Many leaders are struggling to answer whether the Metaverse matters to them, their employees, or their organization. What is real, what is actionable now, and what can organizations do to better prepare and plan for the impact the Metaverse will have on them and their organizations?Join Microsoft MVP Richard Harbridge as he shares best practices, considerations, and advice on not only how the Metaverse impacts employee experience today, but how to maximize the impact it provides tomorrow.

1. Metaverse & The
Employee Experience
Richard Harbridge
2toLead Chief Technology
Officer & Microsoft MVP
how to navigate forward faster
#MetaverseOne
Wed., Sep. 7, 2022 9:00 AM (CDT)

2. My Twitter is @RHarbridge, I’m super friendly & proud to work at @2toLead.
Richard Harbridge
2toLead Chief
Technology Officer &
Microsoft MVP
Speaker & Author
Super Friendly

3. What are we hearing
Metaverse

4. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
We are experiencing greater volume, velocity, and variety of communication and collaboration. This
requires us to collaborate, communicate and manage employees in better ways than we have before.
Of employees and
executives cite a lack of
collaboration or ineffective
communication for
workplace failures.
Of employers have
identified that enhancing
the employee experience
is an important priority.
86%
Source: Willis Towers Watson
Source: Salesforce
92%

5. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
We are experiencing greater volume, velocity, and variety of communication and collaboration. This
requires us to collaborate, communicate and manage employees in better ways than we have before.
Digitally Spaces have been a part of how we work, learn and
connect for a long time. It’s not new, but another evolution.

6. There are two categories for the business metaverse: the industrial metaverse and the metaverse
workplace. What’s changing is that VR & AR may become core tools in our employee experience.
Consumer
Metaverse
Industrial
Metaverse
Enterprise
Metaverse

7. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
Jacob Morgan in “The Employee Experience Advantage” suggests three environments that support and reinforce each other.
With the shift driven by Hybrid Work, it has pushed greater weight on cultural and technological environments.
The feeling employees
get working for your
organization
The actual spaces in
which employees
work
The tools
employees use to
get their jobs done

8. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
The Metaverse can have a long term and lasting impact on culture. But it’s not clear yet what that
will be. At this stage while we can work to understand and align, the impact is still limited.
• Provide a feeling of togetherness when working alone.
• Having “presence” has not always been equitable.
• Not all of us can afford clothing, good lighting or camera systems.
• No legs may be more inclusive (example: wheelchair user).
• Figure or ‘body size’ in VR.
• Immersive technology can be costly (flat screen experience matters).
• Audio cues and avatar hand movements to start, but mimicking
facial movements and more matters long term.

9. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
The Metaverse can have a long term and lasting impact on culture. But it’s not clear yet what that
will be. At this stage while we can work to understand and align, the impact is still limited.
Do we control backgrounds in Teams video?
What is our stance on green screens and filters?
What is our stance on Avatars?
What is our stance on VR at work…

10. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
The effect of VR and AR on experiences that compliment or historically have been in the physical
environment is still being determined. While it’s important to understand there isn’t enough here yet.
VR Office Tours (Easier now to capture and render).
VR & AR Augmenting Physical Environment Experiences (Labs, Design, etc).
VR & AR Augmenting Vetting/Testing Simulation.
The trainee's view from the Strivr virtual-reality platform of watering and other tasks
on the 'wet wall,' the leafy vegetables section of a Walmart produce department.

11. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
The way we see digital employee experience at 2toLead is based on 3 primary areas of investment.
Each of these are impacted by the Metaverse today.

12. Metaverse
Where’s the insight?

13. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
The way we see digital employee experience at 2toLead is based on 3 primary areas of investment.

14. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
Employee communication focuses on the technologies that improve the employee communication
technology experience. Let’s start by exploring the trends around key technology here.

15. We have seen things like SharePoint Spaces and 3D experiences for quite some time, but is this
really something that makes a difference in a real way for organizations?

