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HOW VIRTUAL REALITY IS REDEFINING SOFT SKILLS TRAINING

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* Introduction
* So how does VR measure up as a training tool for these and other soft skills?
* Five top findings about the value of VR in soft skills training
* Building a blended learning curriculum
* How PwC can help

SUMMARY

* Companies need employees with the right mix of skills, including “soft”
skills like leadership and resilience.
* The prevalence of remote work makes effective digital training approaches
more crucial than ever.
* VR training offers an affordable way to upskill employees faster and with
better results.

THE VR ADVANTAGE

Employers are facing a dilemma: Their workforce needs to learn new skills,
upgrade existing capabilities or complete compliance training, but may not be
able to do so in person given the current environment. Yet, training is
especially important now, with employees so keen to gain skills, and it may
become even more critical when workers start returning to a changed workplace.
So how can employers deal with the challenge?

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY HOW VIRTUAL REALITY IS REDEFINING SOFT SKILLS TRAINING

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SUMMARY

7 minute read

June 4, 2021

THE VR ADVANTAGE

ONE SOLUTION TO THIS TRAINING PROBLEM COMES FROM AN UNEXPECTED PLACE: VIRTUAL
REALITY (VR).

VR is already known to be effective for teaching hard skills and for job skills
simulations, such as a flight simulator to train pilots. But many employees also
need to learn soft skills, such as leadership, resilience and managing through
change.

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TECH EFFECT

SO HOW DOES VR MEASURE UP AS A TRAINING TOOL FOR THESE AND OTHER SOFT SKILLS?

PwC set out to answer this question with our study of VR designed for soft
skills training. Selected employees from a group of new managers in 12 US
locations took the same training — designed to address inclusive leadership — in
one of three learning modalities: classroom, e-learn and v-learn (VR).

The results? The survey showed that VR can help business leaders upskill their
employees faster, even at a time when training budgets may be shrinking and
in-person training may be off the table, as people continue to observe social
distancing.

VR LEARNERS WERE:

FIVE TOP FINDINGS ABOUT THE VALUE OF VR IN SOFT SKILLS TRAINING

HERE ARE FIVE TAKEAWAYS THAT CAN HELP YOU SUPPORT YOUR EMPLOYEES’ DIGITAL
LEARNING NEEDS:

1. EMPLOYEES IN VR COURSES CAN BE TRAINED UP TO FOUR TIMES FASTER

US employees typically spend only 1% of their workweek on training and
development, so employers need to be sure that they use that time productively.
That’s where VR can help.

What took two hours to learn in the classroom could possibly be learned in only
30 minutes using VR. When you account for extra time needed for first-time
learners to review, be fitted for and be taught to use the VR headset,
V-learners still complete training three times faster than classroom learners.
And that figure only accounts for the time actually spent in the classroom, not
the additional time required to travel to the classroom itself.

TIME TO COMPLETE TRAINING

2. VR LEARNERS ARE MORE CONFIDENT IN APPLYING WHAT THEY’RE TAUGHT

When learning soft skills, confidence is a key driver of success. In difficult
circumstances, such as having to give negative feedback to an employee, people
generally wish they could practice handling the situation in a safe environment.
With VR, they can.

Because it provides the ability to practice in an immersive, low-stress
environment, VR-based training results in higher confidence levels and an
improved ability to actually apply the learning on the job. In fact, learners
trained with VR were up to 275% more confident to act on what they learned after
training — a 40% improvement over classroom and 35% improvement over e-learn
training.

Bar chart titled
Improvement in confidence discussing issues and acting on issues of diversity
and inclusion after the training
Discussing issues

Acting on issues
Classroom
%
%
E-learn
%
%
VR
%
%
Source: PwC VR Soft Skills training Efficacy Study, 2020

3. EMPLOYEES ARE MORE EMOTIONALLY CONNECTED TO VR CONTENT

People connect, understand and remember things more deeply when their emotions
are involved. (We learned that during the VR study and multiple BXT experiences,
where we gathered different viewpoints and worked together to identify what
matters most.) Simulation-based learning in VR gives individuals the opportunity
to feel as if they’ve had a meaningful experience.

