Overwork is a global killer—and its getting worse

A study performed by WHO (World Health Organization) found that overwork kills more than 745,000 people a year. The study proved that people who work over 55 hours a week have a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease. Furthermore, the number of deaths from heart disease due to overworking increased 42% over the 16 years of the study.

The WHO study did not include the past few years of the pandemic where lots of job openings have caused workers to put in extra hours to cover responsibilities. Additionally, remote work has become prevalent in many industries and a recent study performed by Microsoft says this is a major cause of employee burnout. The survey of 20,000 in 11 countries revealed that nearly 50% of employees and 53% of managers say they are burned out at work. 

Despite concerns over quiet quitting, the study said that 90% of workers reported that they were productive at work and the average hours worked and number of meetings each week was on the rise. However, 85% of managers said they were not confident their employees were being productive—which means the pressure is higher than ever for employees to work more.

Bottom line, employees are at extremely high risk of burnout, causing physical and mental health concerns. This equates to missed work days, higher healthcare costs, and losing good employees. And all of this means that poor employee wellness is a bigger cost than ever for companies.

How virtual reality (VR) can improve employee wellness

So what can companies do to improve employee wellness? 

There are a lot of operational changes, such as educating managers on overwork concerns, giving them tools to better manage remote workers, and reducing meeting expectations. This can take a lot of time and may not solve the underlying problems. However, there is something companies can do to give employees a way to better manage stress—provide them a fun and easy way to lower heart rate and gain focus. And VR is an amazing tool to deliver this.

Meditation has been shown to have numerous benefits for individuals, including reducing stress and anxiety, improving focus and concentration, and promoting overall well-being. In the workplace, these benefits can translate into increased productivity, better decision-making, and improved job satisfaction. Additionally, meditation can help to create a more positive and relaxed work environment, which can lead to better team dynamics and improved communication.

This sounds great, but mandatory meditation classes don’t seem like a fit for most workplaces and won’t work at all for remote workers. This is where VR can help. 

Virtual reality courses on meditation can teach employees how to meditate and headsets can be donned at home or in the office for a quick meditation session. The nature of virtual reality allows employees to completely immerse themselves in the experience and get the full value of the purposeful break. Companies will never be able to completely remove stress from work, but they can help employees to better manage that stress.

Meditation VR training is in use for corporate and remote workers

A VR training course called The Meditation Space is gaining popularity for companies to help improve employee wellness. Offering a small quiet room and a headset in a work environment as well as delivering the content wirelessly to remote workers is a simple way to encourage wellness breaks.
This VR meditation content has hundreds of nature videos, different guides, and many music options to take employees on a personalized meditation break. This content is often provided as a part of a mindfulness program that includes VR content for breathing exercises and for personalized instruction on self improvement.

When meditation breaks are readily available, employees are able to reduce burnout, reduce negative emotions, and are overall more refreshed and focused.

VR Meditation is a catalyst for improving employee wellness

If it’s not already, employee wellness should be a growing concern for companies. Improving overall wellness can improve employee productivity and engagement, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and lower healthcare costs. Additionally, investing in employee wellness can also improve a company’s overall reputation and attract top talent. And nothing makes a better, faster impact on this than a distribution of VR meditation and mindfulness training content.

Benefits to providing VR for meditation and mindfulness training

• Decreases stress – the number one benefit of meditation during the workday is an immediate reduction in stress. And regular meditation will have a long term impact on lowered stress levels.
• Lowers costs of unplanned absences – less sick and mental health days means less cost due to overtime, coverage, and loss of productivity. 
• Lowers healthcare costs – mental wellness and physical wellness are interwoven. Less sick time and lowering instances of heart disease from overwork will greatly reduce healthcare costs for the company. 
• Improves morale – offering meditation training shows a company cares about the welfare of their employees. Plus, lower stress means better attitudes at work and this can quickly spread and greatly improve company morale.
• Increases effectiveness – reducing stress levels has been shown to make employees more effective at communications and getting work done. It’s not about working more hours, but making the hours you are working as effective as possible.

Hybrid work environments are here to stay. And that means overwork and burnout will continue to be a problem. Companies need to take purposeful action to help employees manage this new normal. VR meditation is just what companies need to make a difference.

Wondering how to get started with VR training?

For learning and development leaders looking to help their company’s thrive, VR training is the answer. VR content naturally compliments existing training content to provide employees with ways to apply and practice skills needed to be successful. 

