CIO OPINION be our ongoing reality for the foreseeable future . But beyond that , we ’ re also starting to explore how deeper immersion for staff , regardless of where they ’ re based , might be facilitated by a fully virtual workplace .
A recent international study by Ciena found that 68 % of US professionals can see the metaverse becoming part of existing work practices and more than half ( 58 %) think their business will move away from static collaboration environments to more immersive / Virtual Reality-based platforms in just three years .
The cultural shifts seeding deeper immersion
Colleagues in the tech sector have had a significant advantage over other sectors with digital collaboration tools . Many had been working remotely or managing remote teams before COVID-19 forced a wider shift . At Ciena , the integration of a range of collaboration tools allowed us to access vital talent across our markets and ensured that delivery teams , no matter where they were based , had access to the support they needed .
The pandemic , however , was a force multiplier . It drove a cultural shift and organizations across the board started thinking deeply about how their technology environments fostered the same touchpoints that drive engagement and seamless collaboration in a fully hybrid world .
Despite its successes , hybrid working continues to pose specific challenges around physical / virtual inequities – whether remote staff are experiencing work in the same way as those in offices – and the very real threat of Zoom fatigue . It ' s no surprise , then , that Ciena ’ s metaverse study also found that 79 % of US professionals would conduct work meetings and tasks in the metaverse instead of traditional video conferencing tools .
What had previously been touted as predominantly a consumer-centric tool is now being considered as a platform for workplace collaboration . The same survey suggested that US respondents would use enhanced reality or metaverse tools for work ( 48 %) more so than for socializing ( 46 %) or gaming ( 38 %).
Making work meta – the answer to hybrid woes or a distraction ?
Within the context of the Great Resignation , we can quickly see why engineering the best possible employee experience through technology has become a vital priority .
But the increasing appetite for more immersive workplace collaboration is happening in tandem with growing modernization demands on enterprise IT leaders .
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