We’re in a period of rapidly evolving workplace trends. Hybrid work is here to stay, but companies are still figuring out how to make flexibility work long term and at scale. Each organization will come to its own conclusions, resulting in a new landscape of innovation and advancement.
For the companies that succeed, the future holds a connected set of frameworks that attract top talent and unlock competitive advantage. Change is a balancing act, though. It can be hard to retain hard-won ground when market and workforce demands shift.
Innovation leaders can capitalize on Metaverse technology to create the new structures required for growth. Virtual worlds let you develop a fresh footprint to extend your company’s current value and invigorate productivity across teams. As your organizational pillars take shape in the Metaverse, it’s easier to integrate flexible hybrid policies as part of a culture of agility and innovativeness.
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Want to explore a Metaverse made for work? Download Virbela Open Campus and check out how easy it is to personalize your avatar, enter workspaces, and connect with others in real time. You can enter on your own or with colleagues 24/7.
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Balance Structure and Flexibility
Guide your company through workforce transitions by aligning your current frameworks with updated organizational processes.
This is what Fujitsu, the largest IT provider in Japan and tenth largest in the world, did when reviewing financial performance at a human resources kickoff meeting. During their event, teams focused on business metrics, while breaking the day into structured and unstructured sessions that mirror how people choose to work. By optimizing its Metaverse use for its current and future business needs, Fujitsu is building its Metaverse muscle now and future-proofing its people operations.
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Read More: Working in the Metaverse Keeps Fujitsu in Front of New Tech
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At your company, you may have different ways you need to connect. Fulfilling these needs is more critical than ever in an era when staff have high expectations of flexibility. Your responsibility as a leader is to empower staff to do their best work without leaving them feeling drained or disenfranchised by outdated systems.
Ultimately, your goal is to design a hybrid work strategy that balances needs for organizational structure and individual flexibility.
Balance Work-Life Values
People want jobs that support their lifestyles, not suck all the energy from them. For many people, that means they want to feel engaged by their work and have healthy relationships with their coworkers and managers. This is almost universally how people can enjoy their careers and achieve their own goals while serving your company’s objectives.
There’s a new expectation, though: Companies have to provide flexibility for personal wellness on individual terms. Priorities like family and household needs, friendships, exercise, and sleep are no longer negotiable. If your company can’t allow people to set their own boundaries, it becomes much harder to attract and retain strong leaders and contributors.
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Spotlight: Industry Insights
A 2022 Gartner report reveals a full-time return to office could result in attrition of up to 39% of a company’s staff.
A recent Virbela series on DEI recognizes organizations need to be more intentional about geographic diversity to build strong teams.
NPR discovers flexible workweeks, even when they’re shorter by up to 8 hours, can net positive financial returns for companies.
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With the right systems in place, hybrid work allows work-life balance to flourish. This is where technology becomes indispensable. An array of chat and meeting apps organize the practicalities of connecting. Challenges only arise when it comes to the quality of interactions with these tools.
Hours of video meetings can be exhausting, even for the most extroverted staff. Remote days can feel rote and uninspired if you have to spend them in video boxes or completely isolated without any team interaction. You haven’t really solved for your company’s objectives or individual flexibility if non-office days aren’t hitting at least a few high notes.
Metaverse workspaces provide authentic work-life balance for your teams. When people are working, they can take advantage of the same benefits they have in the physical office. Spatial technology lets people enjoy their own private offices, boardrooms with all the presentation tools they need, and common areas where it feels natural to spend time. When they’re done with their work shift, they log out and leave, allowing them to delineate and control personal time.
For hybrid work arrangements, balancing work-life values allows you to balance the need for structure and freedom.
Balance Individual, Team, and Company Goals
Hybrid work is about keeping people productive and focused on driving your company to the forefront of your market. As a result, there’s always going to be interplay between your company’s objectives, its culture, and your hybrid work strategies.
Explore what your company cares about and how you show your staff that you mean it. This discovery process can surface lots of actionable insights around how you fit the right people into the right roles, how you build promotional paths, how people work together on a weekly basis, and how those factors advance your organization and its financial outlooks.
The Metaverse becomes an important part of the balancing act between individual, team, and company goals, because it allows you to design policies, procedures, and workflows that work for big picture situations and evolving scenarios. With custom options within scalable workspaces and always-on access for anyone, you can provide space for just about anything your company needs.
A workspace that can accommodate thousands of people at once makes it easier for leadership to connect with various levels of staff and for staff to connect with managers and each other on projects and larger initiatives. This feeling of connectivity can help eliminate silos and generate loyalty to reduce attrition. As staff stay with your organization for longer, your ability to work together and achieve greater things increases, too.
Why the Metaverse Works
Virbela is designed and developed by organizational psychologists and spatial technology experts. Its vast range of experiences and spaces help reshape team members' experiences and attitudes with meetings, events, team building, learning and development, and at-work fun and socialization.
As hybrid work paradigms shift, working in the Metaverse can inspire and energize. To learn more about how to balance the demands of hybrid work, email sales@virbela.com.
