BACKGROUND

A well-known global building materials producer (Client) with over 19,000 employees needed to provide safety training to workers located in over 30 countries-including language and time zone options. Their existing protocol included instructor-led in-person classes using a 72 page PowerPoint presentation, augmented by additional on-the-job skills practice. Workers spent 6 hours on course work and 2+ hours on the job training (OJT) over two days. In addition to paying wages for the instructors, training costs per employee exceeded $50/hour in non-revenue generating time. Due to high turnover, waves of retirements, new hires that lacked necessary skills, various ages and education levels—the required safety training was extremely expensive and unwieldy to manage.

The Client’s executive team tapped 360 Immersive, a leader in safety training and development programs, to evaluate and recommend interactive and virtual reality solutions that could be standardized, made available online and developed in multiple languages.

SOLUTION

360 Immersive went right to work to improve the Client’s safety training curriculum and develop a a pilot e-Learning course that focused on workplace safety. The team transformed the content from the 72 page slide deck into self paced e-Learning modules authored in Storyline, featuring knowledge checks and including three interactive virtual reality simulations that leverage visual literacy techniques to enhance hazard identification and retention. Immersive experiences were modeled on actual, recognizable Client warehouse locations to enhance and facilitate skills transfer to the real-world tasks.

The new pilot eLearning course came in on budget and has already resulted in a massive time savings for learners — the self paced course now takes about 1.5 hours to complete, and allows them to spend 2-3 hours practicing OJT. The training can now be completed in a half day. Metrics are strong as well. Although most industry on-time completion rates hover around 35%, over 87% of users of the pilot finished on time. Re-training studies are on-going but early feedback suggests more complete skills mastery and less remediation. Course satisfaction surveys from new hires was 80% more positive than instructor-led and the highly interactive simulations were particularly appreciated by learners.

RESULTS

Results are spectacular! ROI from the facility that piloted the eLearning course has already saved thousands of dollars and the prototype will pay for itself in the short-term roll-out which is estimated within 3 months time. Client’s executive team has already awarded 360 Immersive a follow on contract to begin translating the workplace safety eLearning course into additional languages to deploy the company approved training globally.

Additionally, the Client has contracted to develop a digital replica of a large, expensive piece of equipment that will be integrated into the VR environment created during the pilot phase. An outdated lockout tagout (LOTO) presentation will be recreated into a self paced eLearning course. Learners will practice a series of LOTO exercises from a variety of energy sources in VR and interacting with 3D simulations.

Client appreciates the long-term strategic focus that 360 Immersive brings to every project. With deep expertise and industry knowledge, 360 Immersive is well positioned to evaluate the entire spectrum of potential solutions and apply the right use case to solve client specific issues.

COMPANY: 360 Immersive