The future of virtual workspaces—why it must transcend Zoom and VR headsets

Over the course of the pandemic, much of our work shifted from physical spaces to video meeting software. While work-from-home policies alleviated the dangers of COVID transmission (for some), what many managers didn’t foresee was that employee productivity jumped up to 77 percent, with staffers adding an equivalent of one extra day’s work to each week. Business owners with sky-high office rents were particularly pleased by this unexpected outcome.

With a large portion of the population now vaccinated and COVID protocols in place, companies are carefully weighing the next steps: return to the physical workplace, create a hybrid work model, or stay completely virtual. With current productivity rates where they are, smart managers aren’t keen on trying to reestablish a physical workplace. Therefore, the need for compelling, persistent virtual space is just as important now as it was during the height of the pandemic. And it will be for the future.

Herein lies the current issue many employers are facing: the collection of tools that helped us “make do” during the pandemic do not equate to a virtual office. While a great many streaming options have emerged, they just allow connectivity—not an absolute connection. After all, a productive, healthy work culture built on trust, availability, connectedness, wellbeing, and transparency cannot be maintained in a single Zoom window.

The virtual work environments that succeed must be a simulacrum to office life. We have to create the same experiences that employees once had in physical workplaces that were purpose-built to support the many types of interactions that occur during the course of a normal workday. Video software must support all of these daily moments—from a brainstorming session to an intense client call to a co-worker’s celebration—and the best way to do this is through what we call persistent, virtual spaces.

The pros and cons of VR

While VR in architecture has been around for some time, the past 2+ years have seen an explosion in mainstream adoption. According to a survey in CGarchitect, the leading users of VR for architectural visualization are in Europe (40 percent) and the United States (21 percent). Architects and designers are implementing digital twins, or virtual replicas of physical objects and spaces, to build and test everything from golf courses to office towers, and some architecture firms are making up to $300,000 per project to design what’s known as digital real estate.

VR will allow architects to push the boundaries of modern workplace design, giving employees the experience of building or space that hasn’t even been built. For example, architects are combining VR tools like Oculus with BIM (Building Information Modeling) software so that clients understand spatial aspects of the workplace.

When it comes to VR today, what we most frequently hear about in the press is hardware wearables-driven virtual spaces, conceived by the big three companies who stand to make the most from selling advertising or enabling commerce in those spaces: Google, Meta, and Microsoft. These are not the most trusted brands when it comes to data privacy. And they certainly aren’t known as the architects of beautiful, engaging virtual experiences.

An incredible persistent virtual office product must have input from architects and physical space designers, not merely software designers. It matters who designs and builds our virtual spaces because they will determine the best use of the space through its design. It’s crucial to collaborate with experts to create exceptional physical experiences that include the optimal use of physical office space with the right components and areas for the various activities that a team engages in over the course of a day.

Conclusion

According to PEW Research, by 2025, there will be more people working from home, more virtual social and entertainment interactions, and fewer forays in public than in pre-pandemic years. The use of video technology has grown by more than 1,000%, and research shows that 74 percent of companies plan to permanently shift to remote work, post-COVID.

Just like being inside an office building or an airport, purpose-built virtual spaces should be beautiful, functional, inspiring, and wellness-aware. Sweaty headsets and vanilla meeting platforms are not realistic solutions and do not meet the challenge.

Companies need to give careful forethought to designing spaces, physical and virtual, that bolster sustainability, productivity, communications, mental health, and even more. These spaces must put front and center the ability of employees to collaborate with one another throughout the entire workday, not just during scheduled meetings.

Critical and valued employees unable to meet physically with colleagues deserve to (and can) enjoy many in-person benefits, but only if a talented team approaches this difficult problem together. It’s time for that team to take hold.