V-learners felt 3.75 times more emotionally connected to the content than
classroom learners and 2.3 times more connected than e-learners. Three-quarters
of learners surveyed said that during the VR course on diversity and inclusion,
they had a wake-up-call moment and realized that they were not as inclusive as
they thought they were.

Bar chart titled
Average emotional connection felt to learning content
Classroom

E-learn

Source: PwC VR Soft Skills training Efficacy Study, 2020

4. VR LEARNERS ARE MORE FOCUSED

Today’s learners are often impatient, distracted and overwhelmed. Many learners
will not watch a video for its duration, and smartphones are a leading cause of
interruption and distraction.

With VR learning, users are significantly less distracted. In a VR headset,
simulations and immersive experiences command the individual’s vision and
attention. There are no interruptions and no options to multitask. In our study,
VR-trained employees were up to four times more focused during training than
their e-learning peers and 1.5 times more focused than their classroom
colleagues. When learners are immersed in a VR experience, they tend to get more
out of the training and have better outcomes.

5. VR LEARNING CAN BE MORE COST-EFFECTIVE AT SCALE

In the past, VR was too expensive, complicated and challenging to deploy outside
of a small group. Today, the cost of an enterprise headset ecosystem is a
one-time fee of less than $1,000, and these units can be managed like any other
enterprise mobile device and can be used repeatedly to deliver training. Studios
of all sizes are developing compelling content, while vendors are creating
software packages to enable non-VR developers to create their own content in a
cost-effective way. Elsewhere, some big learning-management-system players are
enabling VR content to be easily integrated into their platforms.

The value VR provides is unmistakable when used appropriately. In our study, we
found that, when delivered to enough learners, VR training is estimated to be
more cost-effective at scale than classroom or e-learning. Because VR content
initially requires up to a 48% greater investment than similar classroom or
e-learn courses, it’s essential to have enough learners to help make this
approach cost-effective. At 375 learners, VR training achieved cost parity with
classroom learning. At 3,000 learners, VR training became 52% more
cost-effective than classroom. At 1,950 learners, VR training achieved cost
parity with e-learn. The more people you train, the higher your return will
likely be in terms of employee time saved during training, as well as course
facilitation and other out-of-pocket cost savings.

TRAINING MODALITY COST PER LEARNER

BUILDING A BLENDED LEARNING CURRICULUM

While VR will not replace classroom or e-learn training anytime soon, it should
be part of most companies’ blended learning curriculum. VR learning
differentiates itself by combining the elements of a well-planned BXT
experience: business expertise to tackle challenges, a human-centered experience
and the right technology to boost productivity without sacrificing quality.
Ideally, an entire team would take this training and then have follow-up
discussions to determine how they can apply the learned skills in their jobs.

VR can help people make more meaningful connections by allowing learners to
practice skills that help them relate to diverse perspectives in the real world.
For example, PwC developed a VR soft skills course that enables executives and
staff to practice new sales approaches. Learners get to make a pitch to a
virtual CEO, but if they rely on business-as-usual sales techniques, the virtual
CEO asks them to leave her office. However, if learners apply skills that
demonstrate how they can bring value to the CEO’s company, they get a “virtual
contract” at the end of the conversation.

The simplicity of this technology is another good reason to start using VR at
scale in your organization. In the study, our team was able to provision, deploy
and manage a large fleet of VR headsets with a very small team. That success
makes it easy to imagine a day when all employees will be issued their own
headsets, along with the requisite laptops, on their first day on the job. That
would be a truly new way of working.

* Ready to take the next step?

Our analytics team can help you take the next step in your journey

Learn more

Scott Likens

Partner, Trust Technology, PwC Labs, PwC US

Daniel L. Eckert

Managing Director, Aurora, PwC US

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www.pwc.com Open in urlscan Pro
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2 forms found in the DOM