Blog Posts
This blog post was created to support an arsenal of 30 assets built for digital.bmc.com, BMC’s content marketing platform.
BMC
The Digital Natives: Get Ready for Gen Z Workers
This blog post was 1 of 30 assets built for digital.bmc.com, BMC’s content marketing platform.
Just when companies thought they’d seen it all in self-absorbed social media-crazed Millennial workers, HR firms, and brand and marketing experts warn this is just the first wave. Gen Z workers will test the ability of many companies to be both seamlessly digital and yet surprisingly human and socially engaged.
Dubbed a “Demographic Juggernaut,” the Gen Z youths born between 1996 and the mid-2000s will begin flooding the workplace at the end of this decade, eventually totaling 60 million. Studies have revealed surprising differences from their Millennial elders. A study by Universum of 55,000 high school students and recent high school graduates in 46 countries revealed that more than half want to start their own company. This entrepreneurial spirit exceeds that of Millennials. Entrepreneurism is in their DNA, and workplace dynamics must support that independent streak.
Meanwhile, Gen Z’s relationship with technology and social media is surprisingly complex. The New York Times recently quoted Hannah Payne, an 18-year-old UCLA student and blogger: “We’re the first true digital natives. I can almost simultaneously create a document, edit it, post a photo on Instagram and talk on the phone, all from the user-friendly interface of my iPhone.”
But while these digital natives have come of age in a world flush with smartphones, laptops, tablets, and streaming online content at the very same time that traditional print media (newspapers, magazines and books) are dying, experts say Gen Z workers may ironically be more focused and directed when it comes to technology. They’ve learned from some cautionary tales of Millennial personal excesses, the failures of those who all too often have been distracted by social media. In other words, Gen Z workers may be smarter about digital tools, seeing them more in the framework of an engaged, holistic workplace.
Interestingly, they expect robust digital tools, but in a more open, collaborative, and purposeful human environment. They expect to “shop” at company app stores like My IT ServiceBroker to find crowdsourced solutions.
“With Generation Z there is less social media about oneself and more about the community,” says Colleen Broomall, the Millennial publisher of a new Gen Z girls site called YSBnow. “People want to start talking to one another in this generation where it’s dynamic, and the company is socially conscious. I think they’re seeking a work environment where there is a lot of open dialogue, the way Netflix is run, where it’s a team effort.”
Indeed, a joint study from Millennial Branding and Randstad US reported that 53 percent of Gen Z workers would rather communicate face-to-face than through instant message or videoconference.
Gen Zs appear more savvy than Millennials regarding technology and work process. This generation has witnessed the risks of Facebook over sharing, and has instead embraced Snapchat or Whispher, where youthful indiscretions disappear. That deeper understanding of the value of reputation and personal brand will likely make this generation value privacy in the workplace and demand employers respond accordingly. Companies have numerous opportunities to connect with the talent and commitment of this generation. Fully 77% of Gen Zs indicate they expect to work harder than previous s, according to a study by Robert Half. The same research showed that they prefer small team collaboration. The boomer gap may present the biggest looming tension. Numerous studies show that Gen Zs express reluctance to work with this less digitally savvy generation.
Companies that have invested in the digital shift toward Millennials – embracing BYOD, laptops, tablets, and cloud-based software services and company app stores like My IT Service Broker – will likely have an edge with this even more technically advanced generation. IT departments that invest in self-teaching tools will profit, as Gen Z is adept at learning how to use applications through watching YouTube-style training videos and studying self-paced online modules. Interestingly, readying Millennials in the do’s and don’ts of managing Gen Z workers will also be critical. Expect the next generation to be more realistic about career opportunities, yet more idealistic about their employers’ social profiles.
Fast Company recently advocated the importance of “Detoxing Your Workplace of One Size Fits all Solutions.” Gen Zs will demand a diverse set of digital tools, both offered by the company and publicly accessible. Wise companies will recognize this generation’s comfort with physical mobility and mobile tools, and will respond by creating office spaces or zones offering a variety of ways to digitally work and interact -- collaboratively, individually, and socially.