Want more evidence for leadership on the cost cutting benefits of VR training? Read whitepaper here!

In our previous whitepaper we covered how to bring VR into your training program, get the step-by-step guide here!

Download the whitepaper: 5 Ways VR Training Helps Companies Even in an Economic Downturn’:

How costly of a problem is the Great Resignation?

When an employee resigns, the cost of hiring and training a new employee is 10-30% of that employee’s salary according to the Center for American Progress. That number gets bigger when considering the productivity gap left when the position is unfilled plus the toll on peer employees who may get burned out or frustrated by the extra work.

To really put numbers to this problem, a company can conservatively use 25% of salary to calculate all of the costs involved with employee resignation. Then consider the total cost of employee salaries and multiply that by 20% to represent the number of employees who have or may be leaving the company during the Great Resignation. Then take 25% of that number to get the total cost.

If a company has $500M in annual revenue, they likely spend around 20% of that on employee compensation, or $100M. Using the equation above, the Great Resignation conservatively equates to a $5M annual cost for that company.

How can VR help with employee retention?

A Gallup study of high-performing workplaces showed that companies that make a strategic investment in employee development are twice as likely to retain their people, while also increasing profitability by 11%. But the same old training content and methods isn’t going to help companies retain employees. A clear investment in their development needs to be demonstrated and VR is a fantastic tool for that.

It’s a given that employees will be trained on the hard skills they need to do their jobs and VR can help with that. But companies need to go beyond this to training content that can truly improve the workplace, employee relationships, and demonstrate that the company cares about their well being.

HR and learning and development leaders should look into the VR content that is already available in these high impact areas:

• Workplace safety – Even the simplest safety courses like learning how to perform CPR or use a fire extinguisher can show employees you are invested in their well being. And doing it in VR is incredibly effective, yet low cost as VR can easily simulate emergency scenarios.
  
• Leadership skills – Making sure managers are doing a great job helps to make sure all employees feel good about the workplace culture and development.
  
• Communication skills – Improving employee communication helps the business and shows employees the company is investing in their personal development. At a time when many companies are struggling with remote work, this is a critical offering to invest in to keep productivity high and avoid quiet quitting scenarios.
  
• Inclusion and diversity training – Despite numerous lawsuits, not many companies are forced via regulations to offer this. That said, making an effort to improve in this area is a positive investment in culture. And it can help a company avoid the cost of a lawsuit should a serious problem arise.
  
• Employee wellness – Beyond training, VR can be used to help employees meditate, reduce stress and work on self improvement. All of this improves focus and productivity. And ultimately employee retention.

Can corporate training really be fun and engaging?

It can with VR. Virtual reality adds a level of fun and gamification to training that is highly engaging for all ages. This is especially true for a younger workforce that has shorter attention spans and  is highly resistant to learning via traditional methods. Learning by doing is the most successful approach and VR is the best medium to make this happen.

Want more evidence for leadership on the cost cutting benefits of VR training? Read whitepaper here.
Want more details on how to bring VR into your training program? Get the step-by-step guide here.

Download the whitepaper: 5 Ways VR Training Helps Companies Even in an Economic Downturn’:

Companies are feeling the pain of ‘redos’

The training programs that are being applied to teach hard skills to unskilled labor lack immersion and the ability to practice the skill. This was adequate for skilled labor that just needed to be able to apply their existing skills to a new process or piece of equipment. But for employees that don’t have experience, this isn’t enough.

General Dynamics felt the pain of this problem. They build ships and over time the company saw mistakes in the field that had to be redone climb to a seven figure cost per ship. When they analyzed the issue, they realized that ineffective training was to blame. 

Similarly, Chick-fil-A experienced difficult onboarding new employees using traditional methods. They were providing written manuals to young adults who weren’t reading or engaging with the material. This resulted in bagging mistakes which was costing them customers and reducing the lifetime value of a customer. In other words, they noticed the mistakes were costing them revenue.

Redos aren’t the only problem with traditional training. Companies like General Dynamics and Chick-fil-A have also seen increases in on the job accidents.  All the more reason why these companies are turning to VR training to better engage employees and improve skills training retention to reduce redos and keep employees safe.

