Using Virtual Reality Headsets For Workplace Meetings Could ‘Snowball’
Rec Room Application Along With VR Headsets Would Allow Personal Avatars To Increase The Sense Of Closeness And Productivity
Due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused the closing of all office workings and businesses for almost an entire year, the concept of using virtual reality headsets for the required workplace meetings would possibly snowball, as people are working from home and trying to blend their office and home workings for better management of their time.
According to Institutes of Director’s Joe Fitzsimons, the concept involving virtual reality headsets is very likely to take off very quickly throughout the world. He has been doing a comprehensive investigation regarding how different companies are using the tech facilities to help their staff currently working from home and office to work smoothly alongside.
Various firms are looking for alternate ways of working for their staff members aside from the popularly used services, including Google Teams and Zoom. The virtual reality headsets for workplace meetings is likely to undergo a snowball effect due to their large number of benefits, which would make numerous organizations come to terms with it and start employing them as soon as possible to avoid lack of productivity from their working staff and add a little bit of fun to their daily routine.
Fatiguing Zoom meetings
During the COVID-19 pandemic, several video conference services, including Zoom, have seen a rapid rise in its usage in the past year as millions of individuals were forced to work from their residence inside of going physically to their workplace for their work after the countries around the world initiated nationwide lockdowns to curb the spread of infection.
But as time passes, multiple firms globally are looking for several other alternatives present to keep their colleagues in touch with each other and increase overall productivity.
As many people have become tired of using the same interface of Zoom for their workplace meetings, the use of virtual reality headsets could help replicate the feelings of actually being present along with the office colleagues in real-time. When an individual has its own office space, they are able to do various tasks in their day.
When an individual walks into his office, he sees his workplace colleagues, and he can walk over to their table to greet and have a friendly conversation with them. During the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we all lost this significant connection with our peers.
One of the partners working at a PR firm named Tyto has agreed regarding the usage of virtual reality headsets to conduct workplace meetings to spring back the sense of being close to each other. The firm issued their working staff with virtual reality headsets just before Christmas last year to conduct a test trial.
For the office meetings, the headsets provide a great way by which the staff members could be together, as they are unable to gather physically in an office space. The PR firm decided to manage a small-scale trial using virtual reality headsets and observing the pros and cons along with its impact on the productivity of individuals on their business during the coronavirus pandemic. As everyone was working remotely from their homes, virtual reality headsets for workplace meetings showed a clear positive impact on the working of staff members.
The PR firm was actually looking to incorporate something that would increase the workplace productivity of their office staff and would also help them feel a little bit more connected even from their homes, along with providing fun, as the past year has been a very tough time for all of them.
Personalized avatars
Although some people might find it hard to understand, while some might think that it is weird, having a personal avatar and wearing a virtual reality headset during office hours would provide more sense of presence as compared to just plainly sitting in front of your PC and staring at the Zoom meeting, which tends to make people less interested in work.
People are easily able to access and work while being present at any place around the world and are able to gather together using the Rec Room application to chat. The users are allowed to change the skin tone, hair color, and pre-selected variations of outfits for their avatars. As the user talk, the avatar also moves its mouth, is able to shake the head, make some gestures with its hands as the user, and is even able to dance.
The usage of virtual reality headsets makes a very significant difference from having a simple meeting with a front-facing camera turned on, but is still a long way from physically meeting with other people at an outside event or even office, and having real food and drinks and other physically present people.
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