By 2025, 75 percent of the workplace will be made up of millennials and Generation Z. Today, millennials are not only changing retail strategies and operations – they are also heavily influencing corporate culture and the technology and tools needed to conduct business. While the use of email is declining and becoming less effective in business settings, messaging apps, Communications Platforms as a Service (CPaaS), and chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) have become the new way to navigate the workplace. These enabling technologies not only promote effective and efficient workflow for employees, they also allow employers to remain connected to the workforce and customers.

Thanks to advancements in AI, machine learning allows chatbots to hold conversations with employees and answer important questions pertaining to schedules, upcoming projects, company policies, and more. Giving employees this type of shared communication platform between business headquarters and retail locations provides instant access to success. An AI-powered mobile messaging platform that is designed for millennial-minded workforces can initiate and foster a sense of shared identity and teambuilding while improving efficiency and productivity. These solutions provide teams with the ability to collaborate instantly, and as a result, employees begin to feel more connected to their leaders and peers.

Seeing this trend emerge, Phobio developed a new way for employees to collaborate with each other and for retailers to communicate better with their employees. Phobio’s mobile messaging platform, Rodio, mimics an organization’s structure, providing leaders with access to the front-lines and the front-lines access to their peers. Leaders can instantly deliver bulletins to a subset of employees or the entire organization. Rodio also provides powerful reporting tools that can track the engagement rates of communications bulletins.

Well-suited for millennial-minded workforces, Rodio features an AI-powered Rodiobot functionality to increase efficiency, assist workforces, answer questions, onboard new employees, and automate tasks. Through conversational language, users can ask questions such as, “What are today’s sales promotions?” Rodiobot returns an answer in milliseconds, which in turn drives operational efficiencies throughout the entire workplace. Through machine learning, Rodiobot develops a robust knowledge base that enables both retailers and front-line employees to make better business decisions.

Overall, millennials are a generation that expect instant communication. They think outside the box and crave the option to work from a traditional desk or remotely. Virtual work environments, chat apps, and CPaaS give employees the freedom needed to foster this flexible, yet productive work-life balance. In a survey conducted by Microsoft, 93% of millennials cited modern and up-to-date technology as one of the most important aspects of a workspace. As employee turnover is incredibly expensive for retail teams, companies must implement technology that improves, not restricts, accountability and collaboration. According to Gallup, employees who are engaged and thriving in their current positions are 59% less likely to look for a new job.

With Rodio, even geographically-dispersed workforces can receive and acknowledge timely sales promotions, important corporate announcements, and details on new product launches directly from their smartphones. By providing the right information, to the right employees, at the right time, Rodio is radically changing how retailers conduct business. As millennial communications in retail evolve, companies must embrace digital transformation and utilize the right technology to keep employees engaged, inspired, and informed.

Interested in learning more about Rodio? Schedule a demo here.