You may have seen Virtual Technology (VR) used as a tool in “dangerous jobs”, such as firefighting and oil rig training. It makes sense to train for these situations in VR, but what about a “normal” business?
Farmers Insurance describes the benefits of including VR in their training, and its eye-opening. From discovering gaps in the curriculum, providing a more robust experience and both financial and operational benefits, VR is proving to be a value-add to any corporate training model. How could you incorporate VR into your training model?
New technologies can provide you with a chance to rethink your business and improve it in ways you might not have imagined. Take virtual reality.
A number of companies have begun using the new technology as a tool for training employees. The MIT Technology Review recently reported that Walmart used VR to help workers prepare for Black Friday — simulations simply can’t convey what it’s like to be in the midst of that shopping crush — as well as teach more mundane lessons in customer service or how to stack produce.
Here are surprising impacts that may inform your efforts to optimize your business processes when integrating VR technology.
Transferring your business practices to a VR platform can help you discover gaps in your curriculum that you might not have otherwise found. This can give you the opportunity to improve your training, adding value to the employee experience and strengthening customer service. For example, having to explain claims adjusting to VR consultants who had no knowledge of it required us to translate our training into the most basic terms — and this helped us see some missing elements.
In many companies, employee training is often shaped by a small group of in-house experts. But, the point of VR should be to offer a more robust training experience, and for that, you may need to do some process mapping. In our case, we had to bring in field experts to provide a full range of new scenarios to build into the curriculum. You may find that you need to incorporate outside expertise, diverse perspectives and the latest industry developments to your training. In turn, this enhanced understanding can boost your company’s core competencies and add to your marketplace value.
The financial and operational benefits of emerging technologies usually get shouted from the rooftops. But, we don’t always hear about the secondary benefits that emerge when they enter specific businesses. A new technology like VR may provide you with unexpected opportunities to improve your business processes and make them more efficient. “This is the age of miracle and wonder,” as Paul Simon put it, and more disruptive technologies will only continue to arrive. Better to make the most of them.