Gen Z’s technological fluency will mean that they will embrace tasks fluidly using different tools in different locations -- for instance, a laptop at a desk, or an iPad or smartphone in a collaborative space. Anticipating this open attitude toward work, companies are even making their outdoor spaces tech friendly.
Finally, be ready for Gen Zs to start pushing the envelope. IT departments have just a few years to prepare. A Sparks & Honey report states that in a single day, Gen Zs will often multi-task across a handful of screens, expecting “seamless integration.”
For more information about Generation Z, check out the following links:
http://universumglobal.com/articles/2015/10/gen-zs-attitudes-future-careers/
http://www.slideshare.net/sparksandhoney/generation-z-final-june-17
https://www.roberthalf.com/workplace-research/get-ready-for-generation-z
http://millennialbranding.com/2014/geny-genz-global-workplace-expectations-study
VMware
Moving to the Cloud? 5 Things to Think About
This was a commissioned Blog post through the Wall Street Journal that was 1 of 127 assets built for Erdos, VMware’s content marketing platform.
Moving from a physical infrastructure to a virtual and cloud environment allows companies to harness the full power of Big Data and super-charge their business operations. Making this transition requires a unified view of a complex environment – and a proactive IT department ready to address the issues and challenges that will arise. Here are five things an IT department can do to ensure it is taking the right approach to the operational aspects of cloud and virtual machines:
Automate – but Remain Flexible. When it comes to the cloud and virtual machines, the goal is to automate as many mundane tasks as possible – but not at the expense of an administrator’s ability to adapt to the unique requirements of their infrastructure or environment. For example, guided remediation engines can suggest the best course of action, but remain customizable so workflows adapt to an organization's processes and needs. The goal of automation isn’t to restrict and control administrators, but rather to empower them so they can devote their time to tasks that improveperformance, compliance, and other business goals.
Calm the Alert Storm. As IT environments become more complex, the many different layers of the infrastructure can create "alert storms" that can paralyze an IT function. To calm the storm, IT should utilize "intelligent" alerts. Instead of issuing a cry for every symptom, a system should be able to see the connections between symptoms and aggregate symptoms to show actual problems, so resources can be devoted to the issues that truly matter. This requires tools that don’t just monitor infrastructure silos, but give an integrated view of application health and the environment by leveraging all IT data, such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), metrics, events and logs. When Boeing adopted an integrated view, the number of threshold alerts at the aviation giant dropped from up to 1000 per day to 50-100 per day. As a result, administrators could manage 60 percent more machines -- and troubleshoot problems 50 percent faster.
See Trouble Brewing. Reacting to issues and solving problems quickly is the sign of a good IT department. Anticipating issues before they become problems is the sign of a great IT department. The real value of an operations management tool is the intelligence behind the monitoring that looks for anomalies across physical, virtual and cloud environments to reveal areas where problems are brewing. Technologies such asmachine learning and dynamic thresholds let administrators detect and avoid incidents before they impact the business, sometimes up to 24 hours in advance.
Reclaim Your Resources. When managing physical environments, over-provisioning is a sensible safeguard. However, with virtual and cloud environments, over-provisioning can reduce the very benefits of moving to those environments in the first place. And the costs can be significant. In order maximize operational efficiency, you need tools that enable you to right-size your environments and reclaim wasted capacity. Boeing, for example, found that 92 percent of its 11,000 virtual machines were over-provisioned, resulting in a lot of expensive computing power going to waste. Right-sizing their environment resulted in significant savings and improved ROI.
Become a Value Center. Fairly or not, business lines often view IT as being inefficient and expensive. As IT moves to become a broker of services, it can shift from "a cost center" to "a value center” by focusing on business needs and selecting an approach – whether in-house or outsourced – that provides the best results for the lowest cost. When the business sees that IT's focus is on performance, speed and cost savings – rather than IT-centric or one-size-fits-all thinking – it becomes a valuable ally. And with this strong IT-LOB relationship, a company can create a cloud environment that truly meshes with the organization's strategic goals.