The Ultimate Guide to the VR Training

VR training is something that can speed up employee training across all industries. Much because physical labor and office jobs require many resources to successfully onboard new team members, Virtual Reality (VR) training provides a cost-effective, time-saving alternative to help newcomers prepare for their responsibilities. VR training also removes the need for safety concerns thanks to a controlled, immersive environment.

How does Training in Virtual Reality work?

Virtual Reality training is an efficient approach to preparing employees for their duties. Companies invest in VR training to create training programs that fit their needs. Such programs are designed through partnerships with VR software developers. These partnerships aim to research the company culture, pick the best hardware, and build software to match the training policies of the client.

Benefits of Virtual Reality Training

There are several benefits of VR training as opposed to traditional methods:

• Safe environment – unfortunately, real-life training often results in injuries or even casualties when the work involves physical tasks or hazardous materials
• Engagement – the interactivity of VR makes it the perfect tool for keeping users engaged and paying full attention to the experience.
• Functionality – multiple users can be trained simultaneously or right after one another.
• Data collection – helps track user progress and pinpoint which areas require more work until training is completed.
• Easy content updates – the software or its components can be stored in an online cloud server, making it easy to update it quickly and wirelessly when even the slightest change is necessary.

Summing up, Virtual Reality training benefits are far-reaching, enhancing the work experience for both employees and employers.

Effectiveness of VR Training

Trainees who have gone through VR training report an 80% improvement in learning retention rate, in addition to 4x faster training time, taking considerably less time necessary to complete a course of training for a given job position. The same study reports a 4x greater training engagement than in traditional educational environments.

Usual training methods often rely on resources that take away from a company’s full potential – to provide its services or produce its products. Moving this training process to virtuality would save time, reduce human error, and allow for a more hands-on approach to training.

VR Training Features

The main features of VR training are immersiveness, interactivity, and realism. What’s more, this type of training is not only innovation-driven but is quite flexible. In particular, VR training courses train employees in numerous industries, including retail, healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, defense, and more.

Training using Virtual Reality would require either a headset or a specially-designed device to simulate a specific function or activity, along with software to run the simulation and collect data. For more nuanced training plans, it’s crucial to design a proper learning environment and complex objective accomplishment designs. Still, VR provides many opportunities to set up the learning environment once and update it with all the required plans.

Examples of Using Virtual Reality for Training

Virtual Reality training can be effectively applied in numerous niches and industries, ranging from retail and restaurant to automotive, logistics, and defense. Below, you’ll find tangible examples of how VR training programs benefit work in countless industries.

Retail

Virtual reality in retail has been extensively used for employee training. More precisely, VR training simulations for retail encompass:

• Customer service training that simulates realistic customer interactions
• Management training for engaging employee onboarding that minimizes potential turnover
• Product knowledge simulation training that capitalizes on interaction with products in a realistic environment
• Safety training that minimizes hazard risks that might happen in the retail business
• Re-creation of risk scenarios, including but not limited to dealing with a fire in the store or responding to a robbery

And one more thing – Walmart added a VR component to the empathy training, which has proven effective in the company’s adoption goals.

Restaurant

Virtual Reality has numerous applications for employee training in the restaurant industry. For instance, McDonald’s franchise owners in Texas, New Mexico, Washington, and Louisiana started using VR training in 2020. It’s speculated that the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry is a prime market for Virtual Reality training programs for employees. Some other applications are role-playing situations that may arise between customers and employees, virtual training for cooks, and training for proper maintenance of restaurant equipment.

Construction

One example of PIXO VR training is sufficient to describe how VR training can become a perfect match for construction. Using a particular methodology, their trainees learn the same material 40-60% faster than traditional training methods. As a whole, VR in construction reduces the chance of human error, provides an immersive experience for specialized training, and cultivates safety work standards.

Aviation

Flight simulation often requires specific training devices to make sure pilots are comfortable operating the aircraft. Virtual Reality can be easily used to ensure that new pilots are trained cost-efficiently and realistically. Some of the primary use cases of VR in the aviation industry are pre-flight inspections, aircraft maintenance procedures, crew training, and flight deck training. Not to mention that such companies as Lufthansa have already introduced VR hubs at training centers for flight attendant training.

Defense

VR military training in the defense industry is far-reaching, ranging from medical training to drones. The defense industry uses VR training to provide immersive, hands-on training for soldiers and other military personnel. Virtual reality allows re-creating combat situations for target identification in combat. The defense industry can make the most of VR simulations, significantly increasing soldiers’ combat preparedness.

Automotive

The use of Vr in automotive includes training new employees for car assembly, configuring new ways to work with assembly lines, and testing prototype vehicles. While VR technology still has an untapped potential in the automotive industry, the already existing concepts promise an excellent future for this niche.

