I think virtual reality is almost a better term. One of the big benefits of virtual reality or metaverse world is reducing potential carbon footprint. If you think of your local retail stores, they might be a 30,000-square-foot facility or larger and if you're providing virtual services to avoid clients having to visit your location, at some point companies will be able to reduce that by thousands of square feet over time. I just experienced this with a 3D body scanning technology company where I placed the CEO and they are looking to revolutionize the apparel retail space.
What is the metaverse and how will it shape the future of the technology sector and recruitment? The metaverse is seen by some as a vision of the future, not a specific technology but a combination of a lot of virtual technologies and equipment, so we are talking about a lot of things that are virtual and applied in many spheres of business from finance to healthcare and education. These things need to have authenticity to become popular and useful. The boundless opportunities are rich, along with the challenges. We got together with our global experts to discuss the pros and cons of this exciting landscape, and how to hire across its diverse and borderless expanse.
A growth of work or the growth of a company?
According to Ron Magen (Kestria Israel), a lot of money is spent on building up growth and technologies and spending a huge amount hoping growth and acceptability will increase, all while forgetting the human factor: ‘One idea is linked with people working from home today. Can this setup become virtual offices using the metaverse? This could really happen, but it's not only about staying at home and being represented by someone. There are people who can be alone and are very efficient. But this is not for everyone and it can have an impact, as can the lack of face-to-face contact that can be vital for good discussion. So all the human factor is missing out in the metaverse. I think it's something we should consider.’
Travis Hann (Kestria Canada & USA) believes this is already happening: ‘We recently met with a company that's been virtual for 17 years. In March 2020 they sent all of their employees a VR headset and since then all of their meetings have been virtual using avatars. So, instead of being on a zoom call, you would see their Avatar at a boardroom table. This is unique and has its pros and cons at the surface level in terms of efficiency. You have the ability to connect with people in all corners of the world at the snap of a finger, to be in one place at once which is fascinating. Through a hiring process, the metaverse really eliminates the bias for hiring. It's more about what kind of impact candidates make and what they have accomplished versus any sort of physical attribution. This could certainly have an effect on our hiring processes. Adaptability among non-tech savvy employees would also come to the fore, as could technical glitches should they arise.
I don't think there are a lot of recruiters who can speak that language until you execute an assignment in a search in that area and some of those areas are so new. You're not going to recruit a candidate that knows that area or comes from it. Because you are recruiting for a pioneer in that space.’
‘As a consultant, I'm looking for opportunities where there is to partner with firms so I need to be on the metaverse bandwagon because that's where everybody is moving. For me personally, it may not necessarily be relatable but if it is relatable to the audience or my client then I need to stay connected with what my clients are investing in,’ adds Manveet Hora (Kestria India).
Merging big industries and bigger technology
Per Gurdeep Hora (Kestria India) there is a tremendous amount of ambiguity in the industry about how to use it: ‘At the end of the day, we are all catering to customers, and how the customer is able to use the metaverse and add value to their industry. We are talking about the metaverse as an overall phenomenon involving: the development of new chips and processors, 5G and internet networks which have low latency, and cloud infrastructure. Also, the access interfaces such as haptics so you can touch and feel products, and new headsets for virtual reality. Hologram technology is also being developed, as well as smart glasses for artificial reality.
In our sector, many people talk about interviewing becoming simpler and easier. This is something we can all discuss and I'm not so convinced about it because today we have virtual video calls, real video calls where we can see the audience. We can see the candidate, talk to them, and get their reactions, whereas in the metaverse you may have a three-dimensional view of the candidate, an avatar that the person is making for themselves. How real it is for the recruiter in evaluating them? The focus should be on understanding AR, VR, VI, AI, and how all these gel into the metaverse and the vision of the future for all these companies. They need experts who can see both sides of the picture and understand what companies can do in the metaverse and what technology is available.
Another area where metaverse is becoming quite popular is in the R&D and product development space because it's difficult to gather experts in a room in a particular location. So through metaverse, you have experts from all over the world. This collaborative approach to new product development is something that is catching on.
I think what the world is waiting for is a combination of the features of the metaverse with technologies available today. A real application that people will find useful and that is what meta, as a company is trying to do, as what they talk about, is their business and not technology. Their business is not to bring technologies together or products together, but their business is to bring people together.’
There’s no doubt that the metaverse, complex and provocative as it may be, is changing business for the better and in the most exciting ways for all industries involved. As in the metaverse and a company’s reasons for entering it, we at Kestria are in the business of connecting people and helping make their business operations smoother and better through all available mediums.