Three Things We Learned at HR Technology Conference
Exhibiting at HR Technology Conference this past week was a great opportunity to meet with leaders in the employee training space.
The conference, held annually in Las Vegas, brings together some of the leading practitioners, vendors, and thought leaders in the HR space. Most importantly for InstaVR, it gave us an opportunity to spend 1-on-1 time with some of the most tech-forward people in the industry. It was our first time exhibiting, and likely not our last.
Below, one of our team members that attended – Head of Sales, Andrew Woodberry — walks through major takeaways from this year’s conference, particularly as it relates to Virtual Reality.
Take it away Andrew…
1. HR is rapidly becoming one of the most innovative departments tech-wise within companies
When I worked at Google in 2008, the “People Analytics” used there was pretty revolutionary.
Now, almost every company has some form of data-driven decision making in their HR function. Recruiting, onboarding, ongoing training — all of them at the best companies are radically impacted by technology.
Virtual Reality is no longer a “future” technology in HR divisions. The amount of people we spoke to that have used VR, that have 360 cameras, that have headsets, was mind-blowing. Particularly with technology like the Oculus Go — which is powerful, mobile, and affordable (~ $200 per headset) — the barriers to utilizing VR for Training are dropping.
And now with our InstaVR Central enterprise training platform, HR and eLearning departments can rapidly deploy VR applications to many employees in different divisions in hours or days, not weeks or months. All done in-house, with no technical knowledge required.
The HR Technology Conference expands in numbers and scope each year as companies recognize that *people are companies* and the best way to equip people to succeed is through technology.
So no longer is HR seen as a tech follower. It’s the division within companies that is a tech leader. And “People Analytics” isn’t a radical concept anymore, it’s just standard operating procedure. And employee training isn’t pen & paper, or videos on a screen — it’s immersive, memorable, impactful Virtual Reality applications!
2. VR impacts multiple functions within HR
The most obvious enterprise use case for InstaVR is employee training. eLearning through virtual reality is tremendously impactful. Trainings are better received, better retained, and made at a fraction of the cost of traditional training.
But VR doesn’t just impact the traditional training function within a company.
We spoke to recruiters, who want to use InstaVR to better showcase their company at events and recruiting fairs. (stay tuned for a great new case study in this space next week!) We discussed with them the power of making a memorable impact on recruits. We discussed the ability to get potential employees excited for a campus and culture without having to fly them out. We discussed how you can easily make multiple VR apps, specific to a particular audience, and easily deploy them. And recruiters are definitely excited to incorporate VR into their outreach!
We spoke to consultants, at very large consultancies, who are tasked with revitalizing the people operations at their clients. They’re very interested in VR, as often these consultancies have either a VR division or at least a group within them familiar with the technology. And what do they like about best about InstaVR Central? The ability to rapidly developer and deliver VR applications across organizations. Speed is crucial in these engagements, and they can implement a VR curriculum *quickly* at their clients’ offices.
We spoke to IT workers & engineers, who are having to build HR systems from scratch within their companies. They’re excited about the turnkey nature of InstaVR Central. That they can introduce the technology and fully hand it off to HR — or even individual departments, rolling up to HR — without having to do any ongoing maintenance or training. IT departments that work with HR are overtaxed, particularly as companies grow larger and more distributed. Taking VR for Training and putting it in the hands of the non-technical workers is incredibly impactful.
3. Companies are becoming more distributed and global — so their training programs have to be too
We met with a number of HR Tech attendees from overseas. And even for US-based attendees, they talked about manufacturing plants and call centers and distribution happening far from headquarters.
The fact is every year brings more distributed and global workforces. For these modern companies, an “all hands” in-person training approach isn’t practical or financially viable.
So when we discuss InstaVR Central as a “hub and spoke” approach to employee training, most people immediately got it and understood the imporantce of the technology. This approach means either:
- You create all your immersive VR training at headquarters, and easily distribute it globally to mobile phones, VR headsets, web pages in LMS systems, etc…. or
- You send the 360 camera equipment out to the local offices, let them easily film and edit, and create the VR apps themselves.
These two approaches, easily achievable with InstaVR Central, give employers the flexibility on how they want to approach VR training. Having a hybrid on-premise & cloud platform means training can be filmed, edited, and distributed anywhere. And that’s what’s necessary in today’s flexible, distributed, global workplace.
Interested in more articles on VR for Training by InstAVR, check out…
Training Industry – Virtual Reality a Great Fit for Employee Onboarding
VentureBeat (ReadWrite) – How VR Training Apps are Finally Becoming a Reality
InstaVR Blog – Example Use Cases of How to Use Virtual Reality (VR) for Training
InstaVR Blog – Training Meets Virtual Reality: How to Create a Training App Using InstaVR
To schedule a call, demo, or in-person meeting with an InstaVR Central team member, email Andrew — andrew at instavr.co. Look forward to hearing from you!
