By Bridget McCrea
If you thought training your veteran sales reps on the merits of using technology was a challenge, wait until you hear about the demands that Generation Y workers (those born between the early-1980s and early-2000s) are putting on their employers. According to a new CompTIA study, these workers are more astute in their technology skills than any prior age group and are forcing employers to reevaluate how they hire, train, and equip current and future workforces.
In Generational Research on Technology and its Impact in the Workplace, CompTIA revealed that:
- Generation Y has been raised in technology and they consider their aptitude for tech as a value that they bring to the table when seeking a job.
- Two-thirds of Gen Y survey respondents assessed their own technology skills as “cutting edge” or “upper tier.”
- An employer’s tech-savvy is very high on their checklist on whether to take a job or not.
- Roughly half of survey respondents described their employer as either “cutting edge” or in the “upper tier” in their use of technology.
- Slightly less (42 percent) put their companies somewhere in the middle of the adoption curve.
- Three-quarters of Gen Y workers used a smart phone for work purposes in the last year compared with 37 percent of Baby Boomers.
- Other devices more prevalent among younger workers include tablets, laptops, and GPS systems.
- Gen Y considers social media a work tool (while Baby Boomers see it as more of a personal tool).
Editor’s note: This is a follow-up to Tuesday’s blog, Who Says You Can’t Teach Old Dogs New Tricks?
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McCrea is a Florida-based writer who covers business, industrial, and educational topics for a variety of magazines and journals. You can reach her at bridgetmc@earthlink.net or visit her website at www.expertghostwriter.net.
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