Mike Gotta moderated our next generation workforce panel this morning, where I participated alongside Scott Smith from IBM Global Services and Patti Anklam, a writer and consultant on social networking. Here are a couple of key take-aways from the discussion:

• What is the "next generation workforce"? The next generation workforce will be defined by its diversity - of age, of geography, of culture and of workstyle. The challenge for organizations is to facilitate productive collaboration and sharing of knowledge across the various gaps.
• HR and IT should work in partnership to help the organization succeed. HR owns the challenges of the nextgen workforce: recruiting and retention, knowledge transfer, and succession planning, but they are not usually the leader in driving implementation of useful new technology solutions. IT is ahead of the curve in understanding the business value of Enterprise 2.0 applications,but needs to participate more fully in dialogues with HR to build systems that support mentoring, alumni networks, social recruiting, and employee experience.
• IT policies are HR policies: Going forward, IT policies are becoming HR policies in terms of the message they send about the workplace culture. IT needs to balance legitimate concerns about security, compliance and governance with the desire of workers to use new channels and new media to stay connected.
• Ambient connectivity unites the virtual workforce: As organizations, their supply networks, and their customers become more geographically distributed, technologies like presence, IM, and micro-blogging (Twitter,etc.) help create the sense of shared social space, so that virtual workers feel organically connected  to team members, rather than just part of a far-flung process. 

Thanks to everyone who participated.