what is the Metaverse and how will it change working in years to come?
Author: Charis Bedford
Working from home
Working from home has gone from a dream to a reality for many people after realising the challenges of working from home. The Pandemic is seen to have created a new normal after almost two years of hybrid working. Between 20-30% of full-time employees within the UK are now working from home regardless of being advised to return to offices by the Government. The benefits are endless with the new hybrid-working including cutting costs such as rent for businesses. However, hybrid working does come with its limitations.
The House of Commons found various issues with hybrid working including social isolation and the loss of knowledge sharing and idea development. With employees no longer all working in the same room or building, this leads to a decrease in communication. Employees are no longer having conversations whilst working nor going out for lunch together but rather sitting alone in a room in their home. With hybrid-working becoming more and more popular due to the flexibility, there needs to be a solution to this problem. Or maybe there already is…
What is the Metaverse?
On Thursday the 28th of October 2021, Facebook announced its name change to Meta to rebrand itself. Mark Zuckerburg went on to explain his plans to build the ‘Metaverse’. The term ‘Metaverse’ was devised in 1992 by science fiction novelist Neal Stephenson. A Metaverse is an immersive 3D digital world based on virtual reality gaming experiences. So… what would our future look like if the Metaverse takes over?
How will the Metaverse affect working?
Back in August last year, EmploymentKing stated that ‘the Metaverse will bring enormous opportunity to individuals who want to work from homes and employers will be able to test how the employee would work remotely (and in the Metaverse) and collaboratively on projects.‘
The first step towards the Metaverse will involve events and conferences – including job fairs. Virtual events are nothing new with many employees attending webinars and live-streamed sessions for years. The Metaverse has the potential to elevate these experiences.
Offices are already being built within virtual worlds to allow employees to digitally sit side by side all within the comfort of their own home. These offices have limitless design as well as no large real estate costs allowing for fully remote work. However, the Metaverse, as an interconnect network, doesn’t exist yet so companies are doing the next best thing – building worlds you can move around in as a digital stand-in.
When will the Metaverse take over?
In nearly two years, there has been a large increase in AVI (Asynchronous Video Interview) and ATS (Application Tracking systems) with over 98% of the top fortune companies using recruitment automated software. It’s also known that where large companies lead, small to medium-size businesses will follow. Research via LinkedIn by HR magazine found that 38% of HR professionals respondents said that the technology is relevant for their business and are excited to use it. However, virtual-reality technology is not yet advanced enough. As well as this, professionals are not willing to sit in a VR headset for 40 hours a week. Nevertheless, the Metaverse is an option to not be ignored to help with hybrid working.
Many of our jobs include flexible working from home as well as the office. Why not take a look?
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