What Do Millennials Want from Museum Work?

The British Government has just published a new White Paper on Culture. One of the things it wants to encourage a debate about is the role of museums. At long last! Some will say. What is a museum? Is what others may say. My question is, what does the next generation think and do? Not just about museums, or culture, but work and life itself. So what will museums need to become?

A business survey published this May (2016) in the U.S.A. gave some interesting results*

Millennials expect flexible work arrangements

A great deal of work can be done any time from any location, which means the traditional 9-to-5 routine is becoming extinct. 95% of millennials want the option to at least occasionally work outside the office? Part of the museum staff problem is that not enough of them are on the exhibition floor and are in their offices. Lets get them out of there as much as we can. Getting them out of the museum entirely is probably a very healthy thing - even if it is only to visit other museums.

77% think flexible hours would make the workplace more productive.

This generation also values work-life balance over high salary positions (not usually a problem in museums)

A flexible work arrangement usually means ...
Employees are more productive
Organisations achieve greater employee satisfaction and less turnover
Emergencies are less of a problem (employees are equipped to work anywhere)
Organisations experience less sick employees and absenteeism
Organisations become more attractive to top talent
Can we do this in museums, can we rethink opening hours? Most visitors come between a 11am - 3pm window. What about weekends? Unless you are in a tourist hotspot, Mondays are very quiet. We can build in flexibility very easily.

Open Offices are Replacing Traditional Layouts

The future it seems is open plan and hot desks, cutting down operational costs. Apparently GlaxoSmithKline saves $10m p.a. through unassigned seating. If more people are off site, out of the office, working flexibly then why waste money on office space - it can free up more storage space for artefacts! Thus eliminating the UK museum storage crisis in one fell swoop. Or just cut costs, making museums more sustainable.

How to do it well? Here are some tips

Furnish your offices with moveable furniture that can be reconfigured so employees are able to work privately or collaboratively if needed. If you don't want to be near Janice and her unfortunate soup based habits pick up your work station and move it to a toilet cubicle.

Do away with assigned seating and offer seating alternatives like standing desks, yoga ball seats and sofa/lounge areas so employees have several options and the ability to move around throughout the day. I think yoga balls could attract younger volunteers to museums and produce a steady stream of older volunteers to hospital accident and emergency departments.

Create think spaces, meditation spots, or private areas where staff and volunteers can go to make private phone calls, have meetings or work in peace.

Create collaboration areas specifically for group meetings away from the main open space so as not to disrupt others.

The Internet of Things (IoT) Will Rule Everything

This is possibly the biggest influencer of change since the Internet (or in the case of museums, since the quill pen was replaced by the fountain pen). That's because it's now possible for "smart" electronic devices to automatically communicate with one another without any human-to-computer interaction.

With the right management software to govern all this automation, museum managers are in for a real treat:

You will be equipped to track the location and utilisation of every item, computer, mobile device, piece of equipment and room in your building.

All connected devices are sharing information, which means big data can be collected and analysed in real time to track and monitor behaviours, and identify ways to increase efficiency while lowering cost.

Will your museum become a "Smart building" equipped with IoT-capable light fixtures, smart utilities and advanced management software will make predictive maintenance a reality.

Are you ready for the future? The museum that will survive and thrive in the years to come will be those that adopt these trends early and embrace their limitless possibilities.

While the next generations catch a lot of flack for their unconventional work ethics, they also bring fresh and exciting perspectives to our sector.


And it's their vision that will ultimately reshape the museum of the future.







*Inc Magazine http://www.inc.com/elizabeth-dukes/what-95-of-millennials-want-and-other-trends-you-need-to-know.html