As students and younger communicators in the millennial and Gen Z generations navigate the second year of this pandemic, there are two important questions we must ask ourselves: “what does the workplace hold for us next?” and “what are we hoping to change?”

Many students and young workers are calling for reformation – or perhaps an evolution – in the way offices and businesses communicate and function. There are three ways that stand out.

More Visual Communication

One of the ways we can reform the workplace is by using visual communication to understand complex ideas and problems, retain information, and increase productivity.

It is imperative for leaders in the industry to understand that as a result of using various visual platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, younger generations are wanting their work communication to somewhat resemble and reflect their communication outside of the workplace. If businesses can utilize visual communication effectively and use it to inspire and assist the younger generation, businesses and entire industries will strengthen as a whole.

TechSmith did a survey of 4,500 office workers across six regions and five generations, and the result showed that younger workers preferred more visual content when communicating at work. While not surprising for younger workers, there were clear results that showed how visual communication, regardless of age, can increase workers ability to understand information faster, remember information for longer than text-only communication, and remember more information.

Image by Kiddom

Evolving Recruitment & Retention Efforts

On top of aiding productivity and engagement within a business through the use of visual communication, younger workers also want to see a series of specialized efforts designed to attract them vs. a bland, generic approach.

As younger generations, we are less keen on working individually and we value a highly collaborative environment. As humans we are naturally social creatures, but as young workers we recognize that teamwork and collaboration across all levels in an organization leads to more creative thoughts, ideas, and solutions to the problems we face.

A study by North Carolina State University showed that while the younger generations are ambitious to get things done, they are aimless as to where to begin. The study found that when companies recruit new hires, posted information shouldn't focus on the title, roles and responsibilities of the position, but instead on the values and skills of the position and of the organization.

In addition to the generation-tailored recruitment process, the treatment of employees is important to communicate. For younger workers, things like company benefits, work-life balance, and philosophy on the kinds of clients the company will and won’t work with are necessary to understand. Younger generations have witnessed extreme instability globally, which leads us to look for more stability in our workplace. Younger generations also want to create a lasting impact in the world, and we value that effort highly. It is why agencies like Curator, which works with brands that do good work in addition to their organizational goals, are so attractive to younger workers.

Professional Growth & Feeling Valued

And finally, businesses need to ensure that there is opportunity for professional development for their younger workers. Through some of these efforts, younger workers will begin to feel less like unappreciated members of the team that solely exist in the bottom of the organization and more like a respected member of the team with ideas that higher-ups will listen to . And respect on the job and opportunity for growth is becoming an increasingly valued and prioritized by new applicants.

If organizations can implement all or even some of these things, there is a high likelihood that the engagement and productivity from their youngest workers will increase, along with the sense of identity and feeling that their work and contributions are valued. Through these efforts to uplift their employees and tailoring the information they share to generational interests; organizations can diversify their workforce through a wider pool of applicants that are interested into the position to which they are applying.