16. SharePoint spaces not only provides a way to store and organize simple 3D spaces providing new ways of
experiencing content, but it provides tools to tailor it and explore 2D & 3D content together.

17. Today for organizations who have audiences that are empowered with VR devices they can organize VR sessions
and events for and immersive experience while others can use “2D mode” for a flatscreen experience.

18. The more natural interactions are, the easier they lead to serendipitous encounters that spark innovation.

19. The more natural interactions are, the easier they lead to serendipitous encounters that spark innovation.

20. Due to the Mesh rendering potential, we can visualize far more via the cloud than could be visualized
locally. This allows for a richer fidelity of experience than before. Enabling room scale explorations and more.

21. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
Employee communication focuses on the technologies that improve the employee communication
technology experience. Let’s start by exploring the trends around key technology here.

22. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
The volume, velocity, and variety of collaboration continues to increase, and we need new
experiences to meet new challenges.

23. The use of Avatars is already a great starting point. Providing a new way of expressing ourselves based on a
moving 3D version of us that follows audio cues, shows hand movements and soon will mimic facial movements.
Flexibility Matters
We all still have audio
only calls. Or partial
video calls. Think of this
as a way to add more
flexibility with more
expression,
personalization and
alternatives.

24. Interacting together in a mesh AR, VR or flat space can enable some participants to use more capabilities that are
more natural. 3D Annotation is especially fluid and it helps us meet an increased collaboration complexity.
Drop in Spaces:
We have a focus on
transactional
interactions when
highly remote. This
can mean more
natural, spontaneous
interactions.
Don’t forget
about Viva
Engage and
Yammer
Communities!

25. Rich immersive experiences with others in Team spaces powered by the HoloLens are powerful. This AR
focused set of presence and shared experience enables spatial collaboration in new ways.

26. The distribution of collaborative work is often extremely lopsided. In most cases, 20% to 35% of
value-added collaborations come from only 3% to 5% of employees.

27. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
The volume, velocity, and variety of collaboration continues to increase, and we need new
experiences to meet new challenges.

28. You will love the way we work. Together. ™
The way we see digital employee experience at 2toLead is based on 3 primary areas of investment.

29. Education and training with VR and AR is changing industries but it’s also helping many immerse and
understand them further. The future of every industry is deeper and more digital.
MicrosoftEducation_Immersive_Experiences_Education_2019.pdf (azureedge.net)

30. While skilling is important richer data, simulations, analysis and more is empowered by a world of IoT
and digital innovation. Much of which benefits from Metaverse technology investments.
Consumer
Metaverse
Industrial
Metaverse
Enterprise
Metaverse
“The return on investment is
incredibly high when
implementing metaverse
technology to production settings
because of improvements in
operational efficiency.”
Microsoft VP Moe Tanabian

31. Remember that there are massive investments in the industry and by Microsoft on the Industrial side
of the metaverse from Digital Twins to Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces and more.

32. Remember that there are massive investments in the industry and by Microsoft on the Industrial side
of the metaverse from Digital Twins to Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces and more.

33. M365Intranets.com
M365Sprawl.com
M365Campaigns.com
Explore 800+ Pages of
Free Expert Guidance…
M365Metrics.com
M365Resources.com
SharePointMigrations.com

34. Let’s connect and find ways to do more and work together.
Message me on LinkedIn or email Richard@2toLead.com
200+ Awesome Presentations at:
Richard Harbridge
2toLead Chief Technology
Officer & Microsoft MVP
Super Friendly
Thank You
Slideshare.Net/RHarbridge
700+ Pages of Whitepapers at: 2toLead.com/Whitepapers
Elsewhere…
M365Resources.com
Office365Campaigns.com
M365Sprawl.com
M365Intranets.com
M365Metrics.com
SharePointMigrations.com
Feedback:
https://metaverse-one.rocks/feedback

35. Thank you!