Virtual reality (VR) training is happening in all types of industries now, and there’s good reason why. VR training:
- Is cost-effective and yields a high return on training investment
- Ensures knowledge retention and that real learning takes place
- Makes training more engaging and fun for employees
- Guarantees employees are safe when training to do things in unsafe environments
Listed below are companies that are using virtual reality that you need to know about.
Source: alvarez / E+ / Getty Images Plus
1. Walmart
Walmart is using virtual reality training to prepare their retail store employees for dangerous and large crowds during holiday sales and promotions. Employees navigate simulated environments and learn how to deal with congested areas of the store and how to stay safe when crowds grow and get disorderly. They also learn how to handle spills and other unsafe environments they’ll encounter every day when working in the store. And they gain experience interacting with customers in a simulated environment, too, to fine-tune their service skills.
2. United Parcel Service (UPS)
UPS is training their drivers with virtual reality environments. New drivers learn how to drive a truck on a street with unsafe conditions and hazards they may not be used to, like children running out into the street or oncoming traffic. With these simulated training sessions, drivers can learn how to react to dangerous situations quickly and without much trouble, which will keep them and everyone else on the road safer.
3. Ford Motor Company
Ford is using virtual reality in their Immersion Lab to train their employees in product development so that they’re better equipped to understand firsthand what customers want and need from their vehicles. Employees experience simulated environments that help them better understand how customers experience things like fumbling around a car in the dark and what they experience as they’re driving a Ford vehicle. This helps employees determine what features to include and where, as well as what features help drivers stay safer as they’re driving.
4. Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)
KFC said it will use virtual reality to train its employees in the “virtual training escape room,” where employees learn how to safely prepare and handle greasy fried chicken by hand. They must complete the process in under 30 minutes and are encouraged by scary graphics and a Colonel Sanders that’s barking orders at them. While some have called KFC’s tactics “terrifying,” they’re using the virtual reality training to engage employees and encourage them to learn the ropes across the kitchen in a unique way.
[(Look out for tomorrow’s post, for five more companies that are using virtual reality training in innovative ways.]