Millennials — the people born from around the early 1980s to the late 1990s — now comprise the largest segment of the U.S. workforce. And by 2019, they’ll be the biggest adult population overall, surpassing Boomers and Generation Xers.

Given this seismic demographic shift, it’s not surprising that businesses across all industries — from small startups to large enterprises — are aggressively trying to recruit and retain the millennials they need to drive today’s success, and lead tomorrow’s growth.

If your organization is vying to onboard talented and high-potential millennials, then you’re well aware that competition is ferocious. But what you may not be aware of, is that your old school conventional premises-based landline phone system might be a human resource liability instead of an asset. Why is this the case?

It’s because study after study — like the 2017 Deloitte Millennial Survey — confirms that the number one thing that millennials want isn’t a hefty signing bonus, a corner office with a big window, or even enhanced perks and benefits. What they want more than anything else is FLEXIBILITY. And that’s precisely what a cloud telephone (VoIP) phone system delivers!

Here are the 4 ways that a cloud telephone system drives flexibility across your workforce, and ultimately helps you recruit and retain millennials who value flexibility above all else:

With a cloud telephone system, millennials can flexibly continue the work journey at anytime, and from wherever they’re working — such as from a home office, a hot desk environment, their favorite café, and so on.

Of all of the cloud telephone system unified calling features that millennials love, voicemail-to-email is usually atop the list. This isn’t surprising, because it aligns perfectly with their fondness for flexibility. They can easily listen to voicemails on their smartphone, and prioritize their tasks and time accordingly.

Obliging millennials to come into head office for meetings can be a non-starter — because there just aren’t enough hours in the day, and the only thing that millennials hate worse than slow internet is tedious commuting. A cloud telephone system features built-in video conferencing, which means that face-to-face doesn’t always mean in-person.

Millennials who work on a flexible schedule quickly grow weary — and exhausted — of emailing their colleagues telling them when they’re in the office and when they’re not. With a cloud telephone system, they can easily toggle their availability so that their colleagues know when they should or shouldn’t send instant messages or route calls.

Millennials get a bad wrap, and get slapped with some unfair stereotypes (which ironically only seems fair, since it’s the same rite-of-passage that Boomers and, Gen Xers have gone through, and Gen Zers will soon experience!).

Contrary to popular belief, millennials in the main aren’t lazy or self-entitled. They’re simply trying to carve out a career path on a relentlessly-fast paced work landscape where stability is the exception vs. the norm. Flexibility for them isn’t just a preference. It’s part of what they need to thrive, and in the bigger picture, to survive. That makes a cloud telephone system an essential investment: one that will pay dividends and delivery ROI for decades to come!

To learn more about the advantages and benefits of a cloud telephone system in your environment, contact the Carolina Digital Phone team today. (336) 544-4000