The Metaverse will Revolutionise the Future of Work
A new reality has almost dawned upon us where virtual office technology seamlessly blends with our own world. A new reality where today’s young Minecraft fans will soon have their own digital representations in the virtual world in the form of hyper-realistic 3D avatars sharing the same gestures, expressions and physicality, and who will be able to perform many of the things they do in real life. A new reality called Metaverse.?
What is Metaverse?
Metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual universe that aims to connect people wherever they are and enhance their ability to engage and collaborate by using cutting-edge technology like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), video, and blockchain. Its supporters believe it will connect people in real time through 3D avatars, substitute virtual meetings, enhance work efficiency, productivity and results, give virtual performances and offer game-related content for entertainment purposes. The current pandemic has only accelerated experimentation with metaverse technology, and day by day, its application is evolving.?
Shaping the future of HR
As of late, metaverse technology has been infiltrating and expanding into different areas of HR, predicting a new era of Human Resources to build the organisation of the future. It is the next big thing for HR that can revolutionise the way we work and think about office spaces and equipment.
The application of Metaverse in HR promises to enhance human processes.
Bill Gates predicts it will replace virtual conferences and replicate face-to-face meetings with co-workers through avatars and headsets [1].?
This next-generation workplace technology also has huge educational potential for training and remote staff onboarding.?People will be able to interact more efficiently with company data and 3D models for simulations, which is already happening in many companies worldwide.?
As a rightful successor to the experience economy, virtual reality paves the way to building ‘sticky experiences’, a tool that can capture the interest of a fresh generation of graduates. With the help of VR headsets, graduates can immerse themselves into a business environment, experience an office and the company’s benefits. The US recruitment team of PwC has been successfully taking VR headsets to career fairs since 2016, attracting more students by showing immersive footage of the work environment. The same idea can be applied to remote hiring. You can interview job applicants wherever they are whilst giving them a very real interview experience. This opens up new possibilities. When searching for candidates, you will no longer be constrained to one geographical location, and the world will become your recruitment pool.?
Who is building the Metaverse?
Whilst the Metaverse craze has taken the world by storm and is now on everyone’s lips, people want to know who is actually building the future of tomorrow today?!
The ownership of Metaverse cannot be pinned down to one single creator. Metaverse is a collective effort of multiple companies and independent developers who lay the foundation of this new virtual reality day by day.?
At least 160 companies are known to work across the verticals that lie at the heart of the Metaverse. These verticals include human interface, infrastructure, decentralisation, creator economy, spatial computing, discovery and experiences. That said, a few companies at the forefront of innovation are already investing big in this direction.
Facebook has announced that it is creating 10,000 jobs in the EU to develop its Metaverse vision [2]. Recently, the company that is also one of the biggest tech giants worth almost a whopping $1 trillion has announced its rebranding to Meta. In Mark Zuckerberg’s own words: “I? think we're basically moving from being Facebook first as a company to being metaverse first”.?
The accounting giant PwC is already using a Metaverse platform called Virtual Park to interview candidates and give them a 360-degree view of the working environment, company culture, values, and opportunities [3]. To date, PwC has welcomed 17,000 students to its Virtual Park. Jeremy Dalton, head of extended reality (XR) for PwC UK, told HR Magazine that “virtual worlds such as this enable us to reach a wider audience and, in some cases, makes an event even more accessible than it would be in the physical world as not everyone is able to travel to specific locations on specific days.”?
Microsoft is another tech giant that brings mixed reality to the mainstream. Through its SharePoint Spaces, Microsoft adds mixed-reality and artificial intelligence capabilities to Office 365 document management tool allowing its business users to view company content in 360° presentation [4]. And these are just a few of the big companies building the Metaverse right now.?
Although still in the making and not yet clearly defined, and a bit far-fetched too - someone would argue - one thing is certain, virtual reality is gradually but firmly transforming HR as we know it. Its power is in its value and how it can shape the future of work, which is why HR and People Leaders should embrace these new emerging technologies. They’re here with us to stay and make our lives easier and better in numerous aspects.?