Technological progress is rapidly changing the way people work, creating the basis for increased productivity and freeing an increasing share of professionals from physical presence at work. In this context, the metaverse emerges as an innovative virtual environment that promises to revolutionize the way we work, offering a wide range of possibilities for improving the employee experience at work. The aim of this article is to examine how the metaverse can become an excellent solution for training employees in an immersive context, through both insights into the benefits of its use in the corporate environment and business cases that can better explain the effectiveness of the metaverse so that employees can hone their skills and improve their work performance.
Which benefits could the metaverse bring to corporate training?
1)Immersive and Engaging Experiences: The metaverse enables learning experiences that simulate real-world situations, creating a highly immersive environment. Employees can interact with virtual environments and learn ‘on the job’, improving understanding and memorisation of skills acquired.
2) Practical Training in Simulated Environments: The meta-verse allows employees to face practical scenarios and simulate complex situations, such as crisis management or equipment maintenance, in a safe environment. This approach reduces the risks and costs associated with traditional training.
3) Geographical Accessibility and Flexibility: Through this virtual world, employees can access learning and training sessions from anywhere, overcoming geographical and time zone barriers.
4) Reduced Training Costs: Virtual training reduces costs related to travel, physical materials and training infrastructure.
5) Customisation of the Learning Path: Thanks to the meta-verse, training paths can be customized to the needs of each employee, creating tailor-made experiences that accelerate the learning process and ensure more effective training.
6) Interactivity and Real-Time Collaboration: The meta-verse allows employees to collaborate in real time with colleagues and trainers, enhancing interactivity and teamwork. Users can participate in interactive training sessions, team exercises and group discussions in a shared virtual environment.
The metaverse as a possible way to revolutionize remote working: “the Spatial case”
In the ever-changing business landscape, technological innovation has assumed a central role in defining new management paradigms. In this context, the metaverse emerges as an unprecedented innovation that is enabling professionals to conduct their business regardless of where they are in the world, opening up a revolution in remote working. The metaverse, in fact, on the one hand allows for even greater flexibility between work and private sphere, theoretically allowing for full freedom of choice based on the needs of the individual, without impacting on the exchange of ideas, and on the other hand allows for collaboration not only with one’s office mates, but also with anyone else, regardless of where one is, a colleague or simply a person with whom one shares interests.
An important case of remote working in the metaverse was the experience offered by Spatial, a collaboration platform based on augmented and virtual reality that allows users to meet and work together in shared digital spaces. In this way, users can create customized avatars and interact with virtual objects while collaborating on projects, presentations and meetings. Microsoft used this platform to conduct remote meetings and workshops during the COVID-19 pandemic, so that employees around the world could meet in virtual spaces to discuss ideas, share documents and collaborate on projects in an interactive and engaging way. Spatial enabled effective and dynamic collaboration with Microsoft, allowing employees to feel as if they were physically present in the same place, despite the geographical distance. The intuitive interface and screen-sharing capabilities facilitated communication and information sharing, improving teamwork efficiency and overall productivity.
The Metaverse in Space Training: How NASA Prepares Astronauts for Missions
We have stated in the previous paragraphs how the metaverse can be used to further enhance professional training in order to improve work efficiency. In this regard, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is using the metaverse to develop a number of applications for astronaut training and space mission simulation, allowing astronauts to gain hands-on experience in virtual environments before facing real situations in space.Prominent among the various applications developed by NASA is the Virtual Reality Laboratory (VR Lab), a virtual environment that faithfully recreates the interior of the International Space Station (ISS), where astronauts can digitally explore the structure of the ISS, familiarizing themselves with the different sections and learning how to navigate through the tight and complex spaces of the spacecraft.
In addition to the VR Lab, NASA has also developed specific applications to simulate extra-vehicular operations, i.e. the activities performed by astronauts outside the spacecraft in space. These simulations allow astronauts to practice the use of space suits and specialized tools, learning the procedures of anchoring, assembly and maintenance of space structures. The metaverse is also used to simulate emergency situations and train astronauts to handle critical situations during space missions. Through simulated scenarios, astronauts can practice responding to system malfunctions, power loss or communication problems, acquiring crucial skills to deal with crisis situations in space.
Final considerations
In conclusion, the Metaverse looms as a potential driver of change in corporate training. While raising challenges and questions, the opportunities are clear: immersive experiences, realistic simulations and collaborative interactions could transform companies’ approach to training and employee development. The creation of dedicated virtual learning environments, where employees can acquire practical skills in simulations, can reduce costs and speed up skills acquisition. However, the adoption of the Metaverse requires attention to issues of accessibility, inclusiveness, privacy and security, with appropriate regulations to ensure ethical and responsible use. Ultimately, the Metaverse offers promising scenarios for corporate training, but its success will depend on the ability to overcome current challenges and create a virtual environment that lives up to expectations.