Workplace Collaboration & The New Status Quo

While often portrayed in the media as “trend-bucking boogeymen,” Millennials now comprise the largest cohort of workers in the economy. By 2030, Millennial workers will account for three-quarters of the entire workforce.

Setting easy journalism and clickable trend pieces aside, it stands to reason that the tenets associated with the Millennial generation are no longer bucking trends in the workplace but are in fact the status quo for the immediate and foreseeable future.

When it comes to teamwork, specifically workplace collaboration tools, what trends can we attribute to the latest generation’s rise to prominence?

Collaboration Over Competition

We all know workplace collaboration tools help build greater productivity among workers. It’s in the name after all — workplace collaboration tools. However, the youngest age demographic has taken this concept to a whole new level, emphasizing a united front and teamwork over the divisiveness of competition.

“Millennials are team-oriented and prefer cross-functional working groups, encouraging a sense of unity over division and collaboration over competition,” said Sujay Jadhav in a piece for Forbes.

For Millennials, projects are opportunities for strategic partnerships, rather than a way to show up one another. Collaboration tools allow for a greater sense of this camaraderie, giving each person the opportunity to contribute to a task and work together to achieve something.

Independence Over Structure

One of the biggest selling points of workplace collaboration tools is their ability to strengthen teams with remote workers. Demand for the option to work remotely has increased across industries for a number of reasons such as the high cost of living in many cities, the international scale of many organizations as well as younger workers’ preferences and work habits. In a recent survey, sixty percent of Millennials said they would be more productive at home versus in the office.

As our own survey findings demonstrate, companies would be wise not to require employees to work in a fashion they see as unproductive. Collaboration tools like Slack allow Millennials to stay in constant contact with their teams over great distances and multiple time zones. Several popular cloud-based collaboration tools support essential replacements for in-person meetings such as video conferencing, file sharing and even augmented and virtual reality application.

Invest In The Power Of Your Teams

Adjusting your footing to the shifting realities of the workplace is a challenge for every manager. Adapting to the new realities of the workplace collaboration world can be made easier with NextPlane’s ConverseCloud solution. Through our federation service, each member of your organization can use the collaboration tools of their choice, all while communicating uninterrupted.

Follow NextPlane on Twitter and Linkedin for more updates like our new report on technology loyalty and its effect on the workplace.

Originally published at https://nextplane.net on December 19, 2018.