As the first generation of true digital natives, growing up with more screen time than any before them, millennials are entering the modern workplace with the expectation that their employer’s technology setup should, as an absolute minimum, be both efficient and sufficient.
According to KPMG’s Meet the Millennials study, there are approximately 13.8 million millennials in the UK, making up 35% of the current workforce and this is set to rise to 50% by 2020. By prioritising work-life balance, flexible working and innovative technology, millennials are already changing the shape of the modern workplace and will only continue to make their influence felt.
But how could this impact your business and what could you do to adapt your communications technology so that you attract and retain millennial talent? Well, keep reading to find out.
Choose flexible technology to accommodate flexible working
Millennials are known for rejecting the traditional nine-to-five mentality. As reported by the Deloitte Millennial Survey, 69% of millennials have flexible working times, which means they start and finish when they choose, and 64% have flexible working locations, meaning they choose whether they work from the office, from home or somewhere else. However, a traditional desk-based phone system doesn’t lend itself to this kind of working.
By relying on an outdated phone system, you could end up missing calls and sales opportunities when employees are away from their desks and remote workers could miss out on business-enhancing features such as call recording, call management and CTI.
If you have a large proportion of your workforce that needs or chooses to work remotely, a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) solution could be the answer.
With a VoIP system calls are delivered over the internet meaning voice services can be utilised from anywhere with an internet connection. As users aren’t tied to a desk, the flexible working that millennials desire is fully supported and easy to roll out.
As traditional phone lines are starting to be phased out, it also makes good business sense to futureproof your communications with an internet-based setup like SIP trunks, which are virtual telephone lines that create a phone line over your internet connection, or a hosted cloud-based system.
Make the most of mobile integration
Many VoIP solutions allow you to conveniently integrate your fixed and mobile capabilities so that you can ensure that you never miss a call from anywhere or on any device. This collaborative approach to communication means that your desk phones, mobile devices and laptops all connect and deliver voice services whenever and wherever they are online.
Moreover, several VoIP phone systems also come with a connected mobile app so you can maximise productivity with additional features such as soft phone, instant messaging, presence status and remote configuration of your business phone system. A shared cloud-based address book also allows you to simply access and call contacts without needing to store details on your device.
By thinking about and implementing business technology in this way, your company’s phone system can mirror the instant messaging services and ways of engaging that millennials are used to outside of work. Your business can adopt the technology that is second nature to and that is expected by millennials.
As the baby boomers start to reach retirement and Generation X climb up the career ladder to replace them, is it time to think about future-proofing your business and making sure that you’re attracting the best staff, customers and partners for years to come? When planning how you’re going to achieve this, considering your business’ telecoms is a great place to start. 
This article comes courtesy of Network Telecom, the business telecoms and IT services provider.
