Virtual Reality (VR) technology can revolutionize the world of recruiting and hiring by reducing biases and promoting diversity. It can simulate job interviews and assessment tests in a controlled environment, reducing the impact of biases based on factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, and physical appearance. VR can also eliminate geographical barriers, provide an immersive experience, and offer objective data and analytics for more informed decision-making.
Brandi Yates, the Associate Vice President of Learning and Development at Ultimate Medical Academy, and Nolan Hout, Senior Vice President at Infopro Learning, engaged in a conversation regarding the implementation of VR in hiring and recruitment practices. They discussed the complexities of eliminating multiple biases in the workplace, including the issue of gaps in employment.
Yates explained how VR could be leveraged to navigate biases related to employment gaps and highlighted the need to consider the role of VR in the recruitment process carefully. The conversation also touched on the evolving nature of VR technology, its cost implications, and the various ways it can be utilized without incurring huge investments.
Listen to the podcast to learn more:
Expert profile:
Brandi Yates
Brandi Yates is the Associate Vice President of Learning and Development at Ultimate Medical Academy, where she oversees employee training programs and works with employer partners to develop workforce solutions. She has spoken at various conferences on topics such as upskilling and improving employee onboarding. Yates is a member of several professional organizations and holds Performance Support and Evaluating Learning Impact certificates. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Roanoke College and a Master of Science from Everest University.
Nolan Hout
Nolan Hout is the Senior Vice President at Infopro Learning. He has over a decade of experience in the L&D industry, helping global organizations unlock the potential of their workforce. Nolan is results-driven, investing most of his time in finding ways to identify and improve the performance of learning programs through the lens of return on investment. He is passionate about networking with people in the learning and training community. He is also an avid outdoorsman and fly fisherman, spending most of his free time on rivers across the Pacific Northwest.
An excerpt of the discussion follows:
Nolan:
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Learning and Development podcast sponsored by Infopro Learning.
I’m your host, Nolan Hout, and today we will focus on the use of virtual reality as a tool to eliminate bias.
I’m thrilled to share this highly requested topic with you, and we have the perfect guest, Brandi
Yates, the Associate Vice President of Learning and Development at Ultimate Medical Academy.
Brandi successfully launched a VR program in collaboration with partners to address bias in the recruitment and hiring process, and the program’s remarkable results go far beyond ROI.
Without further ado, let’s meet our guest, Brandi Yates.
Hello, Brandi, and welcome to the podcast.
Brandi:
Hi, Nolan. I’m excited to be here.
Nolan:
Brandi, to kick off the podcast, we like to get to know our guests and their unique journey to their current leadership role in learning and development. It’s fascinating how there are many paths to success in this field. We’ve had individuals who started as restaurant cashiers and ended up as CLO and teachers who transitioned from elementary education to the corporate world. The diversity of experiences is truly remarkable.
Can you provide some insights into your career path and the steps you took to attain your current leadership position?
Brandi:
I first entered the finance industry and had a two-year stint that I greatly disliked. One of the few things I enjoyed was going to companies and giving 401K presentations. After that, I worked in education, so I moved to a small healthcare college in Virginia. I conducted orientations for externships and clinical rotations and taught students about processes and procedures in operations research (OR) and for externships.
I also worked with the Fire Science program and EMTs, helping to educate them about mock ambulances. I then moved to an online school where I was an advisor and tutor and was part of an internal leadership development program. My final capstone project was a big presentation on ideas to improve the organization. After this, the VP of Student Services asked me to go to Colorado and teach a new hire class for a new site. This sparked my passion for learning and development. I’ve been with UMA for 9 years and recently moved into an organizational L&D role. There is no standard trajectory or path for us in L&D; it just finds us in some way.
Nolan:
What motivated you to become involved in the L&D? What drew you in and kept your interest? Was it the idea of helping others, improving operational efficiency, or being in the spotlight and teaching others?
Brandi:
Being an introvert, I still enjoy training regularly to satisfy my desire for it. However, I don’t do it all the time because it can be draining. What initially attracted me to this was seeing people gain an understanding of something. For example, when I was helping with 401K stuff, it was rewarding to see the “aha!” moment on people’s faces.
In the world of learning and development, we have more influence than we often give ourselves credit for when it comes to the success of an initiative. I take pleasure in figuring out how to present something to get people to accept it.
