VR training simulations have the potential to engineer highly skilled employees.
Remember the days before the internet, before everyone had a device in their pocket that allows them to be communicated with instantly, at any time of the day? It seems hard to remember how big the world used to be now that you can fit it into your pocket. We are about to reach another big leap, forget the days of being confined to just one reality because VR is changing how we communicate in a big way.
At this stage, the extent of your virtual reality experience would have been through apps and games which are quite simple in comparison to what is to come. While it might sound like science fiction, massive investments are being made in virtual reality across a whole range of industries such as health care, real estate, therapy, entertainment, education, tourism the list can go on. What this means is that our world is going to change in more ways than you can imagine.
Take training for example. Training can be expensive for any business or corporation, yet it is a vital function of a competent staff that can perform their job to standards. Training can be risky and dangerous in certain industries, costing companies billions every single year. Now a program that can provide a training experience in a simulated environment closely resemble the real thing, that changes the workplace completely. Instead of having frustrating training software or having other staff members have to divert time out of their schedule to run through training exercises, having a virtual training experience in which staff are given virtually endless simulated exercises has the potential to change the way we develop skills.
This is not an optimistic look into the future either, it is happening right now. Wal-Mart have begun planning on implementing VR in their employee training programs as well as applying the technology in other areas of their company.
VR also has the potential to enhance a whole range of skills from public speaking to sales, leadership event safety and emergency preparation. Having a well prepared team during an emergency can mean the difference between chaos and a well organised, well-rehearsed strategy.
Let’s think about sales for a moment. Imagine an experience that is developed to engineer highly component sales people. Instructions can be delivered through the training program in a real life simulated sales environment. For example, a used cars salesman uses a virtual reality headset to participate in a sales training application. In the experience, he is placed next to a vehicle and several customers pour through the showroom to speak with him. Now here he has a chance to do several things.
The first is to educate himself about the vehicle, he can practice his script and deliver the specs and features of the vehicle within the virtual environment. Second, he can practice his intercommunication skills with virtual customers while the simulation could also convey information such as sales techniques, body language, speech performance and much more. Furthermore, the data obtained from that experience can be recorded and stored for management to assess the performance of their sales staff, providing feedback and to tracking progress.
Speaking of management, VR can provide state of the art management training to train future leaders. Whether the manager has been in a leadership position with the company for several years or a supervisor is training to join the ranks of middle management. There are endless scenarios in which VR can create highly proficient, skilled and experience managers to deal with many of the challenges faced by companies today.
Challenges, which can be dealt with through simulated scenarios for virtually any major business decisions. Managers can place themselves in an immersive environment and explore these problems to better understand how their role will affect the company. Their interactions with staff can be assessed and recorded to provide directors and business owners with an overview of how managers handle certain situations. This once again creates an opportunity for feedback and assessment to cultivate strong leaders.
Just as our commerce is moving towards an online based world, virtual reality has the potential to shakeup physical retail. This is just another example of how Wal-Mart is exploring the potential for VR shopping. The retail giant is trialing virtual stores which sends the customers’ orders to an automated warehouse where robots will pick and pack your order to be shipped to your location. Virtual reality is ushering in a new of communication.
Virtual reality will change the training landscape and give us some of the most advanced training programs our technology has to offer. We will be creating world’s designed for niche purposes. Scenarios and experiences designed for specific purposes will exist in their own reality for us to explore and learn from. It can sometimes feel as though most of us are just scratching the surface when it comes to the experiences VR can provide. Entertainment will be what drives the masses but when it comes to shaping our society and culture, there are countless other industries creating the future.