How VR can be used to upskill workers and reduce mistakes

Onboarding and upskilling workers with virtual reality has been proven to be faster and more effective than video and classroom learning methods. Universities have been performing research studies for years validating this fact. The University of Maryland found an 8.8% average increase in memory recall with VR. Iowa State University used VR to help train welding students and 100% of the students who used VR training performed better on weld testing than students who used traditional training methods.

A study done by Accenture on VR training reinforces these findings that it is a superior learning method for learning hard skills. Accenture tested two groups on learning how to replace a toilet. One group used VR and one video learning. When the training was completed, the learners were asked to assemble and install a toilet in real life. The VR learners demonstrated on average 12 percent higher accuracy and 17 percent faster time to completion than instructional video participants.

These results have been further cemented by real-life use of VR training. For instance, Homegrown restaurants use VR training in onboarding and realized a 27% increase in the success of employee onboarding. That means new employees stuck with the program and went on to work in the restaurants. United Rentals also uses VR training for onboarding and experienced a 50% reduction in the time to train employees with VR.

Bottom line—VR training programs can help employees learn the skills needed faster, and will do the job better. This saves companies money by improving productivity and reducing expensive mistakes.

VR training is a must-have for companies training unskilled labor

Adding VR content to onboarding and skilled labor training is now a critical change for companies to make in order to manage costs and stay competitive. Virtual reality cost-effectively allows employees to practice skills in life-like environments. There is a large library of existing VR training for hard skills and it is easier than most L&D leaders think to add in custom elements. 

If you are a learning and development leader interested in learning more, here is a great paper with additional evidence on the benefits and ROI of VR training. And here is a guide on the steps to add VR into your current training program. The right training can help reduce the skilled labor gap and save big money. And that is a big win for L&D programs—especially as things get tight in a questionable economy.

Ready to talk with VR training content experts on getting the right training for your skilled labor needs? Talk to an expert here!

Download the whitepaper: 5 Ways VR Training Helps Companies Even in an Economic Downturn’:

Due to some unfortunate recent events, including the well-documented East Palestine, Ohio disaster, train derailments have burst into the national conversation. After the fallout from the toxic accident in Ohio, many are calling for an added emphasis for railroad safety training for incidents involving hazardous materials. 

So, where do we go from here? Train Derailments happen over 1,000 times a year, including, as mentioned above, about 500 per year involving hazardous materials. Due to the large number of derailments, companies need a train derailment emergency response plan. It starts with railroad safety training, and more effectively preparing workers to take the correct safety measures in the field. That’s where PIXO VR comes in.

Virtual Reality (VR) training provides an alternative to traditional training, with proven results. PIXO provides multiple hazardous waste operations & emergency response training from Train Derailment to Tanker/Trailer. These scenarios provide trainees with real-world experiences without the real-world risk, allowing individuals to be fully immersed in high-stakes situations. VR provides a more effective learning environment and prepares employees better than classroom training or e-learning ever could for disaster response training.

Don’t believe us? Here are some proven results of using virtual reality scenarios to train a workforce:

• 70% greater efficiency in movement and measurements
• 80% improvement in user learning retention
• 4x greater engagement in training vs. e-learners
• 2.75x more confidence in taking action on what employees learned

Bottom line, VR has documented results of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of training. When it comes to train derailments scenarios, PIXO VR has a solution ready for use. Let’s take a closer look at our ‘First Responder Operations (Hazmat) Train Derailment’ training module:

Assess and secure a hazardous material train derailment as a first responder!

Act as an Awareness, Operations, and Technician Specialist to contain an active fire and hazardous materials spill following a train derailment Make use of the Ask Rail app, as well as the ERG 2020 guide, to ensure multiple different material scenarios are assessed and secured

______________________________

From premade (off-the-shelf) training modules like the train derailment scenario above, to custom content production capabilities, PIXO offers organizations the ability to leverage anything from standardized training to custom experience that match your specific working environments with ‘digital twin’ technology. 

For situations with as high of stakes as train derailment accidents, improving worker preparedness is crucial. Adding VR into your current training program is a fantastic, proven way to boost learner retention and on-site effectiveness. 

Interested in learning more about PIXO VR’s off-the-shelf VR training modules or our custom content capabilities? Reach out today and a VR expert will be in touch!

The minutes after a cardiac arrest are critical. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can greatly increase the chance of survival. And employees want to be trained on performing CPR. According to a survey by Edelman Intelligence for the American Heart Association, more than 90 percent of workers said if their employer had first aid or CPR/AED training, they would likely sign up.

