What is remote VR soft skills training like? Our experiences shared

We have been running remote VR training for clients for a number of years and have learned a huge amount during our training programmes for a variety of sectors and employees at various stages in their careers.

We thought we would share our experiences with you as companies look for other ways to accommodate remote teams more effectively.

It’s very engaging

Quite often we get a healthy dose of scepticism, especially from establishment sectors like banks or law firms, we don’t mind this, it shows that when clients do work for us it is based on solid well thought through cost/benefit analysis and the results of the training pilots.

It’s extremely engaging, clients do not expect this, they expect a variation of other forms of virtual training instead of something that is much more akin to face to face training, so much so we now call it virtual face to face training.

Within an hour even the sceptics are locked deep in discussion with other delegates, collaborating and generally acting as if they are in the same room with their colleagues which in a sense they are.

To get to this stage though you need really strong orientation processes prior to any training, this is so they are “VR ready”, in our mind this is the most important step in the delegate experience.

As trainers, we have a clear session plan and like most trainers, we flex this when brilliant learning is happening or a great discussion is flowing.?One area where we sometimes have to flex however is the start of the courses - delegates get so engaged, they do a whole catch-up “haven’t seen you in ages” conversation, treating the situation in the same way as if they have just met them in a café or bar.

Delegates very often exclaim to us “I feel like I have spent the day with my colleagues” that is because they have!

People feel more comfortable in VR

Counterintuitive we know, but think about how you relax when you turn off the camera on your Zoom or Teams call and how you can relax, you don’t need to self-monitor your body language or expression.?In VR you have an avatar which represents you (and yes your body language can still be seen) but people feel more relaxed behind their avatar and crucially disinhibited.

So much so that when we run training courses for delegates around the world, we still find we have to ask people not to touch other people’s faces or their hair or stand too close or generally, we wouldn’t do it in the physical world, so we shouldn’t do it in the virtual one either.

We have also found in our own research that quieter, more introverted delegates or those with some social anxiety are more comfortable in VR, to speak up, share their opinions and collaborate with others, so in some ways, VR can be a great leveller.

Control your groups carefully and always, always use private events

You need strong facilitation in VR, it’s harder in some ways to get people’s attention so you need to make sure you have plenty of well-trained facilitators to welcome delegates/guests into an event or room and check they are all A-OK.?Never underestimate how many facilitators you need (this is why we have a large facilitation team).

Also, make sure your rooms are all private whichever platform you decide to use (we can advise) and have people ready to ‘rescue’ delegates who inadvertently enter a public space before they become surrounded by the space pirates of the metaverse (it can happen!).

They are locked in

No, not literally but it’s the next best thing, they cannot look at their phones, their computer screens, their garden, their adorable dog, or their favourite cat videos.?Nothing.?They can only look at their lovely colleagues and your amazing collaborative training materials.

Clients who come to us often talk about “sub-optimal learning behaviour” on their virtual training courses, delegates doing other things, skipping group work sections and just not turning up.?VR remote training addresses all of these things, brilliantly.

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The world is now a much smaller space

Typically, we work with big multinationals with offices across the US, EU and Asia (Singapore, China, Japan), probably the thing our training team enjoy the most (apart from the 4:00 am starts) is working with so many people all together from different countries all in the same space.

We get to share perspectives between US delegates with the EU and EU with Asia, so they can learn from each other, share best practices, bring in a subject matter expert or run action learning sets on key issues they need to address.?All in an incredibly versatile and fun space that can conveniently be accessed in an instant with no travel, accommodation, or time lost, allowing really flexible regular short burst training sessions.

To do this we have set up VR hubs and logistics in the UK, US, EU, and Asia to service these international training sessions, so we can help companies pilot and then run remote VR training with all its attendant benefits.

If you would like to see what VR is about, and how it can be used for your own training programmes, be it soft skills, graduate inductions, technical skills or management and leadership then get in touch, we always love talking about our work.