diving letter:

• In another use case of the metaverse, beauty giant Coty Inc. plans to launch Coty Campus, an internal virtual environment for its 11,000 employees, this fall. according to a press release on Tuesday.
• The beauty company has partnered with Spatial, a 3D experience and social platform, to create the digital space where Coty employees can share files, create custom avatars, and communicate via text or voice chat. Users can also earn rewards by collecting items, exploring the digital environment, and completing quests, according to the press release.
• The company said the Coty campus is part of its effort to upskill its workforce and is a “key development” in the company’s digitization strategy.

Insight into the dive:

Coty has joined a long list of companies including Gucci, Walmart and Gap experimented with the metaverse. But where many retailers have used the metaverse Hoping to boost sales of digital goods and connect with online consumers, Coty Campus is available to employees only and follows a broader trend from employers Testing virtual technologies to motivate employees.

According to a 2022 Challenger, Gray and Christmas survey, over 80% of HR leaders were They fear their employees will leave for other jobs. Some employers rely on augmented and virtual reality environments to engage their workers. Meta, which has invested heavily in the concept, published a poll of more than 2,000 employees and 400 managers over the past year and found that 65% of employees said they would be more likely to stay in their position if they could use AR and VR tools. 74 percent of executives said they plan to allocate funds to VR, AR, or Metaverse spend in 2022.

“Coty strives to be a leader in digital and continues to push the boundaries of innovation,” said Jean-Denis Mariani, Coty’s chief digital officer, in a statement. “With Coty Campus, we’re proud to leverage Spatial’s Web3 and gaming technology at a groundbreaking scale to create new immersive experiences that offer the most interactive solutions for collaboration and co-creation.”

Upskilling workers could help increase retention. A Taco Bell Foundation Report 2022 and Jobs for the Future noted that learning opportunities could ultimately lead to stronger attachment. Other University of Phoenix Career Institute report found that a large proportion of the 5,000 workers surveyed said they would stay with their company if it offered more opportunities for reskilling or upskilling.