You cannot go 5 minutes these days without some comment about the generational differences, whether attitudes to food, discipline, the environment… If you are a little unsure on the ‘generations’ definitions, the diagram below should help. I’ll not define them in detail but the general gist is that the generations up to “Gen X” and including early Millennials understand the old, analogue world. After that, especially “Gen Z” and onward, have only really known a fully digital existence.

There is also another sub-generation (which will become important later) that spans the late generation X and very early Millennials - the "Xennials". Loosely defined from 1977 - 1983 (I personally consider myself Xennial despite being born in 1976), this generation is special:

“"Those of us born in the fuzzy borderland between Gen X and Millennial are old enough to have logged in to our first email addresses in college. We use social media but can remember living life without it. The internet was not a part of our childhoods, but computers existed and there was something special about the opportunity to use one." 

"We adapted easily to technological advances but weren’t as beholden to them as our juniors.” - Sarah Stankorb

Why we need Gen X before it's too late

The Baby Boomers are retiring and Gen Z will overtake them as a percentage of the workforce in the next couple of months / years. Currently Millennials and Generation X make up the greatest percentage of employees (2024).

Many of those Boomer employees have held their roles for years, potentially even crafting their own little niche to cosy up in until retirement. They have completed ledgers in pen, used pencils to draft plans, committed the Dewey Decimal Classification to memory and used a manual choke in their cars. More importantly the younger people coming into organisations have not a clue how this method of business or the processes built on its requirements even worked! As a case in point, even Millennials complain when the simplicity of Apple Pay is not an option these days as they already expect a level of digital integration as standard, conversely, Boomers don’t always get the new fangled techno babble and simply want to hand over cash (or a cheque). 

Step up Gen X and the super Xennials

What is needed is a bridge. A way for an organisation's process to be gently, peacefully and smoothly transformed from the resource intensive dark ages to the light touch digital age - this is the time of the Xennial. Like anything, the further you stray from the point of origin, the more changes that are made, the harder it is to revert back or understand the initial state and that is why now is the time for organisations across the spectrum to fully embrace digital transformation. Ask a Gen Z to take a Boomer process to be optimised and they’ll spend more time simply trying to understand the mechanisms, the touch points, the potential impact etc than actually enacting change. A Xennial in the meantime already understands how and why it was done that way and can see how to optimise that same process into a digital world.

Even for those organisations that started a transformation years ago, now is the time to enhance that strategy. Most changes 20 years ago mimicked the fully manual processes that existed and simply shifted it onto a computer. The world of API integration, cloud and mobiles simply did not exist on the scale it does now, however, you still need that old school bridge in order to truly optimise onto the digital platforms now available.

The student becomes the master

Of course, to maximise the benefit of technology, you need experts in the field and this is where Gen Z’s time arrives. Once Gen X has bridged the divide and provided that solid conversion, optimisation from past to present, Gen Z can take on the future - starting from a place of ‘safety’, already in the digital world. Creating further efficiencies, weaving greater integration and preparing organisations for the next leap in process management.

The growing digital divide

Despite SMEs making up 99.9% of UK companies and representing some of the country's most resilient businesses, over a quarter of UK SMEs still do not use basic digital tools. As Boomers exit the workforce, small businesses that rely heavily on their expertise must ensure to avoid productivity and knowledge-loss setbacks by adopting digital transformation now and where better to start than a document management system (DMS).

Keeping important data centralised and secure, providing user-friendly tools (whether Boomer or Z) for managing workflow / processes and automating routine tasks (filing, tracking, deadline reminders and data entry) - all saving time and reducing the risk of human error. A DMS provides a solid, organisation wide, secure platform for accounting, human resource, quality management, sales, audit, customer services and more, allowing smaller organisations to invest in efficiency across the whole and not just on one aspect or department.

PacSol can assist any size of organisation but especially those SMEs out there today that need to start the journey. With cloud based platforms now enabling functionality previously only available with greater investment to small businesses (at a fraction of the cost) and with potential ROI within 12 months, now is the time to engage the knowledge and power of those Xennials. Contact PacSol today and allow our friendly consultancy team to show you just how simple and cost effective transformation can be.

Toby Gilbertson, Director. October 2024

 

 

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