We’ve written extensively about the emergence of VR for Training over the last year. But HR departments aren’t just rapidly adopting the technology for existing employees. They’re also creating impressive VR experiences specifically for use in the hiring process.

Recruiting top employees is a priority at most companies, large and small. Businesses need any edge a company can get on the competition to land the best and right person for a job. Virtual Reality helps attract and land talent — it’s immersive, interactive, and exciting.

Below, we go through three parts of the hiring process our clients are incorporating VR into most. There’s certainly more areas of HR impacted by VR too, but these are the most salient. If your Human Resources team is interested in utilizing VR to attract top talent, let us know. We’re happy to work with you on planning how InstaVR can help you land the best employees!

VR is a great way to show off your company and your employeeshttps://www.instavr.co/customer-stories/toyota. Either on campus, at an event like a job fair, or at your offices — VR has the transformational power to showcase why your company is the best fit for a job seeker.

There’s so much you can show off through immersive reality. We’ve seen clients do virtual office tours, virtual “meet your future team members” apps, and “day in the life” VR experiences. And that’s just scratching the surface, as literally almost all good aspects of working at a company can be conveyed immersively through virtual reality.

Why is VR so good for these specific use cases?

Because if you can’t physically be in a location, VR is the most immersive and memorable way to experience it. For instance, our client Toyota put together a virtual office tour to showcase to college students on their recruiting road show. The Navy (via agency Left of Creative) has used InstaVR to enable people to experience what being on a ship or flying a plane is like, when those same people couldn’t physically visit the ship or jet. Even the Los Angeles Police Department (via client Galago Vision) has gotten into the technology, using InstaVR to show what’s like to work in different departments.

Just as VR is memorable for training, it’s memorable when showcased at a job fair or event where students or potential employee may be meeting with 100s of companies. You can’t remember every person you meet or brochure you read. But you’ll remember running alongside the LAPD or flying in a Navy jet!

By emphasizing the use of VR at your company, you’re more likely to leave a better impression for recruits. What does this mean? Younger employees, in particular, want to work at cutting edge businesses incorporating the best technologies into their business practices. VR is an emerging technology that younger employees recognize as vital to workplace success.

Take Amazon. The aforementioned Galago Vision also put together a VR experience for them using InstaVR to showcase Alexa at CET. It’s a cool use of the technology to showcase some non-traditional uses of Alexa.

But Amazon uses VR for a lot of different of workplace scenarios. Take for instance this VR German factory tour they built to showcase all the technology that makes fulfillment so efficient. It’s a great use of VR and shows a lot of the cool features of working in a factory that might not be obvious to a potential recruit.

What other industries are accelerating in VR adoption that should be showcasing it in hiring? Healthcare, for sure, where VR is helping doctors become better at their jobs, while also helping with patient response. Transportation companies, such as automakers, are incorporating VR into employee training at a rapid pace, as well as sales and marketing. Even teaching is being disrupted by VR, and any school working with VR as part of their curriculum should be promoting that to future potential teachers.

USING VR FOR TESTING/IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL NEW HIRES

InstaVR added two features this year that make VR a potential game changer for identifying great candidates — Analytics and User IDs. You can now capture emails or usernames in headset with User ID, to reach out candidates after meeting them. And with Analytics, you can create quizzes or see who performed best in your VR experiences.

You can also combine the User ID and Analytics data to see who spent the longest time within the VR headset. This should give you a good idea of who amongst VR users was most interested in your company or job function.

Lastly, you can use these features within your company for lateral job placement. Bigger companies — ie Fortune 500 — have so many different positions available. A person trained one area can test themselves in another — ie a warehouse worker thinking of getting into transportation at Amazon — and see how they perform in VR and if they even like it.

Having granular analytics data gives HR departments so much more data on the performance of VR. Previously, they’d just have to go on faith that VR was having an impact. But with actual names and click-data and timestamps, you get a complete view of VR for Hiring to convince the C-Suite to invest further in the technology.