Metaverse will change the working life of the future
Meta, Facebook's new virtual reality company, aims to provide an environment where employees can work completely remotely. It is estimated that this will put pressure on many companies, especially in Europe.
Expanding its operations in Europe, Facebook 's new virtual reality company Meta will apply the remote work system to its employees. The company announced that people hired to support the virtual reality-focused Metaverse creation in the coming years will be able to work from home in eight European countries, including Germany, France and Spain. Another of the goals of the company, which relies on the teleworking system, is to expand its talent pool with participation from the UK and Ireland, the traditional strongholds of the IT industry.
It is anticipated that Meta's hiring strategy will increase the pressure on European companies in terms of eyeing the dwindling number of experienced talents and accelerating their own hybrid and remote working policies. Surveys also show that employees greatly support flexible working arrangements after the pandemic.
Teleworking advocate Iwo Szapar, who says "attracting talents is one aspect of the job. But another aspect is the ability to retain talent," points out that Facebook applies this system to its existing employees while seeking new workforce.
HUNTING IN THE TALENT MARKET
Meta company plans to employ at least 10,000 new employees from Europe for the Metaverse project over the next five years. These figures will create a surge in Europe's sizable technology workforce pool. The demand for tech workers has already outstripped supply in recent years.
According to the data of the information technology institution BITKOM in Germany, as of the end of 2021, 96 thousand technology jobs, including positions such as software engineers, product managers and IT managers, were left open. The institution expects the employment gap to increase this year as well.
Adel Holdampf-Wendel, who researches technology workforce pools at BITKOM, said, "We expect demand to increase in the medium term, primarily due to demographic changes and digitalization demands facing companies," said every company is looking for technology experts. After working from home for almost two years in the pandemic, employees frequently express that they now want flexibility in the office environment.
"Many people have proven to be excellently productive at home, too. And there are quite a few companies that offer [working remotely]," says Jon Stross, co-founder and president of recruiting platform Greenhouse.
"FLEXIBLE WORKING CONDITION"
On the other hand, although the promises of remote working in new job postings increase, they are limited. Working largely with technology and professional services firms, Greenhouse said that 5 percent of the postings on the platform offer the opportunity to work remotely. That's more compared to 1.5 percent before the pandemic.
With the spread of working from home, developing mixed policies in working systems has also become the focus of companies. Some companies have also created remote working opportunities from abroad. Szapar, a remote working platform who organizes seminars on the subject, says that working outside of the office tends to appeal to highly sought-after tech workers like software engineers.
German software company SAP has implemented one of the most liberal policies in this regard. Last summer, the company began allowing more than 100,000 employees around the world to set their own workplaces and hours in coordination with their superiors, taking into account customer needs. Christian Schmeichel, who heads the company's remote and hybrid working efforts, said in an interview that SAP employees had already worked at home for an average of two and a half days before the epidemic. “Flexible work is an essential feature of the search for talent and competition for the best people. It will continue to be decisive and not just in our industry,” Schmeichel observes.
Meta spokesperson Cousins said: "If your position is available and you can do your job elsewhere, you may prefer to work remotely. Maybe you worked in Ireland and you want to be in Spain or Germany. So that's a possible option."