OSHA requires CPR certification for some workers including logging, electrical, dive team and confined spaces. For the rest of the workforce, the OSHA General Duty Clause just says that every employer is responsible for keeping workers safe. Interpretations differ, but the American Heart Association recommends that companies have two first aid and CPR trained personnel for the first 20 employees, and a 1-to-20 ratio after that.

Providing this training has never been easier. Virtual reality (VR) is now a standard offering for helping employees learn, practice, and be assessed on performing CPR.

How virtual reality makes CPR training fun and effective

Using virtual reality (VR) for safety training is more effective and learners enjoy it more than traditional methods. Research studies have shown that VR training yields a much higher retention rate and recall accuracy for learning new skills. Trainees say this is because VR is more interactive and engaging for them. Another big factor is because the experience allows employees to practice in a safe environment.

Top reasons VR is preferred for CPR training

• Realism: VR allows for a highly realistic simulation of real-life CPR scenarios, which can provide a more engaging and effective learning experience.
  
• Immersion: VR can immerse trainees in the training environment, making it easier for them to stay focused and retain information.
  
• Safety: VR allows for training in a controlled environment, reducing the risk of injury to the trainee or the simulated patient.
  
• Flexibility: VR training can be done at any time and place, making it more convenient for trainees and trainers.
  
• Repeatability: VR allows trainees to repeat the training scenarios as many times as needed, which can help them to better retain and apply the information in real-life situations.
  
• Measurable: VR can provide metrics such as time taken and accuracy of compressions, which can be used for evaluation and progress tracking
  
• Variety: VR can provide a variety of scenarios and patient cases, which can help to increase the trainee’s ability to handle different situations.

VR also allows more employees to be trained on this important safety skill without adding significant cost. 

Virtual Reality CPR training is already in use

CPR VR training already exists that has been used by many different types of workplaces from OSHA required jobs such as those handling dangerous tasks like confined spaces or lockout tagout, to those in corporate workplaces on safety teams. The training provides a way for employees to learn, practice, and be assessed on practicing CPR. The training has: 

• Scenarios for practicing and testing adult and infant CPR skills
• Skill checks for the 9 steps of the CPR process
• Real-world feedback with the VR overlay that fits real mannequins

Many companies also offer their employees AED VR training as the two are important aspects of administering first aid.

CPR VR training benefits workers and their companies

There are several benefits of using virtual reality (VR) for CPR training, including:

• Keeping employees safer: While cardiac arrests can’t be avoided, giving employees the knowledge and confidence to increase survival rates is a positive result for everyone. 
  
• Saving money: VR training can be more cost-effective than traditional training methods, as it eliminates the need for expensive equipment, dedicated trainers, and physical space.
  
• Raising morale: During a time where employee retention is critical, showing that the company cares about worker safety is a big statement. And employees like learning skills that are also applicable to life outside the office.

CPR training is and will always be important. Though it’s not required by OSHA for many organizations, it’s still a valuable tool to improve worker’s health and safety. And VR makes it possible to do this easily at scale across large organizations. It’s a simple decision that makes a big impact.

Wondering how to get started with VR training?

For learning and development leaders looking to help their company’s thrive, VR training is the answer. VR content naturally compliments existing training content to provide employees with ways to apply and practice skills needed to be successful. 

Want more evidence for leadership on the cost cutting benefits of VR training? Read whitepaper here!

In our previous whitepaper we covered how to bring VR into your training program, get the step-by-step guide here!

Download the whitepaper: 5 Ways VR Training Helps Companies Even in an Economic Downturn’:

Why VR training is more effective for preventing accidents

Oddly enough, one of the first industries to utilize VR for safety training was mining. Multiple studies have been presented over the years at the Minesafe International Conferences showing that VR is extremely effective and accepted. One study found that 94% of the mining workforce preferred VR as a teaching medium compared to other methods and that 77% of the workers said the VR simulations had a “good” level of realism. But the most important finding was a study that tracked a 43% reduction in lost time due to injury after VR safety training.

Beyond being more engaging, VR can create unsafe situations to test an employee’s response in critical situations while keeping employees perfectly safe. Even the best corporate training programs don’t have the resources to simulate real-life emergencies or unsafe scenarios without the help of virtual reality. 

