Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Employers What You Need To Know About Digital Natives

There was a time when steam was replaced by electricity and businesses found a new way of working. The companies that embraced electricity moved forward the ones who didn't, didn't move forward.

Now businesses can propel forward again by embracing digital technology and the digital natives that come with it.

This has to be a top down effort, however in many organisations this can be a slow process mainly because some people at the top don’t get it. Some people think youngsters “wasting time” on Facebook can only be a bad thing.

Sometimes when people don’t understand something they dont see the positives, or the endless possibilities it provides.

Sometimes if the guys at the top get it, they still struggle to attract any digital natives because the culture of the company lets them down.

If you’re ready for digital transformation then make sure that you attract digital natives.

Has your organisation got the right attitude?

Working openly where everyone can collaborate, having an ideation area where ideas can be brainstormed, flexible working, no more 9am – 5pm … you can read more about the future work place here Tomorrows Work place

So what do you need to know about the Digital Natives you need to attract ?

They’re Multi platform consumers... They can hold conversations easily across several platforms
They’re Multi device consumers... They will be working at their screen, engaging on platforms on their ipad, whilst sending a text from their mobile and listening to the latest podcast on their ipod.
They’re instant adapters ... They love change, they can shift attention to one project then another immediately. They’re fast scanners absorbing information as they speed read, visual decoders, recognising brand logo’s and icons instantly. They are also hyper text minded, gathering information from multiple sources.
Their Brains are smarter ... They think like computers, multi tasking without making mistakes is normal. Their brain has been rewired by the internet, freaky but quite cool! Digital Natives don’t like huge amounts of information and aren’t using the part of the brain required for long term memory so that part is shrinking & the part responsible for multi tasking is growing.
They control their moods... Digital Natives can’t bear to have the feeling of boredom so the minute they start to feel anything that resembles that they instantly go to a new piece of media to feel stimulated.

Some employers maybe thinking great lets get one of these fast thinking, multi tasking computer like young persons to work for us but there are some things to also take into consideration.

They may lack offline social skills, body language isn’t something they read well, they read code well though!

What they will need from you is help in social interaction, eye contact, buying signals.

You will also find that they will prefer to text rather than speak on the phone, so if you’re looking for someone to sell face to face or someone for telesales be prepared to invest in some training or mentoring.

They’re very much used to being rewarded, all their online gaming has made them want to reach the next level fast & each time they do they want rewarding. They will think offline life is like this also, they will expect rewards regularly and if they don’t reach the next career level quickly they jobhop to a company that has a faster career route.

By 2020 it is estimated that we will have 4.25billion digital natives under the age of 34, we need to empower them, accept they’re wired differently and make use of their skills whilst mentoring them to help them develop.

JOIN Jobhop and spread the word.

Julie Bishop Jobhop.co.uk

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