Investing strategically in workforce development can enhance employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention. However, HR departments face ongoing challenges in implementing cost-effective training programs that boost employee efficiency and intelligence.
Recent research by Devlin Peck, a global expert in corporate learning technologies and instructional design, reveals that 92% of employees believe workplace training positively affects their job engagement. Almost 59% associate training with improved performance and 45% are more inclined to remain in their positions when provided with training opportunities. Consequently, organisations report a 17% productivity increase when employees receive desired and necessary training.
Nevertheless, HR leaders encounter numerous hurdles in crafting training programs that are both satisfying and practical while remaining cost-effective. Traditional training methods are often time-consuming and cumbersome for workers. The logistics of coordinating sessions, and trainers, and ensuring full participation can complicate the process, diminishing both its speed and enjoyment.
The conventional one-size-fits-all approach also fails to acknowledge individual learning styles and abilities. This discrepancy can lead to negative experiences, with some employees feeling overwhelmed by rapid pacing, while others find the content too basic. Customised learning follows a more personalised path based on each employee’s unique factors, such as skill level and learning styles. Personalised learning provides learners with educational experiences that work for them, so they can absorb information quickly and completely.
Application simulation’s immersive training is redefining enterprise training
To tackle these issues, training teams are harnessing the potential of application simulation, and introducing advanced interactive training products to enhance workforce development in areas like employee onboarding and training. For example, a leading beverage manufacturer was embarking on a massive digital transformation initiative, deploying over 40 applications across 80 countries. To mitigate the high cost of errors, users needed to demonstrate proficiency in these apps before gaining live access. Traditional training methods, including maintaining expensive and resource-intensive training environments, became a bottleneck. A solution like Mirror, which creates hyper-realistic and interactive replicas of enterprise web applications for immersive training and product showcasing, offered them a scalable and cost-effective solution by providing the company’s digital transformation team with a platform for delivering hands-on training to end users.
These authentic virtual reproductions of web applications enable risk-free immersive training sessions and product showcases. By recreating a mock-up version that mirrors the original application, users can develop skills without jeopardising real production environments. This approach also allows IT departments to reduce infrastructure and labour costs associated with maintaining additional live application environments.
As market demands call for more efficient and innovative HR operations, organisations are adopting application simulation training environments to improve various aspects of their HR processes. These include recruitment and hiring systems, learning and development programs, and learning management systems that expand career development opportunities for the entire workforce.
Onboarding and offboarding processes can also benefit from replica applications, enhancing employee experiences. These training technologies help HR leaders standardise onboarding for greater consistency and streamline offboarding to maintain positive relationships with departing employees.
Key advantages of immersive application training for employee success
Advanced, hands-on interactive simulation application training offers numerous benefits to enterprises, including increased efficiency, reduced costs, and enhanced user training experiences. These replication platforms create positive user experiences by simulating real-world scenarios without the risks associated with actual negative outcomes. They also provide users with personal control over their training experiences, allowing them to engage in online sessions at their convenience, free from rigid schedules or geographical limitations, thus boosting their confidence in working with real and live applications.
These technical advances are rooted in a shift that focuses HR attention on software users themselves, not their software applications. This is a concept known as userisation, which provides automated support to help application users take charge of their digital environments while they work within their apps.
Userisation makes software apps more accessible for users because it enables them to take action in a self-sufficient manner, thereby simplifying adoption, and driving productivity. Analytics engines enable the identification of key user behaviours within training applications. Armed with these insights, organisations can develop more contextual software experiences that are tailored to shared cohorts of users.
These application simulation interactive training environments can significantly boost employee engagement by creating more realistic and memorable learning experiences. Such positive experiences contribute to better-trained employees and foster a culture of continuous learning within the organisation.