In VR safety training content employees can learn fall protection as if they are actually working at heights. They can practice their emergency response skills, learning to perform CPR or safely put out a fire. They can learn hazard recognition, lockout / tagout procedures, or even learn to safely work in confined spaces. All activities and skills that are much easier (and less costly) to simulate in a virtual reality environment. 

How better safety training reduces costs

Improving workplace safety can make a very positive impact to a company’s bottom line. Doing safety training well reduces accidents and liabilities. This saves significant money from unintended payouts. The cost savings comes from not having to pay for disability, workers compensation, and fines from regulatory bodies like OSHA. Less accidents can also lower insurance premiums. 

Reducing accidents also keeps employees working. In a time when lots of open positions are unfilled or filled by under-skilled workers, it can be very damaging to have good workers out from injury. Keeping employees on the job equates to less strain on coworkers and better overall productivity. That adds up to improving employee satisfaction and retention rates. It also can mean improved business outcomes like more throughput or better customer satisfaction. Over time, that makes a positive impact on revenue.

Examples of companies realizing the benefits of VR safety training

Lots of companies have begun using virtual reality for safety training and have shared their amazing results. Verizon compared VR safety training to classroom training and found it so much more effective that they now use VR training for all store employees. Telstra tried VR safety training and realized that not only was it more effective, but it took half the time to achieve better comprehension. These are encouraging results, but let’s look at a few more detailed examples on how better safety training improves outcomes.

Example #1: Insurance company sees big cost reductions from VR safety training

An insurance company specializing in construction insurance is now bringing VR headsets with safety training to construction sites to get insured workers better trained on construction safety. They are thrilled with the results:

• 100% higher engagement in VR training compared to previous training .
• Accidents have been steadily declining. 
• Insurance payouts have been reduced, saving the insurance company money.
• Construction companies being trained are seeing lower premiums and higher employee retention and productivity.

Example #2: Pharmaceutical reduces accidents by 25% with VR training

A large pharmaceutical company started using VR training to improve safety awareness and ultimately hoped to reduce accidents. While their accidents were not major, they knew there were too many and that they were taking a toll on employees and the business. After an initial pilot they found:

• A 25% reduction in the number of safety accidents.
• Increased overall productivity/output from employees. 
• A reduction in OSHA costs fines.

Examples like these are becoming more frequent as companies look to save money in a questionable economy. Innovative companies know that keeping safety training the same as always is hurting the bottom line.

Safety training is a great investment in any economy

Improving safety training with VR technology and content leads to reductions in hard costs, but there are also soft cost improvements that forward-thinking companies see the benefits of. Specifically, improving safety training is a clear indication to employees that their company cares about them. When employees feel they are being cared for, they are less likely to look around for other opportunities. Employee retention can be critical during a questionable economy to help a company come out healthy. But really, improving safety is a benefit in any economy.

For learning and development leaders looking to get started with VR safety training, there is actually a lot of great content that already exists and has been proven effective. Here are a few other resources that can also help:

Cost cutting evidence to build a case for VR training? Read whitepaper here!

In our previous whitepaper we covered how to bring VR into your training program, get the step-by-step guide here!

Download the whitepaper: 5 Ways VR Training Helps Companies Even in an Economic Downturn’:

What are the unnecessary costs of training?

There are high costs for training that attempts to create a real-world experience for trainees.  This may involve traveling to a real-world location or to a special training center. It may also involve sending equipment to the trainees or shutting down production equipment for training purposes. Some companies may have a handle on these costs, but there are many others, like employee productivity, that they may not be calculating. Many companies don’t tally up these costs because they seem to be just a cost of doing business. With virtual reality, all of these costs can be eliminated or significantly reduced. And that is an interesting opportunity for learning and development leaders that may be feeling the budget squeeze of a tough economy.

To calculate training costs accurately, include the following:

• Travel – Add up the travel costs of instructors and trainees for trips to training facilities or to work locations.
  
• Equipment – Determine the cost of lost production if major equipment is shut down for training.
  
• Shipping – If equipment is being shipped to work locations for employee training, consider the
  shipping costs, cost for people / time to manage this process, and the cost of writing off that equipment.
  
• Facility – Some companies have invested in a specific facility for training and should add in all the overhead costs of that facility.
  
• Productivity – Training takes time from instructors and employees. Calculate the time lost from travel and/or the length of time to train difficult concepts with traditional training methods. While VR training won’t eliminate training time, it does significantly reduce the time it takes employees to learn hard and soft skills.

