How Employees in These 4 Industries Are Getting Trained Using Virtual Reality
The Use of Virtual Reality In The Employee Training Process
Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a game-changing technology that is
revolutionizing the ways in which businesses interact with their clientele.
This success has expanded to organizations, where executives are beginning to
recognize the potential of utilizing this technology to enhance learning and
development programs for their workforce.
Learning possibilities within their jobs are highly valued by modern
employees. In point of fact, among millennials, 87 percent hold the belief that
it is essential for a job to provide possibilities for professional
development, and 59 percent place a high value on opportunities to learn and
improve and take this into consideration when deciding which companies to apply
to.
When it comes to recruiting and maintaining workers, firms now have the
potential to differentiate themselves from the competition by utilizing virtual
reality (VR), whose availability is growing while its cost is falling. In this
essay, we will look at four different industries that are successfully
utilizing it.
The Value of Virtual Reality
Let's take a look at the benefits that virtual reality (VR) can provide to
staff members before we discuss the many businesses that are embracing VR as a
training tool.
resembles actual events and circumstances.
The usage of virtual reality (VR) allows for the creation of interactive
settings that are modeled after actual-life occurrences. This immersive
training might include practicing human activities, emulating how machinery
operates, and modelling how equipment responds.
It is possible to simplify difficult situations.
Virtual reality (VR) makes it possible to recreate complicated procedures
and scenarios, enabling workers to get hands-on experience in a safe and
controlled setting.
makes training enjoyable and entertaining.
Due to the fact that one in every three workers believes that
uninteresting content is a hindrance to their learning, the workforce of today
requires training that stimulates, intrigues, and is relevant to their role.
This is possible with VR.
It is beneficial to both memory retention and recall.
Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to improve employees' engagement
levels, which in turn makes it simpler for them to retain the information they
get in classroom settings.
ideal for a wide variety of instructional approaches.
Individuals can be classified as visual, aural, verbal, or physical
learners, depending on how they process information best. Virtual reality (VR)
training accommodates a variety of learning styles.
Which sectors, then, are making use of this emerging immersive technology
in the context of their respective learning initiatives?
The Application of Virtual Reality in Four Distinct Industries
Healthcare
Virtual reality has a vast array of prospects in the medical industry. A
group of technologists and healthcare specialists got together at the first
Virtual Reality and Healthcare Symposium earlier this year to discuss how
virtual reality can and is being used to train healthcare professionals to make
a difference in people's lives and heal patients.
Microsoft developed a teaching program for medical students using
HoloLens in partnership with Case Western University. This program will alter
the way in which medical students can grasp the anatomy of a body and see how
different sections interact to each other. The purpose of the partnership is to
bring about a paradigm change that, according to Microsoft, will assist them in
training the next generation of medical professionals:
Medical students are learning how to deliver bad news to patients and
their families through the use of virtual reality (VR) technology provided by
MPathic. The training takes place within a hospital setting. Students are able
to develop effective empathic communication skills and discover how to
interpret verbal and nonverbal clues from characters in a scenario by utilizing
MPathic. They are also able to learn how to respond with the method that is
most suited for the situation.
In real-time interactions, their replies include showing a range of
facial expressions and emotions. Students who had previously utilized MPathic
reported feeling more comfortable participating in these types of talks as a
direct result of the virtual reality training.
Retail
In a market as cutthroat as this one, it is essential to exploit the
potential offered by any and all digital technology. Walmart is utilizing
virtual reality (VR) to train its staff in management and customer service.
This is being done in conjunction with STRIVR, which is a firm that uses VR to
improve the performance of athletes, brands, and organizations.
The employees are trained in 360-degree video-based technology by using a
gaming PC and a headset called an Oculus Rift. This technology includes
on-screen cues that will prompt the employees to make decisions based on
real-world scenarios, such as how to handle the rush of customers on Black
Friday or customer service scenarios.
"[Expansion] is something that we have openly discussed, and it is
quite possible that it will be at each and every Walmart store within the next
couple of years. You could imagine that there is a room at the back of the
building that has three mobile headsets hanging on the wall. Every month,
employees are required to go through continuing education and go through VR
modules." -Derek Belch, CEO, STRIVR
The virtual reality (VR) training that Walmart plans to implement in all
of its 200 academies across the United States by the end of 2017, with the goal
of training 150,000 employees annually, was initially implemented as part of a
pilot program.
Space
NASA was one of the initial users of virtual reality (VR), which is now
being used for teaching purposes in a variety of other industries. Virtual
reality (VR) allows astronauts to train in a way that was previously impossible
by allowing them to practice accomplishing tasks in an environment that accurately
simulates zero gravity.
Specifically, NASA employs virtual reality (VR) to train astronauts in
the process of spacewalking. This refers to an activity in which the astronaut
exits the surroundings of the spaceship in order to carry out a task such as
replacing a malfunctioning module on the spacecraft. However, one drawback to
spacewalking is that astronauts do not know what to anticipate until they are
actually participating in the activity themselves. The use of virtual reality
(VR) allows astronauts to acquire a sense of what they would experience in
space, which helps lessen the likelihood of making mistakes.
Collaboration with Microsoft is another another step forward for NASA's
virtual reality training program. HoloLens will be utilized in this project in
order to facilitate easier communication between astronauts and ground crew.
This would imply that astronauts may utilize this holographic technology to
overlay instructions, engage in face-to-face communication, engage in remote
interaction with coworkers, and keep an inventory of their supplies.
Hospitality
More conventional fields, such as hospitality, are also beginning to
explore the virtual reality landscape. Consider Honeygrow, a network of
quick-service restaurants that focuses on serving stir-fry and salads. Trainees
get a virtual reality (VR) tour of a Honeygrow location with a 360-degree view,
and workers get to hear about the core values of the company from the company's
founder and CEO.
Honeygrow currently operates 17 sites in the states of Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, New York, and Delaware; the company intends to enter new markets in
Boston and Chicago. The company anticipates having a large number of new
workers to onboard and train within the next several months, and they are
confident that virtual reality training will do the task.
To ensure that customers receive the same information regardless of where
they shop, there will be just one orientation and training session offered
company-wide.
Because virtual reality training has such a wide range of applications
across sectors, it is almost guaranteed that this technology will prove to be
significant in the future. If so, it has the potential to alter the method in
which employees learn and the way in which businesses develop talent. Take note
of how these four different sectors use virtual reality (VR), and consider how
it can apply to the learning programs you offer.