Revamping Organizational Work Culture using Virtual Reality

Through VR, the employees learn the skills four times faster compared to the classroom programme.

The COVID 19 outbreak has rendered organizations to work remotely. Organizations which were planning to adopt technology earlier have accelerated the technology adoption amongst the workforce. Artificial Intelligence is already pervading the organizational set-up, making remote-working less aggravating. But as organizations are constantly evaluating their shortcomings, the need to focus on the employees has become imperative in the COVID era. The lack of soft skills like confidence and focus amongst the employees becomes detrimental for the organizations. Especially in companies which are focused on high client-interaction.

Henceforth, organizations are determined to constantly regulate classroom training programmes to build confidence amongst the employees. Additionally, the training programmes are a major segment in the recruitment process, as it ensures that the new employees are trained to the level of organizational working.

VR in Employee Training

With the unprecedented COVID 19 situation, organizations are unnerved with a major challenge to train the employees remotely. To eradicate this issue, virtual reality is listed as the most suitable option to train the employees. Virtual reality is significantly leveraged in production, marketing and HR. By leveraging it in employee training, it guarantees faster development of soft skills.

A research report by PwC states that virtual reality training programme scales up the employees' skills faster when the training budgets are confined and in-person. However, training is not an option at the moment. Through VR, the employees learn skills four times faster compared to the classroom programmes or e-learning and become 275% more confident to apply these skills into practice after the training. Additionally, the workers are four times more focused as compared and are three times more emotionally connected to the content than the classroom learners.

Researchers cite that the virtual reality training supports the workers to practice in an immersive, low-stress environment, which result in higher confidence levels and an improved ability to apply the learning on the job.

VR Platform Selection

Another challenge presented to the organizations while leveraging virtual reality is the selection of the VR training platform which can give positive outcomes. Countless VR platforms promise the desired outcomes but prove otherwise on deployment.

For successful deployment of the VR training programme, organizations must keep in mind that the platform needs to be flexible and consistent. This implies that the VR content must align with the constantly changing and evolving businesses. Organizations are regularly refined according to the challenges and competitions they are presented with. With a flexible VR training programme, the leaders will be less burdened about training their employees effectively. Furthermore, a consistent VR training programme ensures parallelism between content creation and effectiveness of a training programme.

Another domain where organizations must focus while deploying a VR training programme is an organization's content capabilities. An organization deploying the VR programme as a maiden prospect will have a completely different training framework than the organizations which are already acquainted with VR.

Also, organizations get the maximum benefit when the content for VR training programme boosts the employees' learning capabilities. This aids the organizations to be lucid in their aims and objectives. Moreover, a successful training programme demands equal contribution from the employees. The workers must supply regular feedback on the programme and the content so that organizations can strategically scale up the training model.

VR for customers

VR for customers serves both as the marketing tool and the HR model. Organizations are constantly trying to keep up with altered customer behaviors. Even before the pandemic staggered operations, analyzing the customer's behavior become imperative for driving sales. In the fast-pacing world, customers are scrutinizing both the products and services according to their convenience. Advanced services increase the probability of customer buying a particular product. At a time when it has become impossible for customers to physically visit a showroom, virtual reality presents them with a 3D world. Companies like IKEA and Sephora are leveraging VR for easy accessibility of the products to their customers. Through 3D, the customers are presented with a virtual world of the store or showroom, which equates with real-world showroom experience.

Additionally, if organizations want to enhance the brand, undergo market research and analyze the features of different brand products, VR seems to be a convenient option.

Outlook

Virtual Reality presents organizations with exponential opportunity to scale up operations. For the easy adoption of VR, organizations must encourage their employees about this new technology. Nonetheless, the integration of VR in organizations has a promising outlook.