AmerisourceBergen CIO Tom Murphy explains what generational shifts in IT will mean for the workplace--and what CIOs should be doing now to prepare.

Tom Murphy, CIO of AmerisourceBergen, the $78 billion pharmaceutical services company, sees some major differences between young IT workers and their elders--particularly when it comes to their expectations.

As Murphy explains, Millennial workers expect that they'll be able to use their choice of tools and technologies to accomplish work--just as they use them in their personal lives. This creates some difficulties for IT leaders, but also some opportunities.

Murphy talked about what to expect from Millennials, and what CIOs should do to prepare, in a recent interview with Workforce News Editor Brian P. Watson. This is a condensed version of their conversation.

 
What are the biggest changes that the Millennial generation will bring to the enterprise?

Expectation. Their expectation is fundamentally different than previous generations coming into the workplace.

Previously, when we started, we didn’t think the company owed us anything. We were grateful to have work. That’s not the same way this generation thinks, it seems. This generation comes in expecting a lot, assuming they can go do whatever they want, whenever they want. So this job is just a job. And if this company can’t meet their expectations—ranging from the technology they use to do their work, to the type of work they do, to how “green” or socially conscious the company is—then they’ll go find another place that suits them better.

It’s been muted a bit because of the economy, but fundamentally, that is the greatest difference between this generation and others. And then it manifests itself in things like, “What do you mean I have to use a BlackBerry? I have an iPhone, and I want to use it.” Or, “Why do I have to use a Lenovo ThinkPad? I use Apple. Why can’t I use Apple?” That’s how they work, how they communicate. You can block Facebook, but they don’t distinguish between Facebook as personal and LinkedIn as business. It’s all part of their life.

There’s this blurring of the lines more than anything we’ve seen, and it’s really, really going to impact IT.


Is there any thought among CIOs about how they can accommodate these younger workers, or how they will immediately affect the workplace?

First, the interview process needs to be very honest, both ways, perhaps in a manner that we didn’t worry as much about in the past. I need to make sure the expectations I’m setting for the incoming worker are reasonable and clear. I don’t want to get someone in here that in two months says, “This isn’t what I thought it was going to be.” Being very honest and transparent upfront is one thing we can do to facilitate the next generation.

There are also things we can do that don’t cost anything. We can look back at the policies we’ve put in place, and ask why they were put in place. In many companies, they were put into place three, four, five years ago, and dealt with emerging issues like mobility. Do those still hold true? More often than not, we’re perceived as cops—we put into place these policies that tend to be very good for IT, but stifle business people.

So we need to ask, “Do the environments still exist that made us put that policy in place?” More often than not, the answer is no. There is very good security built into different operating systems; we have the ability to password-protect and force passwords and encryption on these operating systems. We should go back and look at the assumptions we made, and eliminate the ones that don’t hold true anymore. We don’t have to go from zero to 60, but maybe we can get to 10 or 20 this year, and build on that as prove to ourselves and the executives that we can sustain the model.

We can ease up a little. We can do something.


But many CIOs still seem to think that the old ways will work, that they can dictate to younger workers what tools they have to use, or what processes they must follow.

They’re digging in their heels. They don’t want to be threatened, and they don’t want to lose control. That is an old-style kind of reaction to a new reality, and it’s not going to work.

You need to do something, because this isn’t going to get any better. If you just stick your head in the sand or dig in your heels, it’s going to get away from you, one way or another. I think about it like culture: you can have a purposeful culture that you nurture and sustain, and if you don’t, culture is going to grow in your organization—whether you like it or not.

People are going to find ways around what you put into place, so why not embrace it? Why not meet them at least halfway, instead of pretending it’s not there, or saying “no” without giving any explanation why? That’s not going to work in the long run. And you won’t be able to attract and retain the kind of talent that you want for the next decade.

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