Employee Training using VR Tech:
a powerful way to improve the professional skills
VR technology hits the world more and more, the specialists from numerous industries have already found the ways to implement it. We wrote earlier how VR was used in the spheres of education and healthcare. The heads of large corporations have noted the efficiency of integration VR technology to their work processes too. They’ve thought that would be a great way to train employees and improve on services. We can’t avoid the fact, the corporate training now is kind of boring.
HR managers and the department heads forcibly make the staff visit countless workshops and training to make the process of total immersion into the work responsibilities and improving the quality of services faster. Needless to say, such format of assimilating information isn’t productive or involving. If the staff is motivated enough we can assume that the corporate training will bear fruits. But what if this is an enforcement measure, so then it’s hard to talk about the fast results. What if it’s able to create another technique which will let workers get through every work situations effectively, fast and based on their own experience. Let us review the most successful cases of using VR in corporate training.
In August 2017 KFC announced that they’ve released a special training VR program aimed at improving the workers’ skills of cooking. The first part is a small horror game which consists of 5 easy steps. After completing the quiz, the next location, a digital professional KFC kitchen, appears. The training that lasts 25 minutes learns newbies to cooking chicken in an original way. The horror game can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmRQBugNDGQ
A bit later in the same year, the logistics company UPS that provides express delivery launched the VR programs in their training centers. Truck drivers practice save driving in the virtual reality. VR simulator was designed specifically to teach them to identify the potential dangers on the road such as pedestrians, parked vehicles, oncoming traffic and to react correctly. The management team of UPS believes such format engages employees and let them improve the skills experiencing the emergency situations on the virtual road.
At the end of 2017 “Walmart Academy”, a training center of the biggest retail and wholesale trade chain Walmart, has also launched their own training VR programs. The company immerses staff in very different scenarios during which they have to do a choice for one or another action. The employees experience some stressful situations such as Black Friday or learn some rules of food storage or standards of merchandising. Walmart believes that it helps them to cope with difficulties better. Moreover, such training does not interrupt the working processes and do not disturb customers while they go shopping.
Another American company Farmers Insurance can be the perfect example. They’ve successfully integrated VR technology to train the employees. The specialists can visit hundreds of apartments with the different types of damage in virtual reality. Experience gained helps them to process the claims faster and estimate the property damage of their clients more precisely. What we have listed is far from all. VR has already impacted on corporate training. It will be even easier to integrate such format over time.
