1. Successful onboarding processes improve employee retention.
A 2023 study by the human resources firm SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) indicates that new hires are 58% more likely to remain with your organisation for at least three years if they have an excellent experience with the onboarding process.
In addition, research by the German software firm TeamViewer indicates that 80% of the companies they surveyed said that the usage of AR and other new technology will improve employee productivity. TeamViewer also discovered that companies using AR for training purposes are 250% more likely to reach their onboarding goals.
In short, using AR onboarding processes can lead employees to stay with your company for longer and improve their production while they’re there. What’s not to like about that?
2. Increase engagement and retention regarding construction site orientation