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A Workplace Transformed by the Metaverse, Part Two

Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 03/06/2025

Last week, part one of this two-part series on the metaverse, explored the technologies behind the metaverse curtain and what the possibilities are for the remote and in-office workforce. This week, we’ll examine how companies can leverage the metaverse for greater workforce and operational efficiencies.

The Enterprise in the Metaverse

When it comes to the future of the internet, it is the metaverse that often comes to mind. Integrated technologies working together to form a virtual interactive world. While its current existence offers cutting-edge interactivity, much of the grand potential of the metaverse is yet to come. What lies on the horizon will most certainly influence the future of work and what it means to collaborate and exist as an enterprise.

Currently, enterprises that want to enhance their production processes, for example, can now replicate their facility using digital twin technology. By simulating production lines or other assets, organizations can determine potential failures before they occur and develop mitigation strategies.

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A Workplace Transformed by the Metaverse, Part One

General Insights Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 02/27/2025

The metaverse. It is widely accepted that science fiction novelist Neal Stephenson first coined the term “metaverse” in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, where characters access a 3D world through VR goggles. More recently, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One provided a visual interpretation of the metaverse (The Oasis) with multiple worlds populated by avatars in every describable form. While we’re still years away from realizing the depictions of the metaverse in novels and film, today’s metaverse provides an exciting glimpse of what’s on the horizon for virtual engagement and the Future of Work.

Metaverse Defined

What is the metaverse? Simply stated, it is a virtual world(s) where people interact as 3D avatars, gaming, socializing, and working. That immersive experience is made possible by several technologies. Virtual reality and head-mounted displays, coupled with spatial technology and augmented reality bring the immersion to life. Other technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning act as the brains for the metaverse, enriching the virtual environment through automated transactions, decision-making, and world-building.

The metaverse ecosystem is a vast network of hundreds of companies from a variety of industries all working toward developing specific metaverse attributes — infrastructure, economy, user experience, etc. And there are many metaverse platforms (e.g., Decentraland, The Sandbox, etc.) to put your virtual stake in the ground as no one owns the metaverse (yet).

Transition from Gaming to Business

Much of the metaverse is rooted in gaming. Unsurprisingly, children (and adults) are well-versed with virtual worlds through Minecraft (140 million monthly players), Fortnite (250 million-plus active users), and Roblox (30 million daily players). This bodes well for future generations adapting to the virtual world of work.

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Develop Your Soft Skills with AI-Powered Training

Business Leadership General Insights HR Talent Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 02/13/2025

The Future of Work encompasses many characteristics. However, attributes like communication, collaboration, and community contribute greatly to enterprise success. There is an elicited sense of interconnectedness between leaders and their workforce and among employees themselves. At the heart of those dynamics is soft skills that help drive workforce interactions and business outcomes. In today’s world where artificial intelligence permeates nearly every area of the workplace, AI is coming into its own as a tool to enhance soft skill development.

Think soft skills are only a recent workforce concentration? Not quite. In 1918, the Carnegie Foundation published Charles Riborg Mann’s A Study of Engineering Education, which cited that 85% of a person’s job success is a product of soft skills and that only 15% of success is based on technical knowledge. Even more than 100 years ago, the criticality of workplace soft skills was being emphasized. However, the pandemic helped bring soft skills into sharper focus as other Future of Work elements (e.g., flexibility, remote work, empathetic leadership) became mainstream concepts and areas of importance.

Now with artificial intelligence leading the way in technology utilization, enterprises have an opportunity to leverage AI for greater workforce enablement — particularly around soft skills.

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The Unheard Voice in the Workplace

Business Leadership General Insights Talent by John Yuva on 01/23/2025

“Introverts are more effective leaders of proactive employees. When you have a creative, energetic workforce, an introvert is going to draw out that energy better.” –Laurie Helgoe, American psychologist and author of Introvert Power

When it comes to workforce personalities, most workers identify as an extrovert or introvert. And while many people assume extroverts are the majority, data from The Myers-Briggs Company indicates that introverts account for 57% of the global population. This is significant for a few reasons. First, more of our work colleagues are introverts than we probably realize. Second, it brings into question how enterprise communication and collaboration occur and whether those methods benefit or hinder introversion. Third, a remote or hybrid work model could encourage a healthier, more productive workforce.

Understand the Introvert Workplace Dynamic

The COVID-19 pandemic propelled introverts into a remote work environment that catered to their professional strengths and preferences. Overnight, introverts were working out of their own homes and communicating extensively through chat and video — no longer facing large, in-person group projects and meetings. Many introverts welcomed the independence and empowerment that also came with remote work. Like a Freaky Friday moment, suddenly extroverts lacked dominance within the new solitary, virtual environment.

Today, as some companies pivot away from remote work models, it’s critical to understand how introverts navigate the workplace dynamic. The term “introvert” is often associated with inaccurate characteristics and conditions. For example, an introvert is not someone who:

Cannot collaborate with colleagues.
Suffers from shyness or social anxiety.
Fears verbal communication.
Wants to be left alone.
Is unable to think strategically.

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How Does Your Definition of “Team” Align With Today’s Future Of Work-Led World?

Business Leadership General Insights Talent Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 01/09/2025

What does the concept of “team” mean for today’s remote and hybrid enterprises? Many workplaces now operate with dispersed teams. With the criticality of teamwork to execute company initiatives and projects, how teams function in the evolving Future of Work environment will likely have lasting implications on work culture and business success. Thus, it is imperative that organizations consider how their teams are designed and how collaboration occurs. Coupling team systematics with technologies that facilitate and encourage collaboration helps unify remote and in-person team members. Let’s take a closer look at what that means.

