by Erin McDannald
For the past few years, âThe Great Resignationâ has caused ripples throughout the business world, and with millions of people switching jobs, the need for collaboration and mentorship has never been more crucial. With the rise of remote work, companies lost an average of ten percent of revenue during the pandemic when their teamwork and collaborative encounters halted.
In 2023 the hiring tsunami isnât slowing down. As of November 2022, job postings on Indeed were up 49 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels. With more hiring in the future, employers must devise a solution to new employees’ collaboration and mentorship challenges. The metaverse may be one answer.
Setting Up New Hires for Success
As new hires start their roles in 2023, many teams wonât be in the office five days a week. With hybrid work here for the long haul, now is the time for businesses to invest in tools that make it easier for employees to onboard and collaborate from anywhere. While traditional video conferencing and chat tools served their purpose, metaverse and digital twin environments will be versatile solutions for companies seeking a balance between flexible work-from-home policies and much-needed collaboration, mentorship, and resulting retention.
Integrating the metaverse into a companyâs infrastructure allows remote workers to maintain the material and interpersonal sense of an office. On a digital layer, new hires of all needs and work styles can interact with the workplace, regardless of location. This flexible approach makes for a better learning environment and boosts business as well. Estimates forecast a return on metaverse integration investment in less than one year.
The metaverse is being increasingly adopted in the workplace and will continue to evolve over the next few years. Beyond internal benefits, metaverse environments create new and powerful âreal estateâ and reach for companies looking to build the fullest experience of their brand. This physical/digital connection allows employees to see what is happening in their offices and communicate with those in person or from home. The metaverse offers incredible potential to quite literally go above and beyond the capabilities of physical spaces.
With so many ways to design, curate, update, and innovate, the metaverse is a great way to leave lasting impressions and boost new hiresâ experience from the onboarding process into the future of their careers.
Accessibility and Inclusion
When appropriately implemented, the metaverse has the potential to address accessibility and inclusion challenges traditional physical offices face. Employees with physical disabilities that may have a challenging time in the office will find a more welcoming and adaptive environment in the metaverse. For example, if someone is deaf, they can use metaverse closed captioning while interacting with their coworkers âface-to-face.â
Remote work eliminates employers’ limitations for hiring employees based on location, and the metaverse takes it to the next level by letting such remote employees keep in touch with the physical and social elements of an office and brand. As more companies hire from different regions of the world, the metaverse offers the option for teams to still communicate and collaborate despite language and geographical barriers in the physical world. Companies that weave the metaverse into their hybrid structure can hire the best candidates regardless of their location or culture with the peace of mind that they can fully integrate them into the organization.
Creating an Office Community
Metaverse offices have brought back âwater coolerâ talk and other serendipitous moments that canât happen over traditional video or chat-only platforms. Employees in the metaverse also have the opportunity to interact with employees who are present in the physical workplace. Technology like smart mirrors, which display a user’s metaverse avatar on a screen as if it were a mirror, allows employees in the office to interact with a remote employee’s avatar as if they were meeting in person. Statuses above employees’ heads and on office doors also indicate whether someone is ready to communicate, streamlining the collaboration process.
Integrating the metaverse into the now-hybrid workplace brings joy to a team as colleagues experience genuine interactions with one another regardless of physical locations or varied work styles. As companies evaluate their physical real estate footprint, it is essential for business leaders to look beyond just the physical space. The solution for greater return on collaboration and mentorship isnât a whole week in the office but a work week spent in well-connected areas.
Erin McDannald is the CEO and co-owner of Lighting Environments and its sister company, Environments. A pioneer for IoT (Internet of Things) integration and building and workplace management, McDannald is leading todayâs workforce through powerful digital transformation with the Elevated Environments™ app.
Environments elevates physical spaces to allow for cutting-edge interaction and collaboration within the digital twin, metaverse, and beyond.