Multinational and Indian companies are now turning to emerging technologies like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and other Metaverse-based systems to conduct hiring and interviews. While large multinational companies like Accenture and Microsoft had been experimenting with Metaverse for hiring and onboarding, more and more companies have now started to use such technologies, reported Tech Circle.
Accenture’s platform, called the Nth floor, was built on Microsoft’s Mesh application, a mixed reality platform that allowed individuals to present “shared experiences” from various devices. Nth floor was being used by the company to conduct training sessions, share presentations and even for socialising.
Microsoft added in a blog post that the onboarding process "involves gathering new-hire cohorts and senior leadership in an office to go through a series of experiences that help people understand and personally connect with the Accenture culture, plant the seeds of professional relationships and set them up for success, starting from their first projects”.
While Nth floor was built before the platform, the proliferation of Zoom calls and remote meetings has necessitated the development of similar platforms and mechanisms for many other companies since the pandemic began.
PwC’s Virtual Park and Horizon Workrooms from Meta are just two of the other platforms built by global giants for melding the Metaverse with the office experience. But Indian companies are also starting to get behind the idea in recent months.
Incluzon, a Mumbai-based skilling and hiring platform, has been looking to bring its hiring process to the Metaverse, for instance. “India is currently in the nascent stages of adopting the Metaverse, especially in HR practices. While the potential is enormous, companies considering the transition are investing in research and development (R&D) and the development of backend processes,” Naveen Jangir, co-founder of Incluzon, told Tech Circle.
India is no stranger to adopting cutting-edge technologies, especially the many start-ups that eventually turn into unicorns in the country. Experts believe many more companies will include Metaverse hiring and onboarding in their business processes, especially as remote and hybrid working continue to remain popular. However, the key hurdle remains access to the necessary hardware to have a Metaverse experience. These include hardware like AR/VR headsets and cameras and trackers for presenting in the MR space.
