How Virtual Reality Is Revolutionizing Employee Onboarding

In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of several advanced technologies that are transforming the way businesses operate across industries. Virtual reality (VR) is one such innovative technology that is increasingly gaining attention for its ability to simulate real-world scenarios in a safe, risk-free environment. Organizations primarily use this VR simulation to provide hands-on training to employees. What most people do not realize is that it can also streamline the onboarding process for those companies.

Advantages Of Using Virtual Reality In Employee Onboarding

Anyone who has gone through the process of traditional onboarding knows how nerve-wracking it can be. The new job role and responsibilities, first-day anxiety, and learning about company guidelines and policies can leave a new recruit feeling overwhelmed. VR training takes away that stress by simplifying the process.

Immersive Learning Experience

VR technology provides a highly immersive environment where the new recruits can interact with virtual simulations of their workplace. While traditional onboarding methods involve passive learning through workshops, lectures, and presentations, VR offers an immersive learning experience where employees can actively engage with the environment. This practical approach allows new hires to better understand their roles and responsibilities, making the learning process more fruitful.

Better Knowledge Retention

VR technology puts employees in simulated real-world scenarios. This provides them with the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge in a safe and consequence-free environment. For example, instead of just reading about safety protocols from the company handbook, practicing the safety measures in a virtual environment reinforces their understanding and retention of critical information. When an employee has a thorough understanding of such important details from their initial days in the workplace, they become more valuable to the company.

Safe And Risk-Free Training Environment

Training employees in a safe, risk-free environment enables them to focus more on the learning and not on the risks. This is particularly important for industries like healthcare, manufacturing, construction, chemical, mining, and more, where training involves high-risk scenarios. With VR training, employers can provide safe platforms for their new employees, where they can learn, make mistakes, and hone their skills without real-world consequences. For example, the manufacturing industry often requires employees to handle heavy machinery to manufacture detailed products. Operating such machinery in a virtual environment can minimize the risk of accidents.

Consistency In Training Programs

In traditional onboarding, it is challenging for organizations to maintain consistency in training delivery across locations and trainers. If your organization also operates from different locations, you can streamline the training process and eliminate the variability by standardizing the onboarding content. That way, every new employee will receive the same high-quality training experience, irrespective of their location or who the trainer is.

Simulation Of Rare Or Complex Scenarios

With VR technology, organizations can recreate rare or complex scenarios that may be difficult or impractical to replicate in the real world. For example, if you run a chemical company, you may need to train your employees to manage emergency situations such as explosions, fire, or flooding. As you may realize, these situations are challenging for a company to simulate in traditional training setups. However, with the right VR tools and equipment, you can create a simulated environment similar to such rare or complex scenarios and train your new employees without any risk.

Cost Efficiency Over Time

One of the major factors that stops organizations from using VR-powered training programs is the higher upfront costs of VR technology. However, it can actually save your organization a significant amount of money in the long term. You can save expenses related to printed training materials, trainer salaries, and travel costs for in-person sessions. On the other hand, VR modules can be reused multiple times for onboarding as long as they remain relevant for the time. As a result, you can save a lot of money over the years.

Scalability

As your company grows, you will need to hire a greater number of employees to maintain operational efficiency. With VR training, onboarding a large number of new employees won’t be much of a problem. Since VR training programs are scalable, they can accommodate a growing workforce without requiring any additional resources or infrastructure.

How Your HR Team Can Apply VR Onboarding In The Real World

When it comes to implementing VR onboarding programs, there are several ways you can make it work. In fact, several organizations are already using VR onboarding to their advantage, delivering measurable value.

Virtual Facility Tours

With VR onboarding, new employees can explore the physical workspaces without setting foot on-site. This eliminates the first-day anxiety people face while visiting the workplace for the first time. The virtual tour helps them develop spatial familiarity. If your company operates from multiple locations, virtual tours can offer a consistent experience irrespective of the employee’s base location.

Interactive Role-Play Scenarios

If you have hired new customer service executives, you can let them use VR simulations to practice difficult conversations. Sales professionals can use VR simulations to rehearse presentations. People in managerial positions can also take advantage of VR onboarding to develop their coaching skills, make mistakes, and learn from them.

Global Team Integration

Multinational companies can use VR onboarding to promote meaningful cross-cultural interactions between team members who may never meet in person. This will help foster relationships that transcend geographical boundaries. People also get to work with professionals from other countries, which helps boost exposure and sheds light on differences in work cultures. 

Conclusion

There is no doubt that virtual reality can enhance the onboarding experience for new employees. With this technology, organizations can simulate real-life scenarios and provide immersive training environments. When compared with traditional onboarding processes, it offers immersive learning experiences, better knowledge retention, a safe and risk-free training environment, consistency across training programs, cost-efficiency, and scalability. You, too, can implement VR technology for the onboarding process and help new employees familiarize themselves with their roles and responsibilities in a more engaging and interactive manner.