Who said workplace training has to be boring? Thanks to advances in virtual reality, the world of learning and development at work may finally be exciting…and soon. It does not mean that.

In the world of training, education and development, having fun and being effective are often the same thing. Educators have long understood the importance of engagement to the learning process. And there’s no quicker way to lose someone’s interest than to bore them or put them to sleep.

An unmotivated student is a student who is not learning. That’s why we know that fun is a very important factor in the learning process. But while educators have known this to be true for quite some time, it seems that in the corporate world, this lesson has yet to truly take hold.

Can you remember the last time you attended on-the-job training? If not, it may not be very memorable. Like most people, your experience of working at work probably means sitting in a drab, windowless room watching a grainy video drone fly toward you from a TV in the corner. You will have a hard time keeping your eyes open.

Learning and development at work doesn’t have to get in the way

However, with the advent of technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, this monotonous corporate training may soon be a thing of the past. Companies find significant savings in time, money, and other resources spent on training and development. These portable, cost-effective technologies enable organizations to upskill their distributed workforce in an interactive, comprehensive and sustainable way.

While I’m working with Gemba, we’re working with companies like Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, and Pfizer to deliver immersive and impactful VR training programs, while saving up to $2 million in travel costs and a ton. We have reduced more than CO2. per trainee.

For organizations large and small, this is a truly meaningful step towards sustainability. And unlike most other sustainability initiatives, this transition doesn’t come at a cost. On the contrary, we found that VR-based training is not only cheaper and more sustainable than traditional forms of training, but actually more effective.

Fun and efficiency make VR training inevitable

Our experience in helping companies train and develop their employees has shown that the use of VR is associated with significantly improved educational outcomes.

Many people may understand this intuitively, but independent research It has been shown that making the learning process enjoyable not only increases students’ motivation to learn, but also improves their ability to retain information, even if the information itself is boring.

And this phenomenon is not limited to students. In fact, we’ve seen the same effect demonstrated time and time again in our own work with experts. We’ve found that engaging and fun learning experiences lead to faster and more effective training.

Ann independent case study A study of the program, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), found that Aptiv was able to reduce an originally two-day in-person training to just four hours of VR-enabled training. Overall, the study concluded that using Gemba’s VR-enabled training enabled Aptiv to upskill employees 80% more efficiently than in-person training.

And there is a great need for more efficient and effective workplace training. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): billion workers By 2030, the world will need upskilling. As technological advances continue to reshape the world, organizations will struggle to find fast, effective, and scalable means to upskill a significant portion of their workforce.

Endless Possibilities with VR

For these reasons, mainstream adoption of VR-enabled training is almost inevitable. Already, leading global companies such as Unilever, Volvo, L’Oreal and Nike are using VR-enabled training to optimize their workforce development. At the same time, virtual and augmented reality platforms are becoming more and more impressive due to advances in both hardware and software.

This begs the question — if you can hold virtual meetings anywhere, why hold them in a virtual recreation of a boring, lifeless conference room? Why not in the belly of a volcano? Or a castle in the clouds? Or at the bottom of the sea? You don’t need to create a pixel-perfect digital twin of your cramped office space when you can congregate anywhere on Earth (or beyond).

I’m sure some people think it sounds “childish” or “unprofessional”. Is boredom a prerequisite for professionalism?

Throughout my career, I have had the luxury of working with a wide variety of people and professionals. I’ve worked in the games industry, been a university lecturer, and worked extensively with corporate executives around the world. Amidst all these spaces and demographics, one thing turned out to be true. People like to have fun. As a CTO myself, I can tell you from my own experience that the moment a job title is prefixed with a “C” doesn’t magically desensitize you.

Companies can also be expected to participate as well. Given that fun has been proven to make learning more effective, it’s no wonder organizations are eager to infuse VR training with all sorts of fanciful, gamified fun. And I can’t wait.

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