Hybrid working in the metaverse  

Solving the human problems

But Fisher is not so sure this approach will be able to solve the social problems thrown up by hybrid and flexible working, which include employees feeling disconnected and disengaged from their colleagues and workplace.

“I don’t think this solves the problem – it just moves it elsewhere,” he says. “It’s an interesting proposal, but it’s at least five years out and employers have bigger problems to tackle with hybrid working right now.”

Jayson Darby, director of science at talent assessment platform provider Thomas International, is also sceptical. “Technology is meant to make our lives easier, so the big challenge for the metaverse is: what problem is it solving?” he says.

While Darby believes that virtual environments enabling people to interact have some potential in helping to solve the “human connectedness” challenge, in reality, implementing the metaverse is likely to go one of two ways.

“The question is, is it a utopian, accessible environment that brings people together and, because it feels and looks real, are there better working relationships and engagement?” he says. “Or is there a danger that it simply replicates the problems we already face today, such as the blunt communications often experienced with email or social media, or presenteeism because people don’t feel they can log off?”

An important consideration in engagement terms, for instance, is the notion of “visual acceptance”, says Darby. “Unless an avatar looks real, it feels like a proxy, which generates all the same problems we have with online communications because it doesn’t feel like you’re talking to a real person,” he explains. “This means your communication is never going to be as good as it is face-to-face, which will be a significant barrier to adoption – apart from maybe among geographically dispersed groups, where video-conferencing isn’t ideal, but meeting physically is impossible.”

Tackling the technical issues

But there are other, more technical, problems too. For example, not only are VR headsets still relatively expensive to buy, particularly for an entire workforce, but they are often not as user-friendly as they might be.

As a result, Duncan Roberts, manager at Cognizant’s Centre for the Future of Work, does not believe the metaverse as a concept is likely to take over the workplace world, at least in the short to medium term – although, given the amount of investment going into it, he does expect it will have a role to play.

But Roberts points out: “The technology has a long way to go before it would be comfortable and useful enough to spend your working day, and possibly your social life, in. Wearing a device on your face or a screen over your eyes can lead to information overload and some people get headaches, nausea and motion sickness if the software isn’t well designed.”

Another important consideration for IT leaders is understanding where it might be possible to obtain a return on investment based on a particular business case, such as skills development or travel reduction, says Roberts.

Ultimately, though, from a financial point of view, ISG’s Fisher believes that “the metaverse is not a priority right now” for most employers, who have their hands full dealing with the nitty-gritty of moving to a hybrid, flexible or even fully remote working model. This means they are not spending significant amounts of time pondering the whys and wherefores of new-fangled tech.

“Because people are changing the way they work, there are technical issues to deal with, such as upgrading systems and changing architectures and support models,” says Fisher. “Companies are also adapting their existing premises to make them into more collaborative spaces, and the third element is adapting HR policies and management styles, so there’s a lot to think about.”

But Mark Rolston, founder and chief creative officer at product design consultancy argodesign, is convinced that arguments against widespread adoption of the metaverse in a workplace context go deeper than that.

“PixelMax want people to adopt this vision as it enables them to create a single platform they can bring other vendors into,” he says. “It’s not a response to what the technology can or should be, or even what people want to do. I don’t see much passion from consumers in wearing goggles to connect to others.”

Instead, Rolston considers the platform supplier’s ideas positively “dystopian”. He says: “If a small number of corporate entities create a simulated world, they’re the architect, carpenter, landlord and police of that state. They’re God in a situation like that and it’s not acceptable – people aren’t asking for it and they don’t want it. They want to play games and use this kind of technology to repair jet engines at specific moments – but that’s it.”

Rolston also does not believe there is any demand among employees for “going into the computer” in the form of a virtual world.

“When I think of the future, I think of extending those capabilities that, in a sense, give us superpowers by putting the entire world within our reach without requiring us to leave it,” he says. “If you look at what platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have done with technology to date, it’s to allow people to connect with others when they’re not in the room with friends or colleagues, so it’s more of a co-presence and enhancement notion.”

So, rather than immersive virtual worlds, Rolston believes it will be augmented, or mixed, reality experiences based in the real world that will predominate.

“So, if I’m in a room, it would be able to hear and see me using a virtual camera assembled out of many real ones, which meant it could follow my face,” he says. “It would give me permission to enter or exit based on my digital identity and, if I was talking, it could generate transcriptions or hyperlinks to any references I make – this is what the ‘omniverse’ offers the opportunity to do, which means you don’t need 3D virtual spaces.”