How Virtual Reality could shape the future of workplace
Picture this. Your alarm clock wakes you up at 8:30 AM. You freshen up in about half an hour. It’s 9:00 AM, time for your office to start. But you’re still in your pajamas. You don’t have a suit. In fact, you don’t even remember the last time you bought (a real) one. So, what do you do?
You wear your virtual reality headgear and “enter” your office. After saying a quick “hi” to your colleagues, you switch to your cubicle and get started with your work.
In reality, you’re still in your pj’s. In virtual reality, you are fixing that deck wearing a nice Hugo Boss virtual suit that you purchased from your last bonus.
If there is one thing that the pandemic has shown us, it is that the new normal may entail a lot of remote work. While many people seem to have got adjusted to working from home pretty well, the missing element of human interaction — those gestures during meetings, the casual coffee breaks, and everything else that creates a collective effervescence in an office environment needs to get filled in some way. This is where virtual reality, a.k.a., VR could play a big role in bridging the difference between in-person conversations and those over Zoom, or a safer platform.
Goes without saying that all the above works only if you are working in the services sector and have the privilege of not having to meet people “in-person” to get work done. A lathe machine isn’t going to operate on its own, after all — well, yet. AR/VR does has its applications in other sectors though. Like, say, the construction industry — watch this short clip of Microsoft Hololens making the construction industry great again.
What’s holding back VR then?
Last week during an interview with Abhinav Prakash, Founder Immerzon — a suite of products (apps, SaaS platform) to enable learning in AR/VR, we touched the topic of the major factors holding back the technology.
First, the bulky hardware. While the world has moved from the Senorama VR machines of the ’50s to (arguably) the first virtual reality HMD (Head-mounted device), The Sword of Damocales in the ‘60s, to the much fancier HTC Vive and Oculus Quest of today, there are plenty of problems that still exist with the hardware. For one, the devices are still bulky — both the Vive and Oculus are huge and weigh more than a pound — sounds like a headache¹. They aren’t cheap either — at least not cheap enough to allow the democratization of AR/VR. The hardware game definitely needs to step up.
Second, as outlined by Goldman Sachs in a report² that they published a few years ago, is the chicken-and-egg dilemma. There isn’t great VR content as content makers are holding back due to the small user base of the technology. On the other hand, for greater adoption, there needs to be good content and experience that pushes consumers to buy the technology.
Then there are problems of motion sickness, social acceptance, security, and so on…
But let’s forget these for a moment. Let’s assume we will one day overcome all of these problems and will have a truly immersive virtual reality office of our own.
The benefits are endless…
To start with there won’t be a need to invest in those high-rises. Employers could have a few limited regional offices that could be phased out over time. You, on the other hand, could work from your native city, town or village (read from wherever you want to!) — even if it is in a different country — closer to nature, closer to family.
Employers could create virtual assistants for employees at every level of the hierarchy. These assistants, present in your virtual environment, could train you, provide you with information and help you understand and execute tasks in real-time. To illustrate, an assistant could help a corporate banker understand the incoterms to tailor a trade finance product. I wish I had such real-time access to training and information back when I was one.
And by the way, NASA is already doing something similar!
VR brings globally dispersed teams closer, which improves collaboration. Oculus Rift, for example, has sensors that detect and translate body language and other non-verbal communication that go amiss with Zoom and other similar platforms. With real-time language translation, even language barriers could be overcome.
Employers could widen their recruitment net. Hire the best from across the globe, conduct VR screening and tests to evaluate if the candidates fit in the office culture.
Office happy hours could be anywhere, anytime. Just aced a presentation? Let’s switch to your favorite hangout place to celebrate it.
And yes, this too.
So, we wait for the day when all this becomes a reality and pendulum between Zoom and our real offices till then.
Sources:
[1] Sandee LaMotte (December, 2017)
[2] Goldman Sachs (February, 2016)
