Using virtual reality to recruit and train staff

Virtual reality use to recruit and train staff is quickly picking up pace.

Career programmes using VR form a growing part of the global virtual reality market which Fortune Business Insights estimates will grow to $57.55 billion (£40.19 billion) by 2027, up from $3.1 billion (£2.24 billion) in 2019.

Using VR within recruiting and training ranges from job interviews to complex mechanical processes, and even wellness initiatives.

Generally, VR has the ability to familiarise new starters with a company, anywhere at any time.

Tom Symonds, the chief executive of online training platform Immerse, says the use of VR has several benefits for companies, such as giving them the ability to conduct training sessions or complicated assessments with employees around the globe, without the need to use any air miles.

An example of the benefits of VR is that it can make transitioning to the public workforce a lot easier for US veterans.

Artificial Intelligence Designed for Employment (AIDE) is a free career training programme devised by Onward to Opportunity and created by University of Syracuse for the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF).

By using an Oculus Rift headset, which is soon to be distributed to 19 military bases throughout the US, the initiative briefs soldiers on their transition to regular life and on how to conduct a virtual interview.

The technology includes niche aspects such as a “jargon analyser”, which can analyse the language and any uncommon military terminology used and examines its users’ speech patterns to detect things such as nervousness and hesitation.

Immerse’s Tom Symonds estimates that much of the future growth of VR will be from companies using the technology to help promote the wellness and mental health of their employees.

Immerse has partnered with meditation app Solas VR to create a library of VR meditations aimed at not only boosting mental wellbeing but also brain productivity.

“The technology has the ability to transport you to a different place, take you out of your daily work stress, and put you in an environment that allows you to be calm,” he says. “That’s a brilliant use of the technology.”

“Its great quality is the ability to focus you on something 100%,” Symonds adds. “Once you are in the headset, you are focused.”