Brandi and Nolan delve deeper into how a professional working in L&D is a master of all crafts and how people working in the L&D function can help in the progression of other departments within an organization.
Nolan:
What initially intrigued me, Brandi, to have you on the podcast was the project you had done through Ultimate Medical Academy involving virtual reality (VR). I was fascinated to learn how VR could be used to reduce bias in the recruitment process. There are so many applications for VR, and many of us are still trying to determine its full potential. I had not considered the possibility of using VR to reduce bias.
Could you tell us more about this VR project, its goals, and how you used VR to eliminate bias?
Brandi:
We experimented with virtual reality (VR) technology at the pandemic’s beginning. In my role with the Career Services Group, it is my job to help our graduates find their first job after graduation. We collaborate with various companies across the US, including many Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies and pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS. Typically, we host an event in Tampa for our corporate partners to attend.
However, due to the pandemic and travel restrictions, we needed to come up with an alternative solution. We created a virtual amphitheater that overlooked the Hillsborough River and sent out VR headsets to our partners to allow them to experience the event virtually. Although there were a few technical issues, this experience enabled us to explore the potential of VR technology and what else can be done with it.
Our initial module focused on empathy in healthcare and was made available to our corporate partners. As for our upcoming module on the bias, we observed a trend among our partners during the pandemic where hiring requirements were reduced, specifically in terms of experience prerequisites such as a one-year call center or customer service. Despite this, we still noticed obstacles in the hiring process, which we identified as being primarily attributed to the preferences of the hiring managers.
Having military experience, my team comprises extroverted individuals. To ensure we are hiring individuals who share similar skills or fresh college graduates who don’t possess any biases, we delved into researching gamification and game-based learning. We collaborated with the same partner we worked with on our first module and brainstormed how to present the topic less intimidatingly. Our goal was to avoid the typical “I have a bias training” attitude.
Hence, we decided to use game-based learning. Players can select a character in the module, like in a VR video game. Each character represents a bias, and players choose a character based on their resume and job description, outlined in the VR screen. Is it like simulating the role of a hiring manager as I review these resumes?
Out of all the candidates, that one stands out to me. However, none of them are without flaws. Each candidate represents one of the six main biases we identified, such as gaps in employment or being too job-happy, introverted or extroverted. Once you pick a bias, it becomes a challenge in the game.
For example, if you select the extroverted bias, you can only use your tool when near another player. An AI character named Kara reminds players of this fact to make it more authentic. The game arena has multiple targets and tools, including a grappling hook and an archer. As you progress, the biases become more irritating to deal with.
Why do I have to reload repeatedly? It feels like I’m the one with employment gaps who gets asked the same questions every interview, even though it has no relevance to the job requirements. We engage in a fun VR game that includes a leaderboard and sparks competitive instincts, followed by a virtual meeting space for debriefing or a Zoom meeting to discuss our experience. We reflect on what we enjoyed about the game and any valuable lessons learned.
This is akin to how Go Fish teaches toddlers numbers, matching, and listening skills effectively and enjoyably. The result is not simply a lesson but a positive experience. When we play Go Fish, it’s not just a game of chance. There are valuable lessons to be learned, such as why we make certain choices and how they affect the outcome. The game allows us to try different strategies and characters, and the debrief afterward is where the true learning happens.
We’ve seen interesting results, like when a team picked the same character and realized that it could limit their potential hires. It’s a unique way to challenge our perceptions about hiring and candidate selection.
The discussion then delved deeper into the intricacies of biases and the utilization of VR to remove biases in hiring. Some of the other questions asked throughout the episode are:
- I thought it would be unfair to judge someone based on the number of times they were laid off, as it might not be their fault. I wasn’t aware such a thing existed as I had never heard of it before this conversation. Can you explain to me what this bias is regarding gaps in employment?
- Why did you choose VR for your training instead of a more traditional, web-based approach with a mouse? Did you have any in-house professional knowledgeable about the technology to help you make the decision?
- You briefly mentioned some lessons, but let’s focus on the positives first. Can you share some of those unexpected lessons that turned out to be positive?
- Did you encounter any obstacles or aspects of the program that you wish you had known beforehand and could have altered? In other words, were there any negative aspects of the program that you experienced?
- Did you develop this internally, or did you hire an outside vendor to provide you with VR services?
- Do you have any final thoughts or advice for others concerning the future of VR, bias, or training methods?