The Digital Workplace: Win the War for Talent in the Digital Economy

Today, human resources departments face new challenges in recruiting and retaining talent.

The workforce shift in numbers

As baby boomers approach retirement age, they need to be replaced and their experience must be captured. But while there are 75 million baby boomers in the United States, the next generation only includes 48 million people, creating a gap between the supply and demand for some positions in the marketplace. This issue is occurring worldwide because most countries experienced the baby boom phenomenon.

On the other side of the spectrum, most of the 80 million “millennials,” also known as generation Y, have joined the workforce. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, they now represent the majority of the workforce, and by 2030, they will make up 75% of the workforce.

In this context, companies face fierce competition to attract workers, forcing them to change their approaches to employee marketing.

Millennials expect very different things from their dream employers than do baby boomers.

New talents’ expectations

While older employees mostly care about compensation, security, and career opportunities, millennials care about other things.

• They want their work to be meaningful. They want to see how their work is valued and aligned with the company’s goals.
• They aspire to flexible career paths, and they appreciate work environments with horizontal information flow and hierarchy but with no information silos.
• They demand flexible work environments, including flexible hours and locations. The separation between their professional and personal lives is blurred; they want personal time at work, but they also give countless personal hours to jobs that inspire them.
• They value transparency in and regular feedback from their leaders.
• Millennials are tech savvy. They came of age in an era of social media and hyper-connectivity, and they expect to find the same level of technology in the workplace. They also expect to find information quickly and effortlessly. They expect the abilities to connect to anybody in the company and to work from home as if they were in the office.
• They are entrepreneurial, and they value collaborative work environments in which they can enhance innovation.

How a digital workplace with a social intranet backbone help?

First, a social intranet directly fulfills items on most of the new talents’ ideal workplace checklists. It is all about connection, flexibility, and collaboration. When the digital workplace meets those expectations, employees have confidence in the company’s future and its ability to be successful in the face of competition.

Organizations that have transformed their traditional intranet portals into collaborative workplaces report multiple business benefits linked to increased employee engagement.

As a bonus, a successful social intranet helps capture silent knowledge from all those experienced workers about to walk out the door.

Join the eXo tribe by registering for the community and get updates, tutorials, support, and access to the Platform and downloads section to try it for yourself!

Let us know if the post has been helpful to you by leaving a comment or contacting us!

Brahim Jaouane

I am a Digital Marketing specialist specialized in SEO at eXo Platform. Passionate about new technologies and Digital Marketing. With 10 years' experience, I support companies in their digital communication strategies and implement the tools necessary for their success. My approach combines the use of different traffic acquisition levers and an optimization of the user experience to convert visitors into customers. After various digital experiences in communication agencies as well as in B2B company, I have a wide range of skills and I am able to manage the digital marketing strategy of small and medium-sized companies.