R U on 2 Gen Y?

As with every generation of workers, members of Generation Y - those born between 1977 and 1995 - are about to change the way work is done. And with nearly 78 million of them and 64 million skilled workers set to retire by 2010, the change will be difficult for businesses to ignore.

Generation Y's fluency in technology, along with the way they work - collaboration and multitasking are par for the course - are the biggest changes employers can expect to see, according to technology experts.

"Employers are going to find this generation communicates differently. They IM (Instant Message), send text messages and can't live without a cell phone," says Dave O'Brien, regional manager of Berbee in Appleton, a company that helps businesses with their information technology needs. "Generation Y are connected, mobile and non-conformist. Businesses will need to be prepared for this generation or they are going to discover that finding employees will be more difficult."

Members of Generation Y know they are in demand so they are more selective in choosing a job, says Frank Albi, president of Inacom, a technology and business consulting firm with offices in Madison, Brookfield and Appleton.

"It's about a lot more than 'what can you pay me?' It's about 'what am I going to do and what kinds of tools will I have to do it?' They want the technology in place that allows them to do their jobs as efficiently as possible," he says. "What kinds of tools you give them is very important. They don't want some old, slow desktop computer, or to find it difficult to access the Internet. They want to have the ability to be mobile and to access their e-mails or Instant Messages. And they really prefer laptops so they can do work anywhere."

Steve Hoeft, manager of recruiting for Time Warner Cable in Kimberly, saw first-hand this summer how Generation Y is different when he had a group of 12 college student interns. "They were very into technology and real go-getters. When it came to the project I had them work on, they told me 'let us run this and drive it,' " he says. "I hadn't really seen that before."

Members of Generation Y are coming out of a college experience where technology ruled and everyone communicated via cell phone, AOL Instant Messaging and Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook. And as employees, these young people will be expecting to continue to communicate in the same way - even if that makes their bosses a bit squeamish, O'Brien says.

"They are going to want to IM and collaborate via the Internet. Why have a meeting if everyone can just meet online to discuss an issue?" he says. "If businesses aren't able to meet the technology needs of these younger workers, they'll move on to a business where they will find what they're looking for."

The way members of Generation Y communicate is also different, Albi says. For example, they are succinct in their messages and don't read any-thing into it, whereas an older worker - those in their 30s, 40s or 50s - may see a short message as being a bit standoffish.

"The way they exchange information is vastly differently. It's all about IMs and text messages - nice and short," Albi says.

At Time Warner, call center employees have access to IM and use it to communicate to each other as well as to friends and family members outside of the building, Hoeft says. "There's a fine line about what can be allowed at work and what can't. IMing is very popular, but if it's affecting their work, that's when there's a problem."

Call center employees are used to multitasking - for example, looking at several different computer screens and dealing with multiple product lines - so an instant message about where to meet for lunch isn't going to distract them and interfere with their work, says Hoeft.

Time Warner, which has about 450 employees in the Fox Valley, plans to add 90 more people before the end of the year and Hoeft says finding the right workers is key to the company's continued growth and success.

Business owners may think their technology is up to date, since they have high-speed Internet access, but O'Brien says that is the tip of the ice-berg. New technology such as unified messaging - which means workers can listen to their e-mail over the phone or read their voice mail from their e-mail accounts - is something members of Generation Y are looking for. Younger workers are also interested in voice recognition software that allows them to reply or forward e-mail and check and change their electronic calendar all from their cell phone.

"They know that having this type of software is something that will make them more productive and allow them to work wherever they're at," O'Brien says. "Generation Y sees the power of technology and wants to use it to make themselves more efficient workers."

Inacom has installed a variety of technology that makes communication easier, Albi says. The company has an internal Instant Messaging system, Microsoft's Live Meeting software and software that allows live communication among any staff members who are on the network. And Inacom's network is accessible from PDAs so employees can be in touch wherever they're at.