Safety training can be a challenge for some companies to develop and roll out to all employees who need it. But virtual reality (VR) training can be a good solution. VR can provide companies and employees with several key benefits, like safer and more affordable training as well as greater mastery of training topics by employees, and more.
Get Real-World Practice, Safely
Instead of exposing workers to potential hazards for training purposes, VR safety training allows you to let them practice without actually putting them in harm’s way. This is especially valuable when there’s a real risk to their own safety if workers make mistakes.
Boost Retention
Teaching employees how to handle hazardous situations is worthless if they won’t remember what steps to take in a crisis. Classroom learning can be boring. Participants can also be easily distracted or forget quickly what they learn. Instead of learning just the mechanics of what to do in a situation, with VR training, workers get to actually carry out critical tasks. This can help them develop stronger habits and more effective recall on how to handle an emergency. Employees can also complete the same training tasks more than once until they get the hang of them.
Reduce Training Costs
Having employees work on live or suspended machinery, tools or other appliances can be costly. Instead of taking valuable equipment out of use just for practice and sacrificing your company’s productivity, or risking damage to expensive machines because of learner mistakes, use VR training. VR training content can be repeated for all employees, making it more cost-effective in the long run to buy VR headsets and licensed content to meet training needs.
Bridge Learning
When training employees on complex problems, they may not be ready to move from the classroom to hands-on learning as soon as lessons are completed. Providing VR training is a good step that balances the two, offering guided practice in a controlled setting.
Some employees may learn better with text while others are visual or hands-on learners who need to see how something works to fully understand it; VR training can provide the kind of support that helps visual and hands-on learners to master key safety concepts.
VR Training Has Important Similarities to Real Life
In real life, safety hazards and workplace accidents can appear at any time. When administering VR safety training, you can replicate that same unpredictability by causing random safety issues for your trainee to resolve, giving them a more realistic picture of dealing with safety events. Being able to think on their feet is just as critical a skill as whatever actions are necessary for managing safety hazards.
By choosing VR training solutions, you can better support your employees’ learning and retention of important safety policies, procedures, and workflows. VR training can save money and preserve productivity while offering employees a real-world training experience, removed from actual danger. It’s a worthwhile consideration that can make employees more likely to remember important training knowledge through more than just rote memorization.
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Training Management
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