How AI and XR Help HR Teams Reimagine Company Culture
Employee priorities have shifted in 2022, and HR strategies are evolving to reflect these. Innovative XR and AI technologies provide the tools to transform your company culture to boost employee retention, wellbeing and productivity. Dr. Alex Young, CEO and founder, Virti, explores how.
Global workforces remain in the midst of the Great Resignation. Fuelled by pandemic disruption, employee priorities have shifted, leading many to seek greater flexibility, personal development opportunities and wellbeing support elsewhere.
For HR teams, this means company culture must flex to reflect and meet employees’ evolving needs. This may sound like a mammoth task, but a wealth of innovative Extended Reality (XR) and AI workplace technologies make it easier than ever for HR professionals to build a flexible and inclusive culture.
XR tech is an umbrella term for Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) — technologies that combine the real and virtual world to create immersive virtual environments. Meanwhile, AI uses machine intelligence to rapidly execute processes that would normally require a lot of human intelligence, such as data analysis, movement tracking and problem-solving.
So how exactly can HR pros use these exciting technologies in the workplace to boost employee retention, productivity, and wellbeing? Let’s take a look.
XR-powered Flexible Working for the Hybrid Workplace
Hybrid working, once a buzzword, is fast becoming the new normal for workforces across the globe. Employees want the flexibility of working from home when needed, and XR can help enable this while ensuring the communication, collaboration, and engagement pivotal to business success doesn’t disappear.
XR can facilitate this through a number of solutions. With the advent of the metaverse, creating your very own virtual office will soon be a common go-to. By inhabiting and interacting in a virtual environment via custom-built avatars, employees can harness the energy of the in-person office without facing barriers of time, location or expense. With more office space suppliers beginning to offer virtual spaces alongside their in-person offerings, access to XR-enabled flexible working is set to rise.
Holding virtual meetings using XR is another great option. Employees can communicate more organically within these meetings using avatars. This personalized, immersive interaction helps encourage creativity and collaboration while enabling employees to participate remotely.
See More: 5 Skills Every Team Needs To Support the Hybrid Workplace
Artificially Intelligent Professional Development
Another rising priority for employees is greater professional development opportunities. But with traditional skills training often proving laborious, time-consuming and costly, XR and AI are on hand to provide a new approach. This will enable HR teams to streamline the process and cultivate a culture of lifelong learning through consistent and scalable upskilling.
An NHS study proves that XR training can improve performance by up to 230%. Using XR platforms, employees can access engaging training simulations anywhere, meaning modules can be revisited and repeated indefinitely. This leads to greater knowledge retention and a 52% reduction in skill fade, according to our study.
XR training’s immersive nature also contributes to this improvement. Practical skills, such as maneuvering complicated equipment, can be practiced safely in the virtual environment. In Ethiopia, Virti’s VR training simulations have been used to allow trainee doctors to practice orthopadic procedures in a low-risk environment without the need for costly resources. By reducing the expense and physical barriers to training, XR speeds up skill acquisition and improves overall performance.
Virtual Humans can also be used to role-play soft skills, such as communicating with a client or running a sales pitch. Performance can then be more accurately measured and analyzed using AI-powered feedback. This intuitive, objective data enables HRs to pinpoint areas for progress and support colleagues in identifying the next steps.
Wellbeing in the Age of the Metaverse
According to the mental health charity Mind, 60% of adults reported a worsening inf their mental wellbeing during the pandemic. And even pre-COVID-19, 44% of all work-related illness was due to mental ill-health, according to a CIPD and Simplyhealth study. By harnessing the power of cutting-edge XR and AI technologies, HR teams can put employee wellbeing back at the center of company culture and improve outcomes across the whole team.
XR and AI tech can help nurture a sense of community when used to host virtual or hybrid events. A more inclusive, accessible alternative to their in-person counterparts, these technologies help to minimize feelings of isolation among remote employees. And the sky’s the limit when planning your virtual workplace social. Whether you’re hosting a games night, live webinar or cooking class, including features like breakout rooms, chat forums, or a virtual bar area will help employees build stronger connections.
Monitoring employee wellbeing is also hugely important. AI-powered feedback forms enable you to collect regular, real-time feedback from colleagues and then turn this into objective data. Even non-verbal cues like facial expressions and body language can be captured and translated into readable data. This will help you identify anyone who is struggling and provide support where needed.
And when it comes to offering support, XR mindfulness resources are a great tool. Immersive meditations, AI counseling and therapy sessions, or interactive mindfulness activities provide tailored, flexible support that can be accessed on-demand. This will encourage employees to take time for their own wellbeing and foster a culture of understanding and support.
How are you leveraging XR and AI to transform your company culture? Share with us know on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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