Hybrid and remote work is here to stay and will bring huge benefits for people and organisations everywhere — from finally decoupling physical location from work opportunity, to widening the talent pool and providing the flexibility people need to balance work and life.
Yet as we move from “working from home during a pandemic” to the realities of long-term hybrid work, business leaders are grappling with new challenges like maintaining culture virtually and mastering remote collaboration.
The metaverse will help organisations overcome many of these challenges: creating a world where people at work can feel truly present, productive and connected. And while it won’t materialise overnight, the companies investing in their people, culture and technology today will be well placed to reap the benefits on the road to the metaverse.
Here are four ways the metaverse will change the way we work for the better.
Presence: Feeling like you’re there in person, when you’re thousands of kilometres away
For too long there has been an in-office bias in our work structures. If you work in a head office, chances are you’re better exposed to leadership, opportunities and information.
Too many organisations have failed to notice this inequity. But remote work and macroeconomic factors like the Great Resignation are now making it impossible to ignore.
Presence isn’t about seeing your colleagues on video calls. It’s about replicating that sense of togetherness that comes from being in an office. And the metaverse will help us do this through shared spaces built for synchronous collaboration, spontaneous interactions, and co-working.
Collaboration: More inclusive and multi-format ways of working together
Two years into the pandemic and many of us may feel collaboration is synonymous with video calling. While video calling is vitally important, it can’t be the only option. After all, what works in a one-to-one is unlikely to be the best solution for a 50-person working group.
To enable effective collaboration across distances, businesses need to provide tools that remove friction and allow collaboration to flow fluidly. For example, through body language cues or the ability to physically interact with projects. And they need to give employees the licence to banish “always on” culture and collaborate asynchronously, too.
We’re only at the beginning of the collaboration journey with our virtual meeting space Horizon Workrooms. In five years, we expect that hybrid collaboration could include holographic attendance at meetings and events, as well as the ability to teleport to shared spaces.
Productivity: Working smarter, not harder with technology
It’s clear that we’re moving away from the days of 9-5pm office work, five days a week. But few organisations today really empower their people to switch off and focus.
At work, small things can make a big difference to our productivity: from not having a second screen, to distracting notifications. Then there are frontline workers in sectors like retail and travel, who often don’t have access to the tools they need at all.
In the future, we’ll be able to embrace tech that helps us work smarter, not harder. VR will help free us from our physical constraints so that we can set up our ideal productive environments — with infinite displays and persistent whiteboards that connect to the tools we use today and the ability to transport virtually to the places where we get our best work done.
Equity: Opening up opportunities for more workers
The metaverse has the potential to make work a better place for everyone, severing the link between where we are and the work opportunities available to us.
But none of this will be possible if we repeat the mistakes of the past and exclude large tranches of the workforce — like frontline workers, who have long been underserved by technology — from the tools we build.
By building the metaverse in a way that works across 2D and 3D as well as different devices and user circumstances, we can make sure that it is not only the preserve of those sitting in fancy conference rooms or with headsets. It’s only when we build for all employees that the metaverse can deliver on its promise and create better work experiences for all.
The metaverse is set to change the way we work for the better, but one thing that won’t change is the things we value at work: communication, community, connection. The businesses that have still not made these cultural shifts will find the technological one impossible.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.