What is Metaverse? How Will Metaverse Shape Future Workplace?

The main question is: Can Metaverse's virtual world overcome the lack of human relationships due to the changing nature of work? When you look collectively, these changes will reduce the amount of time colleagues spend together personally. But, as interest in the Metaverse grows, the ability to connect people in the workplace of the future will become more evident. The mixing of real-world and virtual interactions will revolutionize the future workplace as hybrid working becomes the norm.

What is the Metaverse?

If you've seen "Ready Player One" or "The Matrix," you're probably familiar with their virtual worlds. The Metaverse, according to GlobalData's social media study, is a "virtual environment where people exchange experiences and interact in real-time within simulated scenarios."

In a word, the Metaverse is the fusion of physical and virtual worlds.

How Metaverse is changing working models?

We're now ready to discuss how this concept could be applied to offices.

Think about it: Jack is sitting in a private booth in a downtown co-working location, wearing a virtual reality headset. A conference is going place inside the VR boardroom, and Jack's 3D avatar appears to be leaner and younger-looking than his flesh-and-blood counterpart. His coworkers can hear his real voice and watch him write notes on a floating whiteboard in real time, but he's just pixels beyond that.

It all began on a conference call with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook.

That's when Zuckerberg declared his desire to turn Facebook into a "Metaverse company, Meta."

He released the beta version of his new VR software at that time. Horizon Workrooms was the name he gave it. Guests wore virtual reality goggles to attend a virtual meeting.

It's especially ingenious since it allows users to 'see' some physical components of their surroundings – such as their own hands, table, and laptop screen – while also being immersed in a wholly digital environment.

Creating an office in Metaverse

It's difficult to imagine a large group of employees sitting in a virtual room all day, bumping into digital versions of their coworkers. However, many people are already doing it. Even before the term "Metaverse" became popular, virtual office companies were gaining a lot of popularity. The virtual office of the future might look a lot like your favorite video game. “Virtual office” can mean more than Zoom and Slack and some companies are building it literally. There will be no more extravagant real estate prices. Design possibilities are endless. Work is done entirely from home, with social interaction available at all times. But don’t rush. There's no need to hand out virtual reality headsets to the full team before trying out a virtual environment. Nobody is ready to be in a VR headset 40 hours a week.

Take look at some examples: Gather company, has the appearance of an old-school video game, with pixelated characters and a colorful 2D setting. As a floating circle of video, you wander about a modern-looking office in Teamflow. The 3D architecture of Virbela allows you to walk across a corporate campus while wearing a full-body avatar. Gather and Teamflow can be accessed through a web browser, whereas Virbela requires users to download the program — but the company is working on a web-based product called Frame. So there are lots of choices and yet more to wait for Metaverse to evolve.

How to keep the company culture alive in the hybrid working model?

Make sure you're thinking about your employees' needs, whether they're at work or at home.

Keep track of your schedules, recognize little victories, and maintain a good balance between work and personal obligations.

Organize common experiences, online team activities on Metaverse.

Don’t forget about those hired virtually. Without the luxury of an office environment, people in other departments may not have had a chance to meet.

Integrate these employees into the larger team with meet and greets. Always keep in mind that relationships are crucial to any organization's success, and you can only form them with people you have the pleasure of meeting face to face (or virtually).