Keeping personal data personal isn’t as important for the millennial generation, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Nearly a third of survey respondents, which included 10,000 people in China, India, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S., said they would allow employers access to personal data, including social media profiles. Companies could use this information to track the productivity of their workforces.
Millennials are set to fill more than half of the global workforce by 2020, according to The Future of Work: A journey to 2020. Millennials were defined as anyone born between 1980 and 2000.
“Just as advertisers and retailers are using data from customers’ online and social media activity to tailor their shopping experience, organizations could soon start using workers’ personal data (with their permission) to measure and anticipate performance and retention issues,” says Michael Rendell, PwC global HR consulting leader. “This sort of data profiling could also extend to real-time monitoring of employees’ health, with proactive health guidance to help reduce sick leave.”
In return for this profiling, employees could receive more job security or health benefits. PwC’s survey says that younger generations are more open to this type of data collection, even when it involves personal information.
But one critical gap to be bridged for this structure to exist successfully is the trust component. Employees must hold a level of confidence that the companies they work for will ethically collect information about them, and use it appropriately. And those codes of conduct for acquiring, using and sharing personal data aren’t quite defined yet, according to the report.
Read more about encouraging an environment of trust to retain top talent.
