9 Technologies for Millennials in the Workplace

Video walls in a corporate lobby or office project a sense of being technologically advanced. They can show off company information and projects, scroll through social media feeds, run through all kinds of content or even just show what’s on TV at the time, which comes in handy for sports when employees might want to keep track of the game while they work (Remember the last Olympics when US hockey was playing in the early morning US time). A lot of what millennials are looking for is forward-thinking companies, companies they believe will continue to push to the forefront of technology. Introducing the company with a large video wall goes a long way to attracting millennial talent.

Pictured: Mvix Video Wall

Digital signage systems are a great way to get information to employees, promote some of the goings-on within the company, display schedules and meeting times, when different rooms are occupied, potential events coming up, social media, really anything that you might want your employees to see. A lot of this can be accomplished in e-mail chains, but, like with video walls, digital signage promoted the idea of a more technologically advanced, futuristic company, which is what millennials are looking for.

If you have a company with multiple offices, it stands to reason that you would want top talent, regardless of the office, to be able to interact and work together. Collaboration systems give employees a dynamic way to work with colleagues across the globe. Annotation, mirroring, and file storage capabilities are a must in order for employees to work on the same content in real time. Millennials have expressed an interest in working in groups, and providing a collaboration system gives them the ability to do so.

Pictured: Oblong Mezzanine

Millennials, having grown up with technology in their schools and homes, have a unique ability to work well with sophisticated technology. In fact, they prefer to do so. When it comes time to give a presentation, they want to be able to create something dynamic that gets their point across in visually appealing ways, where they can scroll through their content easily in order to answer questions and make points. PowerPoint isn’t enough for top talent millennials; they want sophisticated systems that allow them to utilize creativity when presenting ideas or projects. Interactive displays and presentation software will help to attract millennial talent.

Pictured: Prysm Video Wall

Millennials are looking to work together, and they want to be able to do so regardless of where they actually are. A significant amount of millennials express interest in working from home on certain days, and just as many claim that they would be interested in travelling nationally or overseas for their job. However, they still need to be able to connect with those at the home base. Make sure that your video conferencing system allows for mobile devices to log on. Screen share is helpful for employees to share documents. And ensure that the system is dynamic enough where lag and connectivity issues don’t render the meeting useless.

Pictured: Polycom Video Conferencing Suite

Interactive whiteboards are a great way to marry generational ideals between baby boomers and millennials. They offer the ease of use and familiarity of regular whiteboards, but the technological advancement that millennials are looking for as well. Employees can easily write on the board as they would with a marker, and then save that information to PDF files to be distributed after the meeting. Some systems allow for content to be projected on the board and annotated around or manipulated.

Pictured: SMART kapp

While millennials are great with using technology, they might not be as well versed in actually setting the technology up. Chords and devices can get confusing, and millennials want to be able to easily connect to a system and show content from their devices. Control and automation allows from rooms to spring to life with the click of a button, usually from a dedicated pad that connects to the room. Lighting can be controlled to dim during presentations while systems automatically sync to different devices. Making things as simple as possible to use, so that ideas can flow and work can get done , is a must for millennials.

BYOD is an absolute necessity for millennials. Yes, if your company provides them with devices they will be happy, but millennials want to use the same device for work and play. If they are scrolling through their phones, bored, outside of the office, allowing BYOD means that they are also scrolling through presentations, projects, documents and emails that are pertinent to work. Millennials will be happier and more comfortable with the equipment they have, and you’ll get added productivity outside of work hours. While there are some definite considerations about security to keep in mind, BYOD can be a win/win.

Allowing millennials to choose the music that is played during work hours may not seem like a big deal, but it’s the little things that count for millennials. Rockbot offers a very cool crowd-sourcing application that lets employees choose a playlist. Customers use a mobile app to select music the company has approved, vote on the playlist, see custom promotions, and share their activity on social media. Companies manage the level of customer control and customize the experience with messaging and social media content. Rockbot also enables a digital signage component which displays the music playing, customer interactions, and branded content.

Pictured: RockBot TV