Thermo Fisher Scientific boasts a brand new employee training centre in Greenville, NC that features extensive virtual reality (VR) capabilities. The new 1.5 million-square foot facility, part of Thermo Fisher’s $55 million investment in its Greenville site, employees more than 1,500 people. The centre features five training rooms with VR capabilities that can train up to 20 employees at a time. The expectation is that the use of VR training will help expedite the training process by cutting down training time by at least 50%, even cutting the year-long process down to just four months, according to Thermo Fisher.
In particular, as a biotech company, Thermo Fisher plans on using VR to train employees who will be working on production lines that produce sterile injectables. Thanks to the VR training, employees will be able to practice and perfect the procedures necessary for the production of sterile pharmaceutical goods.
According to HR Drive, tech employers and employees alike are gaining confidence in the power of training with extended reality (XR) – the use of both augmented reality (AR) and VR. According to a recent Perkins Coie survey, the vast majority of respondents firmly believe that XR training is highly applicable to workforce training and development.
HR Drive also reports that multisensory learning can boost knowledge retention and that XR is ideal for this kind of learning. Not only are manufacturing companies like Thermo Fisher using XR, but other companies, like the retail chain Walmart, are beginning to use XR training for their employees. Other companies, like Talespin, are even using XR to help train employees in so-called ‘soft skills,’ e.g., leadership, empathy, and communication. This allows employees to navigate real-life scenarios that they may encounter, like interacting with employees who are being let go.
