Rich Gee once worked at a technology research company with a young subordinate who took charge of sending out a mass e-mail announcing the launch of a new Web site. The link in the e-mail contained a misspelling, though, and failed to deliver users to the site.

Truly bewildered by Gee’s chagrin, the sender shrugged it off as no big deal. After all, he could fix his mistake and resend the e-mail in 10 seconds flat.

Gee told him first impressions are important and the dead-end link had cost the company some credibility. When the younger employee insisted that a second e-mail would solve everything, “I suddenly realized I was old,” says Gee, 46, now a career coach based in Stamford, Conn.

More recent crops of college graduates are of the Facebook generation, constantly updating their “status” (whatever they’re doing at any given moment) and profiles on the popular social networking Web site, while at the same time dashing off text messages written in shorthand that baffles their elders. Using Twitter, a free social messaging utility, users swap updates (“tweets”) on their every activity, in 140 characters or less. For them, communication is immediate and impermanent.

That mindset engenders carelessness, which can extend to more traditional modes of communication. The result, Gee says, is there are millions of young workers who cannot write a good business letter.

The Society for Human Resource Management surveyed its members three years ago and found that millennials, the latest generation to enter the work force, are widely regarded as lacking in written communication skills.

“Millennials are so caught up in the constancy of communication that they don’t ever pause to give consideration to clarity and quality,” says Robert Hoberman, president, executive search and training division, RW Consulting Group, Holmdel, N.J. “There’s consistent agreement among human resources directors and career consultants I’ve spoken with that this is a major problem.”

The problem has far-reaching implications. For starters, the clash in communications styles causes friction between millennials and older workers, particularly baby boomers, who expect all business communication to be polished, if not perfect. And with boomers expected to retire in increasing numbers starting three years from now, leaving behind millions of managerial positions, “Corporate America is headed for a crisis because it’s difficult to imagine millennials being adequately prepared to take their place if they lack such basic skills,” Hoberman says.

In addition, deficient writing and interpersonal skills of young workers can compromise employers’ success. Ineffective communication, as opposed to insufficient core competencies, is to blame for up to 80 percent of instances in which a goal involving teamwork failed to be met, according to Gallup research.

Most detrimental to millennials, especially in a recessionary economy, is that young jobseekers who otherwise are qualified candidates may get passed over for jobs because their communication skills aren’t up to snuff, says Joseph Scalice, president, RW Consulting Group. Their résumés are too loosely formatted, their cover letters are vague and their spelling is appalling.

“I’m not talking about one or two errors. I see misspellings all throughout, which is amazing in this day and age with spell check,” Scalice says.

Whether for résumés or business reports, “The idea of writing multiple drafts is foreign to them,” he adds.

Responding to millennials’ shortcomings and the need of employers need to address them, the American Management Association lately has begun offering a host of grammar and business writing courses and a communication “boot camp.”

But though many companies are paying to train young hires, others believe millennials aren’t worth the investment because it’s expected that they’ll stay with a company for about two years and then move on, Hoberman says.

Widening the divide between millennials and boomers is the younger generation’s preference for technology. “Whenever something needs to be communicated, their solution is to pick up whatever digital device happens to be handy,” Hoberman says.

There are four tiers of communication: face-to-face, telephone, e-mail and “instant messaging,” such as text messaging via cell phone, Gee says.

“Typically, baby boomers go from top down, and millennials go the opposite way,” he says.

Millennials who want to stand out among their peers by sharpening their communication skills must first realize that digital modes of communication aren’t always appropriate or even particularly efficient.

“Think about what you need to accomplish in any situation. If it’s simply to convey information, you can use the lower levels of communication,” says organizational development consultant Marcia Ellis, Co-Creative Solutions, Norwalk, Conn.

When a situation requires teamwork, conflict resolution or consensus building, “you have to go to those higher levels of communication,” she says.

Gee suggests enlisting a mentor’s help.

“And if you really want to stand out,” he says, “arrange an old-fashion business lunch with them and follow it up with a handwritten – yes, a handwritten – thank-you note.”