Today’s companies are facing a growing soft skills gap. Recent studies found that 59% of surveyed hiring managers and 89% of executives reported difficulty recruiting candidates with the requisite soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and leadership. And these soft skills are only becoming more essential (and more difficult to develop) as the pandemic pushes people into temporary — or in many cases, permanent — remote work. Without access to in-person training and education, what can businesses do to help their employees develop these vital skills?
How Companies Are Using VR to Develop Employees’ Soft Skills
Soft skills such as conflict resolution, teamwork, and leadership are more important than ever — but they can be tricky for employees to develop, especially as remote work makes many traditional training programs untenable. Without access to in-person education, what can businesses do to help their people develop these vital skills? The author suggests that Virtual Reality can offer an effective solution. VR enables immersive, interactive experiences in which employees interact with an avatar to role play difficult conversations and develop communication skills. Based on a survey of over 300 learning and development leaders, the author discusses how companies large and small are already using these programs to support customer service training, presentation skills development, and employee evaluation. Ultimately, the author argues that VR will be critical in enabling the next generation of workers to cultivate the soft skills they’ll need to be successful in any organization.