There are also costs associated with traditional training that are being incurred more frequently due to the skilled labor gap. Companies are attempting to train unskilled new employees with traditional training methods that aren’t getting the desired results. This is causing mistakes that are adding up for businesses.

To calculate costs from the ineffectiveness of traditional training include:

Incorporating VR technology that engages employees and radically improves skill retention into existing employee learning and development programs can make a major impact on an organization. VR learning is a smart investment for companies dealing with the challenges of an economic downturn or to help fuel growth when the economy is good.

• Accidents – Employee safety is important for employee satisfaction, but also for the bottom line. Safety incidents create loss in productivity, which can also burden peers with too much work. There is also a hard cost for disability and OSHA or other fines. 
  
• Re-training – Mistakes happen and this often triggers re-training. If the frequency for training employees has increased (which is common during the skilled labor gap) then it is important to add the additional training time costs.
  
• Re-work – When mistakes happen in the workplace because someone is doing something incorrectly, this can cost companies time and money. This is especially true for skilled labor. If work has to be redone because of insufficient or poor training, these costs need to be included.
  
• Lost revenue – Negative customer interactions or poorly made products can have a big impact on revenue with customer loss or lowered lifetime value of a customer.

The skilled labor gap combined with budget cuts to corporate training can have a big impact on the bottom line. Training leaders have an opportunity to make a case to supplement their training programs with virtual reality in order to cut training costs as well as corporate loss from mistakes.

Here’s the math on a grocery chain’s productivity costs for training

• A large grocery chain has 1,300 stores and around 200,000 employees
• They send each corporate employee to stores to see what a store looks like. Both the trainees and store employees have to take time off of work to walk through a store. 
• If it took 8 hours on average at an average $17/hour salary this is costing them over $27M. 
• This calculation does not include travel costs.
• Depending on employee turnover rates, this cost is likely realized every 2-3 years.

How VR training eliminates these costs

VR training is excellent for creating life-like scenarios for employees to interact with equipment and conditions that feel very real. This can include scenarios where certain equipment or training facilities were needed—which means those costs, including travel, can be eliminated. Productivity losses can also be significantly reduced by eliminating travel, but also because VR training has been found to be faster than traditional training methods. An Accenture skilled labor VR training study resulted in a 12% higher accuracy and 17% faster time to completion versus instructional video. Furthermore, a Pwc study on using VR training for soft skills found VR learners can be trained 4x faster than using classroom training.

VR training does have costs associated, but they are minimal compared to the savings. VR headsets and content are the main costs. Content can be loaded wirelessly onto VR headsets across the globe so no shipping is required, just purchase. For training on specialized equipment, custom content is needed, but this is often much less expensive than anticipated as existing content can be modified for specific equipment instead of starting from scratch. In fact, there are entire libraries of VR training content that exist for corporate use from safety training to hard and soft skills training. 

For the costs a company suffers due to ineffective training methods, there have been lots of research studies done comparing virtual reality training with other training methods. The studies look at things like learning retention, time needed to learn, effectiveness in learning a skill (hard or soft), and costs. The bottom line is that virtual reality is extremely effective on all counts. [See all the statistics on VR training effectiveness here.] And that means less safety accidents, less mistakes and rework, and improved customer satisfaction.

Need help calculating your actual training costs?

PIXO VR has worked with many large organizations to help them figure out the true cost of their existing training programs. If you’d like a free training cost analysis, you can fill out this form to get started.

Want more evidence for leadership on the cost cutting benefits of VR training? Read whitepaper here!

In our previous whitepaper we covered how to bring VR into your training program, get the step-by-step guide here!

Download the whitepaper: 5 Ways VR Training Helps Companies Even in an Economic Downturn’:

Why training budgets should be protected

When financial pressures hit organizations, the first round of budget cuts is often internal-focused in areas like HR and learning and development. Hiring freezes leave positions unfilled. Headcount reductions add to the burden on existing employees, causing them to become overworked, stressed, and unappreciated. In an era where many employees can easily leave to find new work, this is a dangerous situation for companies to be faced with.

The Aspen Institute recognizes this trend, “In far too many organizations in which economic downturns trigger budget cuts, learning and development funding is among the first to go. While it’s easy to understand why reduced revenues necessitate heightened cost-consciousness, halting investment in upskilling is a strategic misstep that deprives organizations of key opportunities they could exploit during a recession.”

