The CEO of technology firm Advanced has warned that businesses are not doing enough to embrace younger generations of workers.
Gordon Wilson says recent entrants to the workforce could be the 鈥榮ilver bullet鈥� of digital transformation 鈥� but the opportunity is being wasted by many.
鈥淟eaders must embrace the younger generation as a priority 鈥� and that means being open to change and a different way of doing things,鈥� he said following publication of Advanced鈥檚 Digital Natives Report.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 more, they mustn鈥檛 underestimate what this new generation can achieve or pigeonhole them into uninspiring roles. Rather, they need to create roles based on their skills, knowledge and talents.鈥�
The report found that around one in four (26%) of Generation Z workers say their company isn鈥檛 doing enough to attract the younger generation.
The report also said 20% say a lack of diversity and multi-generation experience will hold their company back from modernising its key processes or systems while 31% don鈥檛 think their company gives the younger generation a voice when it comes to technology adoption.
The independent survey explored the attitudes of over 1,000 UK senior business decision makers across multiple generations.
As much as 42% of Generation Z workers would like to see business intelligence in their daily working lives followed by the Internet of Things (40%), robotic process automation (30%) and artificial intelligence (26%).
Four-fifths would be happy to work alongside robotic technology if it meant less manual processes.
Wilson added: 鈥淚t鈥檚 this enormous appetite for new technology, along with their innate digital skills, that will help propel businesses into the digital era.
鈥淚n fact, Generation Z is arguably the silver bullet for helping organisations successfully meet the growing pressure to be digital-by-default.
鈥淟ike it or not, digital transformation is essential for business growth so our report鈥檚 findings will come as blow to many business leaders who are clearly failing to accommodate five generations of workers that each have varying levels of technology knowledge.鈥