Imagine a day when you have a digital twin conducting an interview for you or taking a meeting on your behalf across the continent while you’re home. This reality is not far off for the staffing industry with the evolution of the metaverse, says Naveen Kumar Pathak, domain consultant and lead, Staffing and Recruitment Center of Excellence at TCS. The IT services and consulting giant is leading the charge not only in engaging augmented and virtual reality for its global staff but also in helping clients leverage immersive technologies. Pathak talks about the metaverse, the opportunities and challenges it presents for the industry, and how it impacts the future of work.

Naveen Kumar Pathak

Domain Consultant and Lead, Staffing and Recruitment Center of Excellence, TCS

What is the metaverse? Why should staffing companies care?

Essentially, the metaverse is an open and shared online experience where users can interact with each other and the virtual environment through real-world tools in a multi-dimensional digital world. Think virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR) — it’s an extension of today’s internet that can be more immersive and 3D-oriented. It rides the wave of artificial intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of Things and builds upon the advancements and computing itself — quantum computing, spatial computing, 3D modeling, those kind of things. All these come together to form the metaverse.

The staffing industry will be affected, especially given the changes happening to the two key pillars of this industry.

One is the nature of work. People are more accustomed to working remotely, so they are looking for more immersive experiences. While there is a push to return to the office, a hybrid model is evolving. So, people will continue to work remotely to an extent, and the metaverse or immersive technologies will become more prominent.

The other is the workforce itself, which largely comprises millennials and Gen Z — the digital native generations. With their way of looking at things, the metaverse will become more prominent, which means we need to start staffing for the metaverse so that we keep on top of these trends.

Where do the key opportunities lie for staffing and recruitment companies?

With macroeconomic headwinds and the talent shortage, staffing firms’ business priority is around the candidate experience and client experience — with the former being more urgent and prominent.

And that’s where the key opportunity is — to transform the talent experience. Everything can be more immersive and more attuned to the needs of the talent — the way you approach the talent, the way you try to attract them to the employer brand and the way you work with them throughout the recruitment cycle.

Take candidate assessment and interviews, for example. Do you want to do an online interview, or do you want to give something more to the people who have been hooked to those VR headsets when gaming? The answer is obvious! You want to hook the candidate with the experience they’re clamoring for.

Then there’s the opportunity to amplify the human connection. With remote recruitment focusing more and more on phones and emails, that connection has taken a back seat. But with the metaverse, you can provide real-life connections. The interviews can become more lifelike — even in the work environment. Candidates can experience the work you are offering them. This goes beyond the job description or the mere phone call. People would like to see what they would really experience in the job.

And while recruiters are working remotely in distributed teams, they will be more productive if they’re able to have those casual social conversations that they used to have in the office. With a virtual reality office, they can go to a virtual cafeteria and have casual conversations.

Meanwhile, virtual career fairs and job fairs can make clients’ employer brands more visible.

Another long-term opportunity is the creation of digital twins. Using artificial intelligence, digital twins can not only accurately reflect real-world entities but also mimic their behavior in the metaverse, be it physical objects or human beings. So, we can look at scenarios where your digital twin, or avatar, is doing the meetings and making impactful presentations.

Your avatar can essentially go and do a real-time automated interview. So, you are not doing the interview, but your digital twin will interview on your behalf. Similarly, that digital twin can be the guide for the new hires when you are onboarding them. So, you need not be physically present, but your avatar can do that in the metaverse that is available to everyone.

These opportunities will come in phases. Currently, we are staffing for the metaverse. The metaverse technology and concept are still evolving, and we are looking at early adopters to pave the way. Then we’ll be staffing with the metaverse, when technologies will advance and gradually mature, with a rapid adoption. And finally, staffing in the metaverse. When the metaverse becomes mainstream — in the next decade, which is not too far in the future —you will be working and living in the metaverse and then staffing in the metaverse. This is how it will eventually emerge in terms of opportunity.

What is TCS’s approach to helping its customers adopt the metaverse?

We have been helping our clients use it to develop the experiences they want for their consumers, and we have been using it internally as well. TCS is a global organization with a diverse workforce and people working in over 100 countries.

We have a metaverse-enablement platform called TCS Avapresence, which uses blockchain, cloud, AI, the Internet of Things and extended reality technologies to solve our customers’ major problems. Avapresence supports all the diverse tools in the AR and VR space — your MR headsets, VR headsets or haptic gloves. All those tools can be plugged into Avapresence to enable immersive experiences.

