Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 12 www.hrreporter.com VR proves popular for training, teamwork and recruitment With its immersive technology and realistic simulations, virtual reality could be used more often to replicate real-world situations and provide employers with a better handle on managing and training workers, writes John Dujay "It's very realistic and it was just a great way to bring that learning from the hospital and health-care environment into the lab space." Nursing students can interact virtually with a patient who may have one of the listed conditions, and they are judged on their techniques, such as identifying the sounds from the lungs and where they placed the stethoscope. The immersive experience of VR provides students with the opportunity to practise in near-real world scenarios while eliminating the sometimes high- stress situation of being judged by instructors while operating on real people, says MacLachlan. "The assessment process can be quite daunting: You're sitting in front of an instructor who's physically there watching you and so we thought we could remove that because, when the learner is in that VR experience, they are embedded deeply [and] really immersed with the patient. We were hoping they would forget about the instructor and be able to just think about the assessment." As well, the system provides realism for the students, she says. "You can't hear the sounds of a lung with pneumonia unless you're immersed in that. There are recordings that you can hear but without the added value of a patient. That immersive experience a sense of trust," he says. "There were points when I was going through that virtual reality experience that actually felt like I was in the room with people who were in Germany and in California and in London and in Hong Kong." Throughout this pandemic, a lot of businesses have learned to use technology in different ways "that I think we're only just opening our eyes to now," says Sethi. Immersed in soft skills As workforces become more spread out, even before the COVID-19 crisis, many organizations have been using new tools to keep workers better connected and engaged. Take, for example, Bow Valley College in Calgary. The school has about 1,000 practical nursing students in its program on a regular basis. About 18 months ago, it partnered with a VR production company to produce training modules. "We thought we would develop VR tools with patients that you can't make happen in the real world... We developed a respiratory VR scenario with a number of different avatars and different experiences: pneumonia, asthma, COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], anaphylaxis," says Nora MacLachlan, dean of health and community studies at Bow Valley College. also allows them to build up some confidence in working with patients." Machinery operations Bow Valley's VR system was created by ICOM Productions in Calgary, which also provides VR walkarounds for large equipment operators that are looking to train new hires without taking expensive machinery (such as massive dump trucks in mining) offline for those purposes. One 35-year veteran of a company who teaches machinery walkarounds said VR is "a leap forward, not a step forward in learning," says Greg Surbey, founder and managing partner at ICOM Productions. "His point is that now my students actually understand the parts and the processes prior to going into their practicum." For companies looking to hire new workers operating complex machinery, VR provides an experience that "absolutely catapults the learning from zero to proficient in a VR world," says Surbey. "VR is phenomenal for doing a walk- around, identifying elements and then pointing out hazards and saying, 'What's wrong with this picture? What would you do here?'" "I felt like I was in a room with people who were in Germany, California, London and Hong Kong." Bhushan Sethi, PwC JUST recently, Bhushan Sethi had a very immersive experience for work. The joint global leader of people and organization at PwC in New York took part in a two-hour session with a global leadership team using virtual reality (VR). The group went walking on mountains and underneath holiday trees, along with doing yoga stretches and holding breakout sessions. "We actually cracked a very important business challenge for us and came out with a high-level design for it. And it was very engaging, and I think we built AUGMENTED REALITY, VIRTUAL REALITY SET TO TAKE OFF $600 million Size of industry in Canada in 2018 compared to a projected size of $800 million in 2022 76.7 million units Number of augmented, virtual, mixed-reality headset devices to be shipped worldwide 23 million Number of global jobs to be impacted by VR and AR by 2030 Sources: Statista Research Department, PwC

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