone can get the job done quicker and more easily. In our Transformation Game research, we found that 73% of organisations recognise that voice calls offer unique qualities as a business tool.
And while millennials are prolific in text-based chats, that’s not to say they don’t acknowledge the merits of a phone call. Sometimes, with voice communication, the barrier comes from the lack of sophistication in the channel itself, not from the reluctance to speak. It’s a symptom of not finding a voice service that has kept up with the rest of the digital transformation.
Millennials are still aware that it’s good to talk. The rise of voice notes is an indication that the millennial’s vocal chords are being increasingly exercised. Millennials and Gen-Zs are now keen micro-podcasters, sending their stream of consciousness through the voice recording feature on popular platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp – indeed the Evening Standard recently ran a feature on the popularity of the tool for the latter.
Integrating voice
So how can you improve your voice channels so they are fit-for-purpose for the flexible workplace? The key is to integrate them with other channels and platforms so they become more available as a useful tool in your communications repertoire.
Cloud-hosted solutions offer both fixed and mobile telephony that employees can access wherever they’re working; from the office, from home, or on the move. Gamma’s Connect, among other services, enables employees to receive calls to their business number wherever they are and on any device. Features like this can improve an employee’s mobile productivity and responsiveness whilst giving them the freedom and flexibility to work the way they want.
Crucially, they also satisfy the millennial demand for modern, future-ready communications tools that represent the workplace of tomorrow – a demand that will only increase for future generations. By bringing together the mobiles that the media would have you believe millennials are fixed to, with the voice call that’s still best for getting business done, SMEs can make their companies fit for a modern workforce – and still informed by a bit of old fashioned business sensibility.
Why does voice matter so much? Find out more in The Transformation Game report.
