Walmart employees get real look at retail world

Virtual reality technology prepares supervisors for situations that might arise

Walmart uses virtual reality technology at its Maryland training academy to train supervisors to handle different situations at their stores. The technology, which has been used in the military and athletics, is now aiding employees in other businesses. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun )

Shoppers jammed the checkout line in Walmart’s electronics department during the holiday rush, their carts full of items to buy.

But as Perry Lewis, a Walmart assistant manager, surveyed the scene, he saw some problems: The long lines appeared disorganized; an associate left a register to grab an item; children crowded too close to the work space behind the counter; and some customers looked irritated.

Lewis watched the situation unfold not in the store but through a virtual reality headset he wore during a class at a Walmart training center in Glen Burnie. Because his three-dimensional view made the events seem real, he might as well have been in the middle of the action.

Virtual reality is more than just this season’s hot toy. The technology, long used to train the military, pilots and, more recently, athletes, has become the latest trend in workforce training.

“We saw this in sports, and now we’re seeing this with businesses,” said Derek Belch, founder and CEO of Strivr, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based virtual reality company that works with more than 30 professional sports teams and about a dozen Fortune 500 companies, including Walmart. “The employees are going through simulations and getting on the job two weeks later and saying they knew exactly what to do.”

Though virtual reality is not yet widely used either by consumers or businesses, a growing number of employers are eyeing the technology as potentially safer, more efficient and more cost-effective than traditional forms of training.

The technology has garnered interest as it has become more affordable and user-friendly, said Belch, who studied virtual reality at Stanford University, where he played football, served on the coaching staff and tested the technology in athlete training before starting Strivr three years ago.

His company now works with auto manufacturers, an airline, a trade school and shipping companies, and sees potential for occupations such as nursing and trial attorneys.

Belch points to academic research, including by Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, that has shown the value of immersive learning.

“If my brain feels like I’ve experienced something, it’s more powerful than reading, writing, observing,” Belch said. “Academic research says that this works.”

Plus, he added, employees like it because “it’s new, it’s different, it’s fun.”

At Walmart Service Academy training centers in stores around the country, including one that opened in August in Glen Burnie, the retailer has begun using virtual reality to prepare supervisors to handle situations that can’t be easily re-created in a classroom or shown in a store, everything from store operations to spills to the Black Friday crush.

Walmart became interested in the technology when a senior manager saw how football players at the University of Arkansas, near Walmart’s corporate headquarters, were testing their skills and reactions during practice using virtual reality.

The retailer tested the technology in 30 of its academies and found that workers who go through the training retain what they've learned better than those who haven’t.

Lewis, who has worked for Walmart for five years and was recently promoted to assistant manger in the Laurel store, joined about a half-dozen other managers last week at the Glen Burnie academy, the only one in Maryland.

Jessica Walker, an academy training facilitator, guided Lewis through the situation, while the rest of the class watched it on a video. Walker asked how Lewis would respond to problems he identified.

“What I don’t see is any kind of orderly transition to the cash register,” Lewis said. “It would be much more helpful to have lines established, possibly somebody at the end of the line to monitor those lines and control the amount of activity that’s going on in this area.”

The training helps prepare new managers for situations they might face, said Jessica Blake, the Glen Burnie academy manager. Virtual reality has been used there since October, Blake said.

“It’s another hands-on activity,” Blake said. “They go away with a sense of understanding more of what their work environment is going to be.”

Things have changed since Blake went through managerial training more than a decade ago, when trainees were given a book to review.

Then, she said, “you would go on the floor and try to figure things out.”

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