Enhancing Employee Engagement with VR: Benefits Beyond Traditional Training Methods
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Training in VR goes far beyond the capabilities of traditional methods. It is more engaging, it is better, and it lets employees practice in real-life situations simulated in the digital world. Therefore, in this article, we shall look at it more closely. How does it outperform traditional training, and what are the benefits of VR training? Find it all out!
Key Takeaways
- Enhanced Engagement: VR training offers a significantly more engaging experience compared to traditional methods, with immersive environments, 3D elements, and 360° visualizations that capture the audience’s attention more effectively.
- Improved Training Quality: VR allows for the creation of realistic, customized scenarios that traditional methods cannot replicate, providing employees with hands-on experience in a controlled and safe environment.
- Scalability and Automation: VR training is highly scalable, allowing organizations to reuse training modules and automate parts of the process, reducing costs and effort for future training sessions.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Although VR training requires an initial investment, it is more cost-effective in the long run due to savings in transportation, space, and additional training workshops.
- Effective for Workforce Reskilling: VR is a powerful tool for workforce development, enabling risk-free, scalable learning that ensures employees stay up-to-date with new skills and industry standards.
VR Training vs. Traditional Training
The best way to show the power of virtual reality training experiences is to compare them with traditional training. So, in what aspects is the former better? Take a look at our list of VR training’s advantages below.
Engagement
Can traditional training be engaging? Yes, though it largely depends on the speaker’s skills, the setting, and the equipment they can bring. On the other hand, VR training will almost certainly be engaging.
Why? You can select the setting and design a space that meets your needs and is related to the topic of the training. Moreover, it enables you to utilize 3D elements—you just have to design them, not own (and transport) them. Add to that embedding videos or visualizing data in 360°, and you can grab your audience’s attention much better than with traditional methods.
Diversification and Quality
Another aspect in which VR employee training wins over traditional methods is quality. Due to the customization options of the VR worlds, you can simply create a better training environment that you often have at your disposal physically.
For instance, imagine a VR fire safety training. How would you imitate the flames in your office so that they would move naturally and act as the threat they are? This would be extremely difficult. But, if you recreate your office in VR, you can introduce digital flames, showcasing your employees the true dangers of fire.
At the same time, VR enables you to practice different situations related to such fires. For example, fire spreading from various points in the office. Thanks to this, it becomes possible to practice handling different scenarios and types of the same threat, and not only a standardized one, making the training significantly better.
Scalability and Automation
Both scalability and automation have become buzzwords, but when it comes to VR training vs. traditional training, there is much more to them. Why?
- Traditional training—it is not scalable; the more people take part in it, the harder it is to prepare and you need to get ready every time you conduct it.
- VR training—you can create a training scenario once and re-use it as many times as possible. You may introduce NPCs to the training to automate it (completely or partially), reducing subsequent sessions’ costs.
Expenses and Convenience
VR training might require a higher initial investment vs. traditional training. However, in the long run, it costs less.
After getting the right platform and purchasing the VR equipment, you just need to design the training scenarios, and voila—your training is ready. After that, the costs go down when compared with traditional methods, mainly because:
- You do not have to cover transportation costs for team members from different offices.
- You do not need a large space to accommodate everyone you want to train.
- You do not have to organize catch-up meetings and additional workshops since the training is more engaging—your employees learn more from it.
- You can automate parts or the whole of your training.
In the end, VR training is not just better than traditional training—it is also cheaper.
Effective Workforce Training Initiatives
In the modern world, there are numerous corporate training strategies to tackle the challenge of reskilling older employees. First off, tailoring specialized modules and programs to accommodate different learning styles offers a low-cost investment that can be effective nonetheless. For example, visual aids, hands-on demonstrations, and step-by-step guides can help older workers grasp new concepts more effectively.
Another impactful approach involves leveraging technology-based solutions, like virtual reality reskilling. These tools not only make learning more engaging but also allow employees to practice new skills in a risk-free environment. On top of that, this solution comes with the benefit of significant scalability, allowing businesses to implement company-wide modules.
Lastly, offering continuous learning opportunities enshrines development and upskilling as a core value and an ongoing process. Providing access to workshops and certifications keeps all employees (regardless of age) up-to-date on the newest standards and practices to help them remain ahead of the curve.
VR Training – Benefits and Conclusions
VR training has a plethora of advantages over traditional methods. Therefore, companies will benefit from implementing it. If you are looking for a reliable, customizable solution, contact us at Mazer and learn more about our VR Trainer—the ultimate tool for preparing and conducting VR training for finance, healthcare, education, and corporations.
You may also read: VR Training Revolution: How Mazer Trainer is Simplifying No-Code Training Creation
How does VR training compare to traditional training in terms of engagement?
Traditional training can be engaging depending on the speaker and setting, but VR training almost always provides a higher level of engagement. VR allows you to design immersive, topic-specific environments with 3D elements, videos, and 360° data visualizations, ensuring better attention and involvement from the audience.
How does VR training improve the quality of training compared to traditional methods?
VR training allows for highly customized and realistic scenarios that are difficult or impossible to replicate physically in traditional training. For example, in VR fire safety training, you can simulate various fire scenarios and locations, providing a deeper, more diverse learning experience. VR’s flexibility enables a more dynamic and effective training environment.
How does VR training offer scalability and automation compared to traditional training?
Unlike traditional training, which requires preparation for each session and becomes harder to scale as more participants join, VR training allows you to create a training scenario once and reuse it endlessly. It can also be automated with NPCs (non-player characters), reducing costs and effort for future sessions, making it much more scalable and efficient.
How do VR training costs compare to traditional training expenses?
While VR training may have a higher initial setup cost, it becomes more cost-effective in the long term. VR eliminates the need for transportation, large physical spaces, additional workshops, and catch-up meetings. Once the training is designed and implemented, ongoing costs are significantly lower than traditional training methods.
What are the benefits of VR training for workforce reskilling and development?
VR training allows for engaging, risk-free learning that helps employees develop new skills. It is scalable, making it ideal for businesses to implement company-wide training modules. Additionally, continuous access to VR training fosters ongoing upskilling, helping employees remain up-to-date with new industry standards and practices.
Author: Rafał Siejca
Rafal has over twenty years of corporate experience, including roles at Millennium Bank, Comarch, and leading software teams at PZU, one of Europe’s largest insurance companies. As one of Poland’s few true VR experts with a decade of experience, he ensures timely, high-quality project delivery as CEO and CTO.
