Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality: The Future of the Hybrid Workplace

Maximizing employee productivity is an ongoing challenge for every organization. Research shows that the best companies are 40% more productive than other companies and that productivity is more valuable than efficiency. To increase worker productivity, companies are adopting new tools and technologies, including virtual reality and augmented reality. VR and AR have the potential to dramatically transform our work lives, giving workers new skills and greater flexibility. Incorporating AR/VR into the workplace will enhance the remote work experience and give hybrid workers new tools when away from the office.

VR and AR are already finding practical applications in the workplace. Here are just a few areas where technology is making workers more productive and more effective:

Substitute for In-Person Meetings

Teleconferencing has been around for some time, and using tools like Zoom and Google Meet to conduct remote meetings has become popular with the pandemic. Most video conferences operate as glorified conference calls even with video capabilities. Face-to-face meetings are always more effective, especially for sales calls. However, travel continues to become more costly and more difficult. It also requires valuable time away from work.

AR and VR tools can make you part of a meeting without leaving your office. Using a VR headset, computer, or mobile device, you can collaborate remotely in three dimensions, saving time and travel costs. You also can record the meeting for future reference.

VR tools are proving especially popular for salespeople who want the benefits of face-to-face interactions without traveling. Using VR for meetings makes it easier for more stakeholders to attend, and it makes it easier to establish personal relationships. Imagine sending a potential client a VR headset, pre-set with a hospital environment to demonstrate new equipment in a real world environment as a sales demo. The client can see and interact with the product. The experience will stand out compared to other vendors and could give you a leg up on the competition.

It’s not just for external meetings, either. With remote work here to stay, need new ways to keep employees connected. Zoom Happy Hours are no longer exciting (if they ever were), but virtual reality team building? That’s exciting.

Product and Process Training

In-person training requires training facilities, equipment, and instructors. In manufacturing, training new employees in equipment operations can also mean downtime. VR and AR can make training more efficient and less expensive. Instructors can be anywhere, training employees on new equipment or processes using virtual equipment in a VR/AR setting. Trainees can learn from anywhere at their own pace.

Consider the possibilities for equipment manufacturers who need to train employees on new systems. Take, for example, a manufacturing  facility that needs to train workers on how to operate machinery. In the current system, the machine needs to be turned off, impacting production, while employees learn to operate the machine. With VR, the entire process, from start to finish, can be mimicked in a realistic, interactive environment. Employees can train on any of the machines without affecting production. Not to mention, VR is the perfect environment to provide realistic training for new workers without safety risks. The same technology also can augment systems repair by making remote diagnostics easier

New Employee Orientation

Onboarding new employees is time-consuming but necessary. Properly onboarding new employees increases retention by 82% and improves productivity by 70%. Twenty-six percent of employers spend one week onboarding, and 21% spend an entire month.

Rather than requiring employees to sit through videos, meetings, and online exercises, immersive VR/AR can introduce them to a new company from anywhere, including from home. They can meet their colleagues in a collaborative workspace, take an immersive tour of the facilities, and even meet the leadership team remotely. Not only can virtual reality act as a fantastic onboarding tool in an age of remote work, but it can be a powerful recruiting tool. What other companies can brag about onboarding their new employees in state-of-the-art virtual reality facilities? And it can all be done without travel.

Improving Soft Skills

Improving soft skills in the workplace can be challenging and intimidating. Using AR and VR, employees can observe virtual examples of workplace engagements that require soft skills. They can even role-play and practice soft skills independently, recording the practice sessions for review later. Virtual technology can provide a powerful approach to help even the most timid or least experienced workers practice their soft skills without the pressure of being watched by their peers.

For example, employees can practice presentations to large audiences. With eye-tracking, they can even be scored based on the amount of eye contact they’ve maintained with the audience (versus looking at a prompter or notes).

Virtual reality and augmented reality also make it easy to create multiplayer environments. Employees can work with remote experts without traveling for training. It also makes setting up group exercises with in-office and remote workers easier.

Better Data Visualization

AR and VR make accessing and viewing more data at once easier. In the film, The Minority Report, Tom Cruise uses a gesture-based visual interface to scroll through screens of images and material, mapping data and overlaying images to find what he wants. While our technology isn’t there yet, a similar experience can be mimicked in virtual reality. Within a headset, you can create an environment where users see the data displayed around them. Rather than trying to fit all the data you need in windows on a computer screen, you can project a 360-degree screen with unlimited space.

Using AR, you can view data about the world around you as a real-time experience. For ideation, for example, you can create a visual model of a new product and immediately share the model with sales and marketing to share input. You can even make changes on the fly, displaying the results in the AR environment.

Technological advances will continue to shape the workplace and the manufacturing floor, and AR and VR promise to have a significant impact. Creating a virtual assembly line and AR-accessible machines will revolutionize training. Placing staff and trainees in the same virtual classroom will make training more efficient and cost-effective. Even staff meetings and sales calls will have more impact in a virtual setting, saving travel time and costs. The applications outlined here are a few ways companies are already harnessing augmented and virtual reality to improve efficiency and increase productivity.