Companies need to reconsider traditional notions of what budget cuts cause the least short term pain and instead consider which areas should be continued or even see higher investment to prepare the company to successfully get through an economic decline. A Gallup study of high-performing workplaces showed that companies that make a strategic investment in employee development are twice as likely to retain their people, while also increasing profitability by 11%.

Will investing in training really make a difference during a poor economy?

The answer is yes. Investing in learning and development can actually reduce costs, yielding those budget reductions the company may need to weather difficult economic conditions. The Aspen Institute commented that companies that invest in learning and development during an economic downturn “are taking a conscious step to remain among those most able to communicate a strong employer brand and compete for top talent during times when wages and other benefits are likely to remain stagnant.”

That sounds great, but companies need P&L bottom line improvements and those can be found, but not with traditional training. If a company has been stuck training the same way they’ve been doing it for years, this is a hard concept to get behind — classroom style with a teacher and a detached student. Even if a company has moved to video and online learning, the concept is still the same. Employees are expected to absorb material and regurgitate it back.

This isn’t how people truly learn.

You can’t give a 17 year old a 20-page pdf and expect them to read and learn concepts any more than you can expect that a senior manager can master harassment discussions or that a new employee can learn a technical skill without practice. Even job shadowing still assumes a person can learn by seeing, not by doing.

True learning comes from practicing a skill in the environment they need to use it.

This type of immersive learning comes from virtual reality (VR).

What cost reductions can be seen with VR training?

Incorporating VR technology that engages employees and radically improves skill retention into existing employee learning and development programs can make a major impact on an organization. VR learning is a smart investment for companies dealing with the challenges of an economic downturn or to help fuel growth when the economy is good.

Here are five key benefits companies can realize by investing in VR training:

1. Reducing the costs of training – There are many training needs that require a special environment or specific equipment to train. This often incurs high costs for instructor and/or employee travel, shipping special equipment, shutting down production equipment, or the cost of recreating a real-life scenario. VR training eliminates the need for all of these costs with the ability to create life-like simulations that provide employees with hands-on experience without the added cost.
   
2. Improving employee safety – Keeping employees safe is great for employee happiness, but definitely impacts bottom line costs. Reducing workplace accidents keeps employees on the job and productive. It also reduces OSHA fines and disability costs. All of this adds up to higher production and less expense.
   
3. Overcoming the skilled labor gap – A lack of skilled labor is a big problem across many industries that will only be made worse with hiring freezes and budget cuts. Hiring unskilled labor and trying to train them using traditional methods is resulting in mistakes that have big costs to fix. VR training is faster and more effective at training hard skills than traditional training methods. Bringing VR content into employee training can reduce the skills gap and keep mistakes low.
   
4. Keeping employees engaged and retained – When the hiring freezes hit, valuable employees can get burned out. Next comes ‘quiet quitting’ or an actual exodus. Losing employees is a costly proposition of around 30% of the employee’s salary to find a replacement, let alone the cost of lost productivity and additional burden on others. To keep from losing these employees, companies need to continue to invest in their development. VR can play a big role here with hard and soft skills training that can improve employee engagement as well as make employees feel valued. 
   
5. Improving employee culture and job satisfaction – Going hand in hand with retention is keeping the employee culture strong during difficult times. This goes beyond skills training to looking for ways to improve diversity, inclusion, and employee wellness. There is a wealth of VR content for helping employees embrace these difficult topics, as well as reduce stress with guided meditation and wellness exercises. The same headsets used for skills training can be extended for employee development that keeps employees smiling amongst the challenges they face day-to-day. This increases productivity and keeps the company performing at the high levels needed to persist through the down economy.

Companies need to look to learning and development as a key function to weather the storm or even help a company thrive despite economic conditions. VR training can bring positive change and bottom line cost savings for companies looking for a strategic win in any economy. 

Wondering how to get started with VR training?

For learning and development leaders looking to help their company’s thrive, VR training is the answer. VR content naturally compliments existing training content to provide employees with ways to apply and practice skills needed to be successful. 

Want more evidence for leadership on the cost cutting benefits of VR training? Read whitepaper here!

In our previous whitepaper we covered how to bring VR into your training program, get the step-by-step guide here!

Download the whitepaper: 5 Ways VR Training Helps Companies Even in an Economic Downturn’: