VR – Croixstone

A Virtual View of the Skills Gap Dilemma

According to the just-released 2018 Employer Needs Survey, 50 percent of North Carolina businesses report hiring difficulties and 60 percent of NC STEM-related and manufacturing companies experience the same. A recent Deloitte study estimates 2.4 million positions may go unfilled over the next decade.

Immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR) [collectively called XR], are being used to address the skills gap behind those numbers. Charlotte-based Lowe’s finds VR particularly useful for simulating the numerous home environments a sales or service representative may encounter. Global shipping giant DHL Supply Chain reports an average 15 percent or greater improvement in productivity in its warehouses utilizing AR glasses, while also reducing onboarding and training time by 50 percent.

What does this mean for employee training? Read more on: A Virtual View of the Skills Gap Dilemma.

About Our Guest Writer

Lorraine Russell is President/CEO of Room to Focus. The firm provides the tools and content to help companies increase training retention, attract digital natives, and reduce time spent onboarding and facilitating routine training.

Virtual Reality (VR) + Business

Last week, MacRumors reported Apple’s purchase of SensoMotoric Instruments which could be a major step toward making virtual reality (VR) mainstream.

At Croixstone Consulting, we understand that the potential implementations of VR in business are too numerous to count. Currently, VR is being used to give virtual tours of entire business environments and to provide training to new employees (especially where it involves equipment). At Stanford Health Care, doctors are using VR technology as a sophisticated visual tool during brain surgery and to train future neurosurgeons. VR can also provide 360 views of products and a more cost-effective way of developing product prototypes to detect design based issues at an earlier stage, issues that can lead to subsequent problems down the road.

Learn more about what VR is here.

See more on how VR can transform a host of industries—and business operations here.

For WSJ subscribers, check out: Virtual Reality Finally Catches On – With Businesses