By Kamy Anderson
When starting a business, one of the crucial steps that you need to take is to hire employees who will be properly qualified for their job positions. Each and every one of your employees will be an important cog in your company, so you need to make sure that they have the right knowledge and skills to help you get your business off the ground and take it towards a lucrative path.
In order for your entire workforce to help you reach your goals, you need to provide them with proper training. Corporate training should be one of your top priorities when you are just starting out since it will help your employees perfect their skills and engage them in your vision and business values.
However, you need to know how to do it right and what kind of training to implement. One of the best and most effective methods of learning when it comes to corporate training is immersive learning, so take a look at what it is and how it can benefit your startup.
What Is Immersive Learning?
Immersive learning is a method of learning that is focused on simulating various scenarios in order for the learners to acquire and practice particular knowledge and skills. Those scenarios can be simulated either physically or virtually, and they result in an interactive learning environment that leads to the best possible outcomes and the most skilled learners.
Immersive learning includes simulations and role play, as well as virtual reality. When you implement immersive learning, you use technology to provide your employees with real-life interactive experiences. It helps you capture their attention quickly and, more importantly, keep them engaged. They are placed in realistic situations, so they “learn by doing”, which helps them acquire knowledge and skills more efficiently, and they are actually able to effectively retain every piece of new information.
How Can Immersive Learning Benefit Your Startup?
The most impactful employee training programs are those that not only capture trainees’ attention, but also manage to keep them immersed, which is something that you definitely need for your startup. The following benefits of immersive learning will greatly help you push your startup towards the path to success, so read on to find out why.
Cost Reduction
Cost reduction is always beneficial, but it is even more vital when you are just starting out and you are careful about every single dime that you invest in your business. Corporate training can be expensive, as it is usually a lengthy process that requires hiring professionals to conduct the training.
Immersive learning is very cost-effective since all you need to invest in is good online learning software and proper VR technology. There is no need to pay for extra office space, nor is there a need to hire training experts to work with your employees. Therefore, your entire workforce can be quickly ready to take on any challenge and complete every task with flying colors, without you breaking the bank.
No Geographical Limitations
Perhaps you don’t have any remote workers just yet, but if you do or you plan on hiring them, immersive learning can be of immense help. This is because the training is conducted online, so there are no geographical limitations whatsoever.
Everyone can participate in your training course whenever they want to and wherever they are, and providing them with such convenience will result is much better outcomes. Therefore, even if your workforce is dispersed across the world, you can be sure that all of your employees will be perfectly trained to do their jobs properly.
Maximum Employee Performance
Interactive content that immersive learning provides is far more engaging than any other type of content. When your trainees are put into a real-life 3D-simulated interactive environment where they will have complete control of every scenario they are replicating, they will be truly engaged in their training experience.
That kind of engagement undeniably leads to their maximum performance. It goes without saying that the performance of your employees is one of the crucial factors that will help your business succeed and when you are new to the market, it is paramount that you quickly cut through the noise of competition and stand out. That is the most important reason why you should implement immersive learning into your corporate training.
Better Knowledge Retention
A lot of training programs don’t actually have a big impact and result in trainees forgetting a great deal of what they have learned. This is definitely not the case with immersive learning because, by practicing and repeating various actions, trainees are able to actually retain their knowledge.
Immersive learning leads to 75-90% knowledge retention, which really speaks volumes about its effectiveness. What’s more, it provides instant corrective feedback, which means that anyone who makes a particular mistake regarding certain actions during the training process will be immediately corrected. This improves their knowledge retention even more and leads to more effective performance.
For instance, one of the simulations may be learning how to deal with a dissatisfied customer. If a trainee doesn’t handle the customer with maximum care but instead takes a negative approach, they will be given prompt feedback to help them correct their mistakes and learn exactly what they should do for the best possible outcome.
Immersive learning is an opportunity that you should definitely not miss out, as it can help you get your startup off the ground before you even know it. What’s more, by incorporating immersive learning into your corporate training, you will certainly have the upper hand on the market, because not many businesses are using this learning method. People are yet to realize its huge potential, so jump on the bandwagon and join the ride as soon as you can.
Don’t forget to find the best online learning software to fit your business needs and help you turn your organization into a well-oiled machine of highly-experienced workers.
Kamy Anderson is an ed-tech enthusiast with a passion for writing on emerging technologies in the areas of corporate training and education. He is an expert in learning management system & elearning authoring tools – currently associated with ProProfs. @kamyanderson.
Photo: Visite du Paris médiéval et de l’abbatiale de Cluny (Futur en Seine 2016 Off, Paris) by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra is licensed under CC BY 2.0