Emergency

Simulation is the word here that best describes how VR benefits emergency services. Emergency services personnel can use Virtual Reality training simulation to familiarize themselves with the building layouts or other locations before being dispatched to an emergency call. It can help them orient themselves more quickly when arriving at the scene and plan the most efficient route to the emergency location. Not to mention that VR training can simulate dangerous situations that emergency personnel are likely to encounter while being in a safe environment.

Safety Training

In physical labor jobs, there are often unavoidable dangers and health hazards. Such risks are especially prevalent when an employee has no prior experience and the training takes place in the real deal. For this reason, Virtual Reality safety training is essential for any modern company seeking proper learning for its employees. Training types include fire safety, emergency evacuation, and hazardous materials handling. What’s more, VR can become a great supplement to traditional learning methods, such as lectures and presentations.

Finance

Bank of America uses VR training for its employees across the country, starting October 2021. According to BofA, “97% of those who have used VR felt more comfortable performing their tasks”. On the positive side, a full-fledged application of VR in the finance sector can boost contact center training and provide a more comprehensive manager onboarding experience. There is no surprise that VR is an effective and highly engaging way to assist employees in training, alongside building excitement regarding their regular responsibilities.

Offshore

Industry specialists firmly believe that AR and VR simulation training is the future of the offshore industry. Such claims are reasonable enough since VR can give an extra edge when training offshore workers. For instance, when onboarding specialists, the adoption of VR allows enhancing training, collaboration, and data visualization. And let’s not forget that a proper simulation helps develop decent emergency response plans, which are crucial for the offshore industry.

Healthcare

VR is hugely beneficial in the medical field. Some institutions are already utilizing VR to train doctors, paramedics, and nurses to avoid mistakes that could cost a human life. The description of how virtual reality helps in the healthcare industry deserves a separate article. It makes it a decent tool for creating immersive learning experiences for students and junior practitioners.  This way, they can experience the medical procedures in a controlled setting. What’s more, VR training can also help medical professionals brush up on their skills and keep up to date with modern methods. And let’s not forget that Virtual Reality training for healthcare professionals can be a supplemental educational tool for soon-to-become practitioners.

Logistics

This industry involves a lot of manual labor, requiring accuracy to complete the tasks. Using VR in logistics allows employees to test-run their duties before engaging with the machinery. Such training can help employees learn how to use equipment properly, safely lift and carry products, and store them properly. VR training can also help employees know how to work collaboratively, which is crucial for logistics purposes.

VR for Soft Skills Training

Developing one’s soft skills is vital regardless of the workplace and is helpful in any life situation, but especially useful in the professional world. Soft skills include A company called Talespin partnered with PWC to prove the benefits of virtual reality training: “results of the study showed that VR can help business leaders upskill their employees faster, more efficiently, and cheaper than other methodologies.”

The bottom line of VR for soft skills training is that it can be applied to any industry involving collaborative work. One way to make the most of this technology is to allow employees to practice customer service or teamwork activities. Since VR heavily relies on engaging and immersive experiences, the benefits of soft skills training are never-ending. If you intend to boost interpersonal, communication, listening, and time management skills, applying Virtual Reality training is a modern and much-needed solution.

Implementing VR Training in the workplace

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the best way to implement VR training in the workplace will vary depending on the organization’s specific needs. However, some tips on how to implement VR training in the workplace include:

• Define your goals and objectives
• Create a Virtual Reality job training plan that outlines the steps needed to achieve the goals and objectives
• Select the VR platform that best meets the needs of the organization
• Train employees on how to use the designated platform
• Evaluate the Virtual Reality corporate training plan regularly to ensure it is meeting the needs of the organization

While this plan is a great go-to roadmap for VR training implementation, don’t forget that finding the right implementation team is also crucial. If you’re looking for a customized solution, it’d be better to partner with a VR development agency that could tailor something to your team’s needs.

Costs Involved in Developing a VR Training Program

When it comes to costs involved in developing a VR training program, you should decide whether you contact a development agency or not. So, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the costs will vary depending on the specific Virtual Reality training software being developed. Some other factors that impact the price are the size and the scope of the training project. 

Other expenditures to keep in mind will comprise the VR hardware and training simulator software, a particular cost of developing the VR content, and the extra cost of hiring VR experts to aid the development stage. The last thing to remember is that your project might also need proper maintenance and data analytics to track its effectiveness in the long run. Because the mere development of the VR training program is so significant in scale, it’s better to consult with VR experts on the exact price.

Conclusion

Virtual Reality and training can be a match to bring up countless benefits for companies to prepare new employees for their position effectively. Such training also removes unnecessary losses in terms of physical resources, and especially – the human factor can sometimes be crucial, even in the workplace.

Suppose you are interested in implementing a virtual reality training program or simply find out how it could apply to your business, feel free to reach out to WE/AR Studio at hello@wear-studio.com. After a consultation, we can begin discovering the best and most personalized solution.