A Growth in Interdependence and Unity

The pandemic helped propel a shift in how employees work together and collaborate. With most people working from home for more than two years now, there was a need to almost over-communicate. Workers found themselves frequently video conferencing with team members whom they had only exchanged emails with in the past. Yet, despite the circumstances, teams accomplished their projects successfully and executed their goals.

A byproduct of this experience was greater team interdependence and cohesion. There was a feeling of “we’re all in this together” — a necessity for today’s dispersed teams post-pandemic. However, it is one thing when nearly everyone in the company is remote, compared to being one of a few working virtually. Without that sense of team interdependence and belonging, it can feel as if you’re working on an island. Companies and business leaders must recognize that the Future of Work means maintaining team unity regardless of where members are located.

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What’s The Deal With Virtual Layoffs?

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/13/2024

Try not to read that title aloud in a Jerry Seinfeld voice.

There’s no denying that recessionary fears are resulting in sometimes necessary cost-cutting strategies for businesses across the globe. And there’s no way around budgetary concerns when the economy is still at an unsettled point only three-and-a-half months into 2023. Layoffs are an unfortunate attribute of the corporate arena, in which headcount is reduced in mass quantities as a result of poor performance, market conditions (like we’re experiencing today), a global health crisis (hello, pandemic), and a slew of other reasons.

The world’s biggest and most popular fast-food chain will always weather whatever storm they face, but even McDonald’s has limitations on how they can operate in an uncertain economic climate. Alongside global organizations like Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Meta, Google, etc., the golden arches now faces their turn in the “let’s reduce headcount to save dough” game that so many other enterprises have faced over the past several months.

While layoffs can be heartbreaking and disruptive, they are a cost of business. No one would fault McDonald’s or any other large global entity for slashing their workforce in 2023’s rocky economic road. However, there’s a very, very fine line between a layoff and cruelty…a line that McDonald’s crossed just this past week.

We’re not lovin’ this. At all.

As stated above, yeah, layoffs sometimes need to occur for a business to move forward. Especially in the world we’re living in today. Although costs need to be front-and-center, there’s a right way to conduct layoffs and a completely, erratically wrong way to do so. Guess which way McDonald’s chose?

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RTO Mandates Lead to Hushed Hybrid Trend

Business Leadership General Insights HR by John Yuva on 11/07/2024

Now in year three of our post-COVID-19 world, enterprises that once embraced and supported remote and hybrid workforce models are beginning to pull back — in some cases substantially — from their earlier commitments. Over the last year, corporations such as Disney, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and most recently Amazon are instituting strict return-to-office (RTO) policies where employees are now required to be in the office five days per week. What are the motivations behind such policies and are they warranted? Even more striking is the resistance of many employees to RTO mandates — and how that is likely to play out in the year ahead.

RTO Motivations Warranted?

The U.S. Career Institute reports that by 2025, up to 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely. Currently, 54% of workers want to work fully remotely, with 41% preferring a hybrid schedule, followed by 5% who would choose to work in the office full time. Despite the statistics, enterprises instituting RTO policies (e.g., a return to office in some capacity, three times per week, or permanently) argue their necessity to improve productivity, strengthen collaboration efforts, and drive deeper innovation.

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Employee Experience and the Power of Engagement

Business Leadership General Insights HR Talent by John Yuva on 08/05/2024

One business constant over the last four years is uncertainty. Whether it’s the economy, geopolitics, or the overall market, enterprises must contend with that sense of the unknown. As such, having a flexible and agile workforce is essential when market dynamics shift. Flexibility and agility often derive from employee experience (EX) initiatives. Organizations that prioritize employee experience are more internally aligned and can better pivot when needs arise.

However, essential to employee experience is understanding that it goes beyond employee satisfaction. Rather, it is a strategic imperative that directly influences organizational culture, success, and the ability to navigate an ever-changing business landscape.

Employee Experience Begins and Ends with Engagement

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When a Return to the Office and Workplace Culture Collide

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 07/15/2024

Although it’s hard to believe, it’s been more than four years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. And in that time, several key Future of Work “accelerants” took the business arena by storm. The extended workforce, long a viable source of talent, saw a remarkable increase in utilization as businesses sought true workforce scalability in the face of uncertain times.

Direct sourcing began to take off as a means of nurturing talent communities and developing a near-self-sustaining source of on-demand expertise. Skills-based hiring emerged as a way to look “beyond” costs and pay rates to revolutionize how enterprises innovative and leverage next-generation skillsets.

Empathy-led leadership and emotional intelligence became crucial endeavors to separate the successful leaders from those that would eventually lose their staff to the Great Resignation. And, of course, the most famous Future of Work accelerant of all, remote and hybrid work, drew most of the spotlight and headlines.

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The Next Great Era of the Hybrid Workplace

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 05/20/2024

“We’re not putting that genie back in the bottle” is a phrase I’ve used at least two or three dozen times over the past few months whenever I’m asked about the realm of remote and hybrid work and how return-to-office (RTO) mandates are impacting these attributes. No matter how the economy shifts and no matter how far the pendulum swings back in favor of the employer, the phrase will always be true.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a watershed moment for humanity. And it was also a turning point in the business world.

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