The Metaverse in Onboarding: What It Means for HR

Anna Stelmaszyk

Many organizations only began getting comfortable with digital hiring and onboarding tools in the last few years. Meanwhile, the next potential revolution is already on the horizon — the metaverse. For a while now, there's been more and more talk about digital worlds, but their exact potential is still unknown. Today we'll explain what the metaverse actually is and how it could affect the labor market and HR processes, including onboarding.

The metaverse — so what is it?

– "This is the future of the internet," said Mark Zuckerberg when he presented his vision for developing the metaverse. The project caused a bit of a stir, though to this day it's not entirely clear what the Facebook founder had in mind. The history of the concept of a metaworld reaches back to the early '90s, but today the term appears in many contexts and meanings. For some it's just an elaborate online game, for others another social feature, and for still others an abstract concept of a digital reality replacing the real world.

Each of these definitions rests on the same premise — the metaverse is a virtual space shared with other users who exist in it as avatars. Interactions happen in real time and can mirror real-life situations, such as shopping, meetings, work duties, and even concerts and other cultural events. One of the most developed metaverse platforms — "Decentraland" — already has its own currency and many partnerships with global brands, and is developing a Crypto District, an equivalent of the New York Stock Exchange.

No matter where we actually are at the moment, in the metaverse we can "meet" in one place. This way, thanks to virtual and augmented reality, users can not only "browse" the internet but also create it and become part of it.

Technology in development

What does this look like in practice? The vision of a parallel world was first presented by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 book "Snow Crash." We got a taste of it thanks to the creators of "Second Life," which rapidly gained enormous popularity in the early 2000s and almost as quickly bored its users. Back then the barrier was the lack of the right technology; today digital giants are developing tools that offer a full metaverse experience. With VR headsets, the user sees a digital image rendered by a computer. The three-dimensional frames are 2,000 pixels on a side — exactly as much as the human eye can register. This way the image in the headset completely fills the user's field of view.

The metaworld of work

And so an alternative reality is taking shape that, according to at least some experts, will revolutionize not only the entertainment industry but also the labor market. – "Within the next two or three years, most virtual meetings will move from 2D camera grids to the metaverse — a 3D space with digital avatars," predicts Bill Gates, whose company Microsoft is developing meta tools, including within the Teams app. Others see a revolution on the horizon too. – "In remote work as we know it today, a screen still separates us. The metaverse removes that barrier, and we can feel as if we're in a conference room or a virtual work environment. It's a real innovation that opens up new realms of collaboration," believes Aleena Mazhar, COO at the Canadian agency FUSE Create.

There are skeptical voices too. The loudest among them is Elon Musk, who commented on the development of the metaverse in a manner true to his sensibility. – "I don't see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face all day," he fired off last year. Other experts point to the costs and the negative impact of spending time in a virtual world on employees' comfort.

The metaverse in HR processes

To make full use of the potential of meta platforms, the technology certainly needs at least several more years of development, along with plenty of testing and experimentation. But if the tech giants are putting this project at the top of their goal lists, we can be sure that progress is only a matter of time. And the metaverse is already showing up in many industries today, HR included.

More engaging conferences

The first — and already working — application is the previously mentioned boost to participant engagement in video calls. Instead of a tired interface with the same old grid of coworkers' cameras, you can now move into a virtual world of your own creation. It can simply be a conference room with avatars, but you can go much further than that. Companies have emerged that started holding status meetings... in the environment of the adventure game Red Dead Redemption 2. A cowboy chat around the campfire instead of a dull video call? Remote meetings like that surely enjoy strong attendance.

Training and development

Training based on a virtual environment can already complement traditional programs today, and in some cases even replace them. In a created world, an employee has the chance to face very real challenges. 3D-based learning platforms are a way to achieve a higher level of engagement, greater motivation, and an individual learning pace. All of this translates into better results.

Onboarding and the metaverse

The growth of digital communication has opened companies' doors to talent from all over the world. The metaverse lets that talent peek into the organization's headquarters and get to know its tools and work environment — simply put, to come aboard the company in a three-dimensional, virtual world.

Even today, organizations such as Hyundai and Siemens are incorporating the metaverse into their onboarding process. The result of these digital tours is a smoother, better acquaintance with the company culture and faster relationship-building with coworkers.

The metaverse can be a great fit for gamification-based onboarding, offering virtual rewards for completing successive onboarding tasks. It also enables personalization of the process, for example by tailoring the onboarding checklist to the needs of individual employees.

The virtual world also creates space for less formal contact with new coworkers. – "Everyone remembers who they worked with on their first day, and thanks to the metaverse we don't have to limit ourselves to a single location," believes Bas Korsten, Global Chief Creative Officer at Wunderman Thompson. The company, which employs more than 20,000 people worldwide, encourages every new hire to create their own avatar and take part in a casual meeting in the metaverse.

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Source: Wunderman Thompson

Solutions like these are, at least for now, the domain of large global organizations operating in highly developed countries. Expanding onboarding with the metaverse is, for these companies, one way to attract, onboard, and retain talent.

Here's how PwC, a global consulting powerhouse, describes its own metaverse program:

Our Virtual Park gives you the chance to meet and talk with our people in a virtual world. It was designed to represent our office spaces in a virtual reality environment. PwC's Virtual Park provides a genuine glimpse into our work environment. You can create an avatar, stroll through our park, and take part in events. It's an opportunity to learn more about PwC and to meet virtually with people representing different service lines, offices, and departments. Throughout the event you'll be able to attend presentations covering tips on the application process and learn more about our culture and values. More experienced employees will talk about their careers, as well as the challenges that are key for the company.

Virtual Park runs every Wednesday. Alongside its standard program, it also offers special events.

The pros and cons of the metaverse in onboarding

The upsides...

Organizations using virtual support in onboarding emphasize that the whole process runs faster, and employee engagement is incomparably higher than with on-site, traditional programs. There are no distractions, such as incoming emails and other notifications. Another benefit is the ability to give the same path to people employed in different locations, who often wouldn't otherwise have a chance to see the company's headquarters and its key spots.

...and the downsides

On the downside, the most frequent issues are high costs (a single VR kit can run as much as $600), the lack of access to sufficiently advanced technology, and the discomfort some staff feel using VR headsets. For a certain group of employees, who have already lived through several digital revolutions over the course of their careers, stepping into the metaverse may be jumping in at the deep end. On the other hand, the technology is still in its early stages of development. The more stable a tool it becomes, the more readily companies will reach for it — but that's a prospect of at least several years out.

The metaverse, like VR technology as a whole, is slowly making its way into the global and local HR market, including onboarding processes. Meanwhile, organizations in Poland and abroad continue to develop digital onboarding built on automation. That kind of rollout will be the default in the coming years, and it's already the backbone of Gamfi Onboarding — our app for automated onboarding. If you'd like to test this approach in your organization, let us know! We'll show you how it works!