Last week I posted an article on The Active Class blog about why professors should not expect their students to regularly check email. I also posted it on my Facebook page with a poll, and all my professor friends (save 1) eagerly disagreed with me. (Do you?)
Even after I stated that expecting students to do something we know they are increasingly unlikely to do will almost inevitably result in disappointment and failure all-round, the profs would not budge. Employers will expect them to check it, one friend reminded me. By and large, he’s right. So will GenY and GenZ treat their bosses and clients differently than they do their profs and classes?
Research trends indicate that GenY is not using email, but prefers Facebook, IM, and texting as communications tools. This finding was echoed by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg who told the audience at Nielsen’s Consumer 360 conference that email is rapidly dying among teenagers. “E-mail–I can’t imagine life without it–is probably going away,” she said.
If GenY is using email at all, it’s not the campus accounts they check, since those expire on graduation anyway, and because they come to campus with an already established digital identity and online network. It’s the free webmail cloud services, the Gmails, YahooMails, and Hotmails of the world that stand a chance with Gen Y and the up and coming Gen Z. Good news for Microsoft, busy relaunching their updated/upgraded Hotmail this summer.
Another factor that would inspire more GenY to use email is mobile accessibility. Only 20% of us have Blackberries and iPhones and other smart devices enabling us to get our mail on-the-go. A recent survey asked almost 10,000 consumers about their cell phone habits and which features we most desire, and it turns out that 40% of the 18-34 demo wants email on their phones (according to the National Retail Federation and BIGresearch). Interestingly: that’s a 30% increase YOY.
Bottom line: we want our electronic communications to be instant and mobile. Unless there is easy access to email messages, compatible with emergent mainstream media use habits, that inbox will get mighty dusty.
Microsoft really gets that, as Antoine Leblond, senior vice-president of the Office Productivity Applications Group at Microsoft recently demonstrated in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “It’s key to be responsive to the expectations and needs that the millennials have,” one of which is “to be able to do things on their mobile phone browsers when they’re on the run and don’t have access to their home or office computer.”
Sounds great! One problem: not even half of GenY have “mobile browsers” on their cell phones.
How about SMS? We know that millennials are texting fiends. A 2010 global research study on how Gen Y uses tech at work by Accenture found that only 10% of respondents said supervisors used SMS, and another 20% said they wished their bosses would warm up to using SMS. Likewise, some profs are adopting SMS to connect with students inside and outside the classroom walls.
I suppose employers and profs who are in the business of enabling young people to succeed and thrive in our contemporary connected culture will figure out ways to meet millennials (at least half way to) where they are, to leverage their existing digital fluencies, and to adopt mobile and social communications technology solutions that enable workshifting, flexibility, and thus more productivity for all concerned.
Others will dig in their heels. What about you?
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