Immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) earlier were the things of gaming and widely used for playing games in the virtual world. But now these technology-applications have reached the business arena, offering companies an immersive experience. Today's businesses are gradually leveraging AR and VR technologies to drive efficiency, especially by training employees. Companies also use these solutions into human resources (HR) processes for recruitment.

To hire new candidates or conducting job interviews, particularly for offsite or virtual positions, companies are using AR and VR. This kind of interview experiences can be more exciting and engaging for aspirants than the conventional and a standard skills assessment. There are several ways these technologies can make the recruitment process easier as they have the ability to create exciting possibilities in recruitment.

Recently, Lloyds Banking Group, a major British retail banking firm, deployed virtual reality for the assessment process of the Graduate Leadership Programme candidates. With this VR program, recruits have been asked to solve a puzzle in a simulated environment, and based on the results showing the strengths and abilities of the recruits, the company then moves ahead to make recruitment decisions.

AR and VR in Recruitment – Use Cases

While recruitment is a cutthroat area as it helps businesses to identify the best talents and gain a competitive edge, every organization works hard to get the best pool of talent on the job market. This is where augmented and virtual realities come in, offering enhanced aid in the process of modern recruitment.

Gamification

When procuring for positions in web development, engineering, marketing, and other fields that require some tech-savvy and a level of comfort in the digital world, most businesses and hiring managers are testing cutting-edge recruiting solutions. In this way, turning to gamification can be a good alternative against conventional application processes for recruitment. This kind of gamified recruiting and onboarding applications could head out a new, innovative wave of hiring processes within the HR systems. Automobile giant Jaguar Land Rover, for instance, reportedly teamed up with the experimental pop group Gorillaz on a recruiting app. This had boosted the interactivity of the recruitment process as the company gained success at finding fresh engineering talent.

Employee Training

While VR offers a three-dimensional virtual environment to users, AR enhances that reality by providing digital information on top of what the user is seeing. This enables learners to practice skills and comprehend the outcomes of their actions in a simulated environment. This is why these technologies are being explored as new tools for training employees within the corporate level. Both AR and VR is being used for the last few years in HR practices but is limited to training simulations for technological and hand-on roles in areas of manufacturing, logistics and transportation. However its application is evolving with its implementation across soft skills training.

Workplace Transformation

As the use of augmented reality delivers digital details to augment the world around users, it assists employees at the workplace to stay up to date on important company communications, announcements and news. It also provides profile information and affluent data on clients or prospects during a sales call, and share real-time insight on optimizing workflows or continuous performance feedback delivered directly while the employee is on the job. According to reports, a majority of millennials and Generation X professionals would prefer having technological perks, such as AR and VR applications, in the workplace.

Improving Learning Experiences

Thanks to their immersive, experiential nature, many businesses these days are experimenting with AR and VR to create better e-learning content to mimic experiences based on the premise. In a research, 49 percent of Gen Z employees in Singapore believe that VR will revolutionize work in the coming years, while 45 percent of Gen Z in the US, and 56 percent of Gen Z in India considering the same. AR and VR also have the potential to take team collaboration to the next level. Even, these technologies could potentially confiscate any challenges associated with remote working. As AR and VR still in the initial phase, they are already gaining momentum and becoming part of today's lives, how we live, work, communicate and collaborate.