Millennials are almost twice as likely to go rogue compared to boomers, with 81% admitting they have used or accessed something on their work device without IT’s permission versus just 51% of boomers who have done the same. The biggest difference was in software and applications – in the millennial age group, 47% reported accessing work apps and 46% admitted to accessing personal apps with permission, compared to just 22% and 18% of boomers.

The new research comes from Snow Software, a leader in technology intelligence solutions. The study polled 3,000 professionals in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.

“There is a tectonic shift happening in the enterprise, driven by a rapid move to the cloud and nearly unlimited access to technology,” said Vishal Rao, President & Chief Executive Officer at Snow. “Part of what we see in this data is a philosophical evolution in what the future of work looks like. The CIO and their teams are now strategic business partners with the power to fundamentally change their organizations. That new role requires empowering a new generation of employees and enabling the business to be as effective as possible while also balancing financial, regulatory and compliance risks.”

Additional key findings include:

• When it came to generational differences in work device behavior, the biggest disparity was in software and applications – in the millennial age group, 47% reported accessing work apps and 46% admitted to accessing personal apps on their work device without permission, compared to just 22% and 18% of boomers respectively.
• Younger workers are exponentially more emotional when they do ask for permission to acquire software or applications. Compared to baby boomers, millennials are nearly five times more likely to be nervous (24% vs 5%) and over four times more likely to feel it is beneath them (22% vs 5%).
• In general, management-level employees (manager, director, vice president or executive) were almost twice as likely to use unauthorized professional or personal software and applications compared to individual contributors (entry-level, associate or specialist).
• Vice presidents and C-level executives led the way in using work apps (57%) and personal apps (51%) on their work device without permission.
• There is a disconnect between worker’s behavior and understanding the business risks of unsanctioned and unmanaged technology. For example, just 7% of executives said they don’t think it causes any business issues, yet 57% have engaged in that exact behavior by downloading work applications and software without IT’s permission. And even though entry-level employees are the best behaved, with only 25% downloading work software or applications without permission, they were also most likely to think that doing so doesn’t have any negative impact on the business.

Where do organizations go to learn more? The world’s only Future of Work Expo (collocated with the ITEXPO #TechSuperShow) of course. Feb 12-14, 2020 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.