5 Ways That AR and VR Support Remote Workers

As we drift further into the digital wave that is the 21st century, it’s no surprise that our corporate landscape is continuing to change with the times. From entertainment, education, and healthcare - all the way to the workplace - technology is constantly evolving to revolutionise all aspects of our daily lives. As we enter a post-pandemic world, newfound possibilities for the future of the workplace have begun to crop up. Whether you’re working remotely or are heading back into the office. The post-Covid workplace is quickly becoming digitised. 

(Source: Gartner)

In fact, 38% of organisations are currently implementing technology into a new digital workspace as we speak, with many more quickly joining the wave in order to compete with corporate competitors. With current statistics proposing that a digitalised workplace improves productivity by 33% and greatly increases business revenue, a completely digitised corporate landscape could only be a few years away.

One of the technologies leading this revolution is Augmented Reality. Alongside its Virtual Reality counterpart, AR has become a digital celebrity amongst the technology universe. With the ability to enhance all areas of the workplace, from communication to training and data organisation, it’s no surprise that corporate leaders are investing fast.

For business leaders and corporate workers alike, your working environment is at the tip of the impending digital revolution. Read on to find out how the implementation of a digital workspace will affect your future role and stay to find out why AR could be the exciting beginning of a completely digitised future.

Augmented Reality is a breed of immersive technology. Playing on the original eyeglasses look, AR frames are designed to enhance reality using the power of digital layering. With a vast, yet untapped potential, they have begun to slide into the corporate landscape over the last 10 years and are increasingly growing in number.

Like their Virtual Reality counterparts that fully immerse you in a completely digitised platform, AR eyewear takes your own surroundings and adds what we like to call a ‘productivity layer’ to the workplace structure. As a technology with a smart yet subtle design, its ability is powerful. 

Allowing users to interact with the digital layers in front of them, they are able to display vast amounts of data before your eyes, place you in a virtual meeting from the comfort of your WFH couch and even assist during the interview process, all while monitoring user’s health parameters like blood glucose and eye pressure. With tech giants such as Apple and Microsoft, currently battling to produce the most popular AR goggle design, it won’t be long until they are as popular as the iPhone.

The question we are all asking is, just how much is immersive technology transforming the workplace? As a digital aid that has taken over both the gaming and educational field, it’s time to see just how life-changing it could be for the 21st-century corporate landscape. 

Currently, only 3 in 10 corporate employees believe that they have the appropriate equipment to assist them during their working day, also reporting that the lack of technology provided reduces both their efficiency and productivity in the workplace. The addition of new technological advances such as immersive aids is vastly changing workplace attitudes. With the ability to assist employees from both the office and from home, experts predict that they are the key to company success. 

Here are 5 ways AR and VR technologies are currently transforming the working scene, and why it’s now more important than ever to jump on the digital trend train to boost your own business’ success.

One of the largest benefits of Augmented Reality is its ability to improve communication between employees and their colleagues. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the structure of the working world has changed dramatically. With remote working quickly becoming the new normal, the implementation of the digital workspace has never been in higher demand in order to keep communication as organic as possible.

As more of us swap the office for our own kitchen tables, experts suggest that communication is key if business leaders want to continue seeing employee success. 

With over 30% of the global workforce now predicted to swap the office for a remote future by the end of 2021, working from home has become the new normal post-pandemic. While the extra hour in bed seems like a dream come true, there are many drawbacks to the new corporate landscape, the main one being communication.

(Source: Statista)

As new data from Upwork reveals that 23% of corporate companies plan to stay remote for the next 5 years, it’s no surprise that employees are silently hoping for leaders to jump on to the new wave of immersive initiatives. In fact, mental health experts suggest that keeping communication digitally alive is vital if leaders want to still see success. 

This is where AR steps in. As an immersive technology that aims to digitally enhance your surroundings, business leaders are using AR glasses to improve office communication.

From enhancing physical presence within video conferencing calls to improving 1-1 communication between remote employees, AR and VR technology has the ability to solve many problems that WFH businesses are currently facing.

In a remote setting, email and messaging apps are quickly becoming redundant in the race for the most effective form of communication. Thanks to the implementation of Augmented Reality and VR headsets, remote workers are able to join meetings virtually and see the 3D faces of their colleagues in real-time, therefore mimicking human interaction.

Alongside this, AR also aids 1-1 discussions over new projects and data results, allowing colleagues to not only see each other but also the data in a real-time setting, for maximum efficiency.  

One of the other areas of corporate working that Ar will dramatically improve is the ability to train staff in either new procedures or programmes relating to their role in the company. According to a recent Dell and Intel Workforce Study, “66% of global employees would be willing to use AR/ VR products in their professional life; most as a training tool and 62% of global employees agree that their job could be made easier with the assistance of artificial intelligence.”

This suggests that AR’s ability to immerse employees within a real-life situation from the comfort of their home will improve the training experience. For example, VR and AR users will be able to perform mock activities without needing to visit the office, assisting and speeding up their remote learning experience. 

Better still, the implementation of AR and VR technologies into a training scheme can also reduce business costs dramatically. Not only do immersive aids improve productivity and speed up the training of new employees, but also reduce the need for staff assistance, meaning that production value can still remain high.

In the same way as training technology, AR also assists the interview process. For instance, new candidates are able to not only virtually shadow their employer using virtual and augmented reality, but also get a real feel for their future role in the company.

This not only helps employers throw their interviewees into the practicalities of their role but also appeals to the new remote interview process post-Covid. VR can also be used to mimic real-life complications that an employee could face during their role. For example, retailers are able to mimic an augmented situation, such as dealing with a challenging customer, that a candidate can work through using VR to demonstrate their skills as a potential worker.  

Those of us swapping office chitchat for the singular screen, have been victims of some of the largest impacts of the global pandemic. Increased levels of loneliness due to poor communication between staff and management leads to anxiety and depression and in turn lack of productivity. For workers to remain connected to their HR team, technology is a vital component. 

AR is revolutionising this field of remote working. Both Augmented reality and Virtual reality are improving the connection between HR professionals and their employees, allowing for more intimate 1-1 sessions and a newfound form of interactive and digital HR. 

Another element VR adds to the mix is its ability to immerse employees in workshops and seminar landscapes, which allow HR professionals to conduct wellness workshops to aid loneliness and work-related stress during the transition from the office to the house. Using AR/VR to assist employee mental health discussions vastly improve worker morale and general productivity for business success.

One of the most efficient uses of AR technology within the workplace is its ability to improve data organisation and visualisation for both the employee and the stakeholder. With AR eyewear enabling the user to view large streams of data in real-time, these interactive digital layers not only make findings easier to see when planning projects and recording results, but also improve company communication.

In presentation scenarios, meetings with potential stakeholders, and the scary 1-1 between the employee and the boss, users are able to utilise the benefits of AR/VR technology and present their findings in front of their audience’s eyes while they talk, improving product proposals and stakeholder target marketing.

The future certainly looks bright for those of us working in the corporate sector. As new technological advances hit the market each year, we believe that AR is just the beginning of a digital revolution for the post-Covid workplace.

Currently, the three largest challenges businesses are facing during the uptake of a more digital landscape are cost margins, platform limitations, and cross-departmental collaboration. As tech giants, Apple and Microsoft continue to create accessible forms of AR for all sectors, a completely digitised future could be just around the corner.