VR Training is a powerful tool for empowering companies to qualify their employees in a motivating and effective way while saving significant costs. This blog will explain why and when VR Training makes sense.

Next time I will offer a quick guide on how companies can successfully leverage VR Training.

Shell refinery, Pernis, Rotterdam, NL

Death by PowerPoint

We've all been there - even for the best presentations and trainers, recreating an environment with a few slides or videos is not easy. Employees are tired of this methodology and it's not as effective as the 'real thing'.

Therein lies a problem. The real thing s often expensive. Travel costs for trainers or trainees to other countries, hotels, food, etc. all go to the bottom line. Then there are consumables or renting of expensive simulators.

There's also the safety aspect. The above training is highly dangerous and while I am not advocating a total move to VR, it certainly reduces risk and prepares trainees better and safer for the real thing.

VR saves costs, improves safety while maintaining high-quality standards.

VR delivers a focused learning experience, thanks to its immersion power. It engages most senses, visual, audio, and haptic [see below], captivating users’ attention entirely - keeping them far from the temptation of checking notifications or incoming calls.

VR delivers effective learning and one contributing factor is the realism of the context the user is immersed in. This realistic context is at the same time helping companies to save costs because building and equipping physical training centers becomes unnecessary. Space is the first resource that is saved by creating virtual replicas, as VR only requires a few square meters. More cost savings and safety benefits.

It's often the case that training on-the-job is still required, on top of the physical training in the centers. However, training on-the-job can lead to costly errors, and again requires special supervision from colleagues or trainers. Eliminating the risk of on-the-job errors while training is, therefore, another way that VR supports in saving costs.

While cost reductions are welcomed by businesses, they are usually not the primary goal, especially when it comes to training meant to maximize performance on the job. Quality is a crucial factor and it should not suffer in favor of costs.

VR, however, brings along yet another key advantage that ensures the maintenance and global deployment of high-quality standards: there is little to no dependency on the level of preparation of the trainers, on their availability, on their speed of teaching, their teaching style or even subjective adaptation/alteration of the processes. At the same time, the learning progress in VR can be measured and compared to aimed standards and will always be consistent.

Maintaining high-quality standards can be challenging especially in international contexts, when language barriers may affect the trainees' understanding of the processes. VR easily eliminates these barriers, by integrating different languages a trainee could choose from.

Haptic technology, also known as kinaesthetic communication or 3D touch, refers to any technology that can create an experience of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user.

If you want to learn more about how VR can vastly improve your training, contact us

Next time: How to implement VR in your company.