We have a virtual collaboration suite where we are creating workplace experiences internally as well as for some customers so they and their employees can meet and greet. They can shake hands with haptic feedback, experience 3D reality, hear spatial audio and then have collaborative discussions. All those can be enabled through these platforms, and we’re using them ourselves and helping clients do so as well.

What are the key challenges in adoption of the metaverse for staffing and recruiting?

Every new disruptive technology or concept faces challenges and apprehensions during the adoption phase, which is what the metaverse is going through. If I have to define it, the biggest challenge will be getting companies to believe in the power of dreams — and those experiences that the metaverse can enable are still looking like dreams to many organizations.

Now, having said that, the digital-native generations are already accustomed to these experiences through their interactions with various gadgets, so the talent can easily correlate with what these use cases are and how they can benefit. But many companies are not that sure, and that’s the main challenge.

The current high cost associated with AR and VR headsets is often cited as a deterrent to end-user adoption. However, I think the impact of these technologies is such that immersive experiences to begin with — and the metaverse, eventually — will become a force to be reckoned with, and the benefits will far exceed the cost.

Another challenge is the interoperability of the solutions. As of now, all the major players are focusing on their own proprietary technology platforms and metaverse worlds. There’s no common standard or unifying framework like HTTP that everyone follows. It’ll evolve and converge soon, but at this point, interoperability is another challenge that we see.

For staffing and recruitment, an industry synonymous with human interactions, the additional challenge will be replicating as well as moderating the enriching recruiter interactions with candidates. As the former not only act as conduits for new jobs but also as an advisor, mentor and guide — maintaining the sanctity of such connects will go a long way in establishing the staffing industry in the metaverse.

Beyond these, there are concerns around security, data privacy and the well-being of individuals. As the technology evolves, possibly in the next avatar or next iteration of this metaverse, some of this can be addressed and should not be an obstacle in the experimentation and exploration of this technology.

How has TCS been helping in this regard?

We are leveraging these technologies not only to manage our workforce but also to share those experiences with our customers. Through TCS Pace, we help our clients to innovate, adapt, track and build competitive advantage, coming up with relevant solutions to their challenges, including in the metaverse world.

We also help clients manage the interoperability issue I discussed. TCS’ Avapresence platform already works with most of the AR and VR technologies and headsets that are available in the market and all the later technologies in the metaverse, so we already have support for their platform of choice. And being an early adopter of this technology, we can help bridge that gap by co-creating with many of our customers.

How do you see the metaverse impacting the future of work?

It will redefine the way people interact. The virtual engagement will completely change. Team collaboration will no longer be limited to a typical two-dimensional online meeting. It will be 3D and immersive interactions.

Training and development are already witnessing massive changes. Many trainings are becoming immersive, including for settings that require physical presence, but people can be trained virtually. Take mining, for example. You can learn the intricacies of drilling deep into the earth and have a real-life experience of being beneath the surface while still staying far away from the mining site.

And the day is not far away when digital twins do parallel meetings in London and New York, attending on your behalf and transcending all borders and barriers of time.

The possibilities are immense. Eventually, it also means new businesses will emerge as in the internet boom. Then new skills will emerge. And again, this will impact the way staffing companies and the world of work operate because the skills demand will also change. And in such a scenario, you need to find those skills and have people to fulfill those industries’ needs as well.

Eventually, when it becomes mainstream, it will leave a lasting impression on the future of work.

Which industries are benefitting the most from an early adoption of the metaverse? What lessons can the staffing industry take away from this?

I think the biggest early beneficiary is the gaming industry. This is where AR and VR glasses and headsets are, and teenagers today are just jumping on that bandwagon. But beyond this, many other industries are already leveraging the metaverse in a big way. Take retail. Virtual retail stores are there where you can wear your clothes and other accessories like shoes, jewelry, etc., online and see how they look on you.

Similarly, the travel and hospitality industry is providing immersive tourism experiences including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as mementos. Entertainment is another one. There are so many concerts happening in the metaverse, and the attendance is mind-boggling!

But it’s not only about benefiting now — it’s more about benefiting tomorrow as well. Targeting immediate return on investment is alluring, but organizations should go after the metaverse with a long-term strategy. Working on the right use cases aligned to the evolution and maturity of metaverse technologies is paramount.

This is new, but it is ready to disrupt your industry very soon. While due diligence and study are important, staffing companies can reap the rewards of being early movers in this particular technology. It’s better to experiment today rather than regret it tomorrow. 

To see how TCS can help your firm ride the wave of the metaverse, contact Naveen Pathak at nk.pathak@tcs.com.