Talk about disruption; you can easily spot a 20-year old teenager harnessing power of technology- playing Pokémon Go, with the help of GPS and camera on the mobile. Pokémon Go has definitely taken virtual reality to a new level. It has brought augmented and virtual reality to the mainstream. Ranjan Wadhwa from Fidelity talks about virtual reality and its importance in HR industry and what transformation it can bring-in with its extensive use. 

“Virtual Reality is immersive, intuitive and imaginative. It feeds your senses and goes beyond your cognitive senses. Virtual Reality can be used in many ways not just for playing Pokémon go,” avers Ranjan Wadhwa from Fidelity. 

Virtual reality can revolutionize people management in many enterprises. Leaders often face difficulty in managing and organizing large workforce around the globe. VR can improve their degree of involvement and make them feel more engaged. 

It can greatly help in onboarding process, taking virtual interviews, conducting virtual meetings and presenting 360 degree presentations and much more. 

A pragmatic approach based on trial and error method is required for measuring benefits of virtual reality in HR operations. “We have three words as philosophy guiding us – Scan, Try and Scale. That’s how we organize ourselves and plan our business ahead and plan what kind of technology we want to use. First – we scan those applications, we want to use and then find a few we want to try and then take it to the next level. Out of these, successful ones will scale them further and this is our model. Virtual reality falls somewhere between scan and try. We are developing phases and different road maps for virtual reality. Two more words I want to add to it – repeat and do it fast- fail fast- if it doesn’t work then do it all over again,” explains Ranjan Wadhwa.  

Digitization and disruption - no longer an option 

“In comparison with the last 10 years, the business of HR has changed quite dramatically. Earlier hiring was done by few job search sites and portals. But now we use 10 to 15 different tools to engage with the candidate. In addition to regular hiring platforms, today we have social networks, analytics based applications, video interviewing – which increase the chance of getting a good candidate. This is a global wave of digitization. Disruption is no longer a choice anymore. Digitization and disruption may no longer be an option either you get used to it or you catch up to it,” says Ranjan Wadhwa from Fidelity.