Technology has infiltrated every aspect of our work lives, but can it replace the more human elements of the workplace? The Human Resources department seems like the last place you would expect to find technology-driven solutions, but there is in fact vast potential for technology to improve workplace practices.

Whether teams will remain remote, return to the office full time or sit somewhere in the middle, employees and employers alike have become used to a larger tech presence in our work lives. HR departments have had to adjust to remote working along with the rest of the world and this has become a golden opportunity to revamp everything from training processes to hiring practices.

Revolutionising workforce training

Traditional in-person training is expensive and remote e-learning options are often dull and unengaging. On top of that, research shows that employees forget upwards of 80% of the content from that style of episodic training. The solution, according to Virti, is virtual workforce training.

Virti is a workforce training platform that turns subjectively assessed skills into objective and measurable data. Whether staff are using it on smartphones, desktop devices or AR/VR headsets, Virti gathers unique objective data to help track and improve performance. Using Virti is cheaper than traditional in-person training, requires less planning (users can access courses individually as opposed to needing to arrange entire team training days), and is far more engaging than classic e-learning options.

The benefits of the solution are undeniable: ‘independent, peer-reviewed research has shown that Virti reduces skill-fade and improves decision-making speed compared to traditional face-to-face training.’ In this research, the use of Virti resulted in a 230% increase in knowledge gain for employees and a 52% reduction in skill-fade. Given these staggeringly positive figures, it is hardly surprising Virti was included in TIME’s Best Inventions of 2020.

Virti has huge potential in the healthcare sector as the use of VR and AR in surgical training increases. It has been used to train medical staff in best practices surrounding COVID-19, including everything from how to correctly wear PPE to putting patients on ventilators.

Remote training solutions have grown more appealing than ever during the pandemic and continued investment suggests solutions like Virti are here to stay. Unlike traditional training, these solutions allow users to return to training sessions whenever they need a refresh, organising training around the needs of the learner. On top of the benefits to members of the workforce, these training solutions also provide substantial savings of time and money for organisations.

Technology isn’t only revolutionising workforce training, it’s also changing how staff are hired in the first place:

Technology powered recruitment

Technology has been a part of the hiring process for some time now – we hunt for jobs on LinkedIn, we apply for them online, we interview on Zoom, and perhaps even take personality tests through gamified smartphone apps. Despite all this, certain aspects of the job-seeking process feel outdated, namely how difficult it is for people of minority backgrounds.

Many industries, including healthcare, remain disproportionately white and continue to have vast gender pay gaps, especially in higher-paid positions. Analysis of recruitment field experiments by the London School of Economics found that ‘ethnic minorities fare less well on average in the labour market than their white counterparts.’ In addition, ‘​​ethnic minorities – in light of the discrimination they face – rely more heavily on their social networks (friends, family, and co-ethnics) to find jobs than the white British do.’ Some BAME candidates even report ‘whitening’ their resumes to make their job search easier.

Thankfully, technology has come to the rescue in the form of Joonko. Joonko offers diversity recruiting powered by technology, bringing applications from qualified and underrepresented candidates to the top of the pile. Joonko is proven to increase workforce diversity and also increase the number of applicants from underrepresented backgrounds. With 104,267 candidates on the platform (a figure taken from a ticker counter that increased multiple times during the process of writing this article), Joonko will undoubtedly have a wide array of candidates qualified for every role.

Joonko presents a unique opportunity to place diversity front and centre of the hiring process. Having a diverse team and utilising systems like Joonko creates a positive feedback loop – the company will be a visibly inclusive space and draw in applicants who know they will feel at home amongst the team. Having a diverse workforce also has benefits for the company’s bottom line; diversity is a key driver of innovation and teams with diverse experiences, backgrounds and mindsets are more creative, productive, and ultimately produce more revenue.

Diversity is so much more than a metric, it’s an integral part of creating a strong team and a successful business. Luckily, creating a diverse workforce does not require starting from the ground up – it is something that any business can begin to implement in their hiring practices today. And if existing staff need further training on diversity and inclusion, Virti could be just the place.

These technologies won’t be replacing HR departments any time soon, but they are massively enhancing the hiring process and supporting HR teams in delivering more effective and engaging training.