The Monthly Newsletter for Web Professionals
Volume 8 Issue 04 - April 2006
Featured Article
New Web Professional Workforce Initiatives
By Carlene Lynch
The web professional workforce is dramatically changing as progressive partnerships between government, education, communities of practice, and industry professionals develop virtual social networks. Virtual communities driven by a new generation of workers the ‘millennials, those born after 1980 that have a innate ability to use technology, are comfortable with a diverse range of digital media, have close online friends, and literally demand interactive work environments.
The World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) a non-profit professional association is leading the efforts to tap into the growing body of workers who may not have the skills and experience of the many retirees they are replacing but utilize technology and social networks to fill this gap.
Bill Cullifer, WOW’s Executive Director said that “Our leaders need to understand the work style differences among the multigenerational workforce and mentor and coach collaborative work environments that give the ‘millenials’ the information they need—just in time and integrated on the job learning.”
Today’s online collaboration tools and environments just do not get the job done for our upcoming workforce. The linear approach of much of today's training conflicts with young people's learning styles and is better suited for older learners (over 40). Many of the present-day teachers are "those who speak with an accent," determining the right way to deliver information worker tools to the millennials is not easy when you do not understand their communication mediums.
We must:
- Provide a multitasker's online environments. The information worker of the future will have simpler yet richer tools that integrate their work with IM, the Web, link-to-cell phone and conferencing applications, and elearning.
- Workers need to be able to control this environment (syndication, blogs, wikis), turning features on and off based on what tasks they are performing, where they are physically located, and what device(s) they are using.
- Give workers access to each other and information. The young worker wants access to peers to discuss issues and work together on tasks. Provide and encourage virtual communities that may include threaded discussions, IM, blogs, polling and survey tools, whiteboarding, wikis, application sharing, project management tools, and dashboards.
- Let the 4 generations of workers collaborate, discuss, provide input, and learn. Provide informal opportunities for mentoring and coaching our future workers with real tasks and responsibilities.
- Deliver in-line training integrated with actual tasks. Workers (all ages) need contextual learning, in which they learn doing meaningful work.
The Next Generation of Web Professionals and What it Means
In the near future our businesses will face an increasing shortage of skilled workers as aging workers begin to retire. To attract and retain new workers (millennials) who have grown up with very different expectations for their work environments will require many adjustments in how we educate, implement, and deploy work collaboration tools, content management systems, portals, social networking, subscription services, and training. Interactivity is today’s method of education and working. Our new work environments need to encourage individual effort but must emphasize teamwork. Super-connected training programs and distributed learning will be the norm.
Despite a significant national disconnect between our generation of workers
and how we work and learn, the skills required by employers who hire today
need upgrading and constant nurturing. Today's methods of educating and
working — which were largely developed by the now aging Baby Boomers
— must and will change to meet these new workers' expectations. The
new workforce will have new work patterns supported by telecommuting and
flexible work programs and will multitask, communicate, and work with a
distributed team through information workplaces of the future. WOW working
with hundreds of colleges, high schools and training companies is making
an impact.