The advantages in training an organization can gain from virtual reality are many but what’s vital to remember when deciding on training is expense and increasing ROI. VR has this to its advantage – it’s a platform that provides consistent, easy to achieve and surprisingly easy to curate tailored content. Are you a company that embraces technology, and new ways of engaging your workforce? It could be time to strap yourself in and join the metaverse.
What virtual reality brings is high engagement and interest to what’s often delivered as an uninspired textbook approach to training – and also for new hires. Onboarding is one area where VR can give you results. It’s a process that’s rarely executed well in organisations but It can set the tone for an organisation as one that embraces modern technology as well as shows new employees you’re an organisation willing to go the extra mile in learning strategies.
And setting up the training doesn’t need to cause you headaches. The headsets are clearly a great way to engage in learning but it’s also possible to interact with 360 degree environments without a headset – the pictures or videos can be viewed on other devices and without headsets. More and more organisations have headsets at their place of work and these can be reused for training as and when required. In a hybrid workforce, it can give a more round experience for new hires and current employees to move learning away from flat screens.
Furthering your ROI is a must when it comes to learning in an organisation, so what are you doing to enhance your training and present your cultural vision and expectations in the organisation for the employes? Much of what’s provided in training is dull and unproductive but why can’t you wow your workforce and your new hires?
VR is surprisingly easy to use and is becoming more accessible. In the current circumstances, it can bring a new reality that can engage in a novel way, giving the user an experience that aims to achieve better knowledge retention. So can virtual reality help in a real business context and what results can it achieve?
People forget nearly 90% of what they have learnt within just 7 days, unless the concepts are reinforced. That’s why employees swamped with documents, presentations, and classroom sessions are not likely to learn much.
However, time constraints make it difficult to reinforce vast concepts.
What can you do instead? Arm your employees with one concept at a time. Studies show the human attention span is only 8.25 seconds, so keep your training concise.
RapL is your software for that.
Training scenarios
Meet CarsToGo, An (imaginary) automotive company that has a high staff turnover. Business is good but customer service ratings are down and it’s starting to show in the profits despite looking to go international.
The workforce are disengaged with the current training and feel it doesn’t improve their professional skills. The Learning Management System and irrelevant (and expensive) to the automotive industry and the needs of the workforce.
The disengagement at CarsToGo may well lead to poor service, bad workmanship and a lack of consistency in what they deliver to customers – this will continue to hurt their business. High performing employees are not rewarded for completing the training, another reason there is a lack of motivation.
Solutions:
VR…
Using Virtual Reality will certainly add some spark and solving the engagement problem, a good place to start. Having a more interactive and gamified platform is certain to achieve better results as well as making the training more relevant to the business. Using engaging microlearning LMS and online learning platforms can increase results. Virtual Reality would help the workforce participate in trainings in an all-encompassing fashion, as it’s a safer and less expensive means to learning the processes and detail needed. Above all, the workforce will actually learn something from the training.
Increasing how the workforce perceive training and the value it brings will bring increased productivity, better skills and higher engagement in the organisation. With better engagement, comes higher productivity, a more cohesive team and ultimately a healthier bottom line.
What virtual reality can add to an organisation is a fun and innovative way of bringing knowledge to the workforce and ensuring that all the staff have the same access to the same knowledge. From a business point of view, it eliminates the danger in training and is safe – particularly important for some industries such as mining, automotive and others and making it interactive which increases retention. The employees can experience a new world in an interesting way where they can focus and absorb the focused content. And it’s fun which can lead to better engagement, and through learning by doing.
Result
There are better results with VR and other gamified and experiential platforms. Scenario based learning can truly enhance the training experience and retention levels are significantly higher which will help to address knowledge gaps in departments VR gives the employees the ability to use what they are learning in a safe and inexpensive way.
Moving and experiencing the learning is a compelling way to learn and goes some way to solving engagement issues – VR is exciting and captures the attention of your workforce which will pay dividends. We learn by doing and here lies its success. Using VR can also give a better onboarding experience that gives employees more information in an exciting and most importantly engaging way. It’s a platform that can generate results.
Using VR in your training also depends on what your organisation wants to deliver – and how. VR is a relatively new technology and is building up kudos within learning spheres. It’s modern, exciting and really does add to the experience for your workforce and new hires while creating a great experience and delivering results. Not only that, sending out headsets to employees in a hybrid workforce doesn’t have to be difficult and as long as the software is easy to access, headsets are really plug in and go – they’re surprisingly easy to use and can inspire your workforce.
For a free consultation, go to www.getrapl.com. Rapl will help your business enable a better learning culture for your business that will increase productivity, efficiency, and improve your bottom line.
