Businesses are at risk of alienating their next generation of tech-savvy employees if they do not change their approach to new ‘live’ technologies, according to new global research launched today.

Although 85% of employees use video as part of their everyday lives today, only 28% say their employers are proactively encouraging them to use video at work to communicate. 72% feel that live video has the power to transform the way they communicate at work and 69% believe that increased use of video conversations would help employee retention at all levels within the organisation.

The research, conducted amongst 4,000 employees across the UK, Germany, France and the US, also found that only one in seven (14%) employers is good at providing communications tools at work which mirror those employees use at home. Almost two thirds (63%) assert that their employers could make better use of live video, pointing to culture, collaboration and training as examples. Furthermore, 63% say that younger employees now expect to use live video as a communications tool when they enter the workplace.

James Campanini VP & GM EMEA, BlueJeans Network commented “Millennials communicate in real-time and use video and photographs in all aspects of their lives – they are the ‘selfie-generation’ who are comfortable on screen and sharing experiences with their friends and colleagues. It’s clear from our research that some businesses are failing to recognise that the way their staff want to interact and collaborate is changing in line with this.”