Is the way you communicate with colleagues really working? It’s time to try something new!

It’s the end of an era. This month, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced they’re pulling the plug on voicemail for employees; Coca-Cola said goodbye to it back in December.

While this plays big in the headlines, it’s really just a small footnote in the bigger story: businesses are finally ready to make big changes in internal communication—and this may have a lot to do with who makes up the workplace.

If you’re reading this at work, it’s likely you’re a millennial—or that they have you surrounded:

As of 2015, Millennials (a.k.a. Gen M, Gen Y—or simply those born between 1981 and 2000) make up the majority of employees.

That’s right—the Millennials are here. There are 53.5 million in the workplace now, and no other generation has brought this much change along with them. It’s not just what they want out of life that’s different, it’s the way they work that’s making a big impact on the entire workforce.
Millennials embrace what we call the NextGen Worker workstyle. Unlike Gen X or the Baby Boomers, they expect the flexibility to be as productive, collaborative and connected in the workplace as they are in their personal lives—and they embrace the technology that makes this possible.

But which came first, the technology or the millennial?

Millennials were brought up with technology. They’re comfortable with it, fluent in it, and are enamored with the nimbleness it allows them. But did they bring all the technological changes to the office? That’s a question for the ages.

Regardless of the answer, we can all agree that Millennials are amazing technology ambassadors. Just as we need to choose technology that’s attractive to their unique ways of working, we benefit from the fact that Millennials are now trendsetters in the workplace and no one wants to be left behind. With Millennials in the majority, companies are able to make bigger technological leaps (think BYOD) with the assurance of higher adoption rates from all age groups. (It’s never too late to learn new technologies to improve day-to-day tasks, no?)

Already, the mobile devices and apps we enjoy using in our personal lives are naturally replacing the less-than-productive forms of communication (read more about the demise of voicemail). As a result, internal communication is becoming easier, more mobile, increasingly flexible, and it’s happening in real time and in one place.

Today, we’re seeing the biggest impact with the rise of messaging apps. Messaging apps make up six of the top ten most-used apps globally. By bringing this familiar technology into the workspace, companies are driving more authentic communication and unifying team efforts. In other words, they’re getting a more productive environment.

But what makes a good messaging app? Research shows workers want: