The Covid pandemic changed may well have changed the workplace forever – particularly office-base workplaces. With physical contact off-limits, many employees pivoted to working from home. This continued once lockdown restrictions and precautions ended, with many businesses now offering hybrid working as the norm.
This has meant more meetings are being held virtually, particularly via conference call or video call – but could the metaverse be about to change the landscape once more? One HR specialist thinks so.
What is the metaverse?
The metaverse is basically an open world virtual reality (VR) landscape where people can live, work, shop, and interact with others like in the real world. It allows people to have real time interactions and experiences across distance.
It’s been proposed by Facebook as being the next big thing, but since changing its name to Meta, the company has gone into financial free fall, losing $650 billion in market value.
So how exactly will it transform the job market? James Blackwell, CEO of Ronald James, a digital talent agency, explains.
How the metaverse will transform the global job market
As the public searches for a way to avoid reality, the virtual worlds that are being constructed also offer a departure from the usual ways of working. “When Mark Zuckerberg announced the new name of Facebook, Meta, and his intention to aim for the creation of the metaverse, the news came as a surprise” concludes Blackwell. Companies like Apple, Microsoft and Meta are just a few of the companies that help design the infrastructure to help bring the metaverse to the masses.
Platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and many others have improved this new reality of connection between people. There is still a need for more personal interactions, such as the metaverse, by offering a 3D environment, and hopes to be the premium virtual environment and those social moments that this new socio-economic reality is lacking.
This new reality transports us to a “virtual office” and we can be in contact with our colleagues without leaving the comfort of our homes, simply through VR or AR. Future Metaverse workplaces will be more streamlined, easier, and more efficient for employers and employees. Additionally, as there will be no physical boundaries in the Metaverse, companies will be able to hire employees from anywhere in the world.
James Blackwell – recruitment specialist and online coach – who helps entrepreneurs achieve real, consistent, predictable, and tangible business results, declares: “Now these companies and the new realities of the metaverse are starting to have a direct impact on the job market, creating opportunities: Meta has announced that it intends to hire 10,000 people in Europe alone in the next few years. The goal is to build the metaverse, as if it were a virtual human resources universe.”
The capabilities to be experienced, understood, and investigated in this new virtual world still need to be refined, improved, and valued in every detail. “Nike has published several jobs offers to work directly in the metaverse, with the fashion sector being one of the first markets to understand the potential of the metaverse,” asserts Blackwell
This technology also has a significant influence on the recruitment of talent as well as the training and development of professionals and their skills.
In short, the metaverse will need a new labour economy, is building one from scratch, and will revolutionise many industries and professions. It will create a multitude of employment opportunities. The job opportunity is not necessarily new and unique, but an opportunity for many existing professions, where you will see a development and a departure from the traditional framework, offering a new perspective and functionality to the professional occupation itself.
How a conference call could transform the way your business works
Working smarter is not always all about hi-tech solutions. If you’ve staff working from home, a wobbly WiFi connection is all it takes to make a mess of your meeting. That’s where a conference call comes into its own. With our service, you can host up to 100 participants using nothing more than a landline or smartphone.
Find out more at ConferenceCall.co.uk
Image by mohamed_hassan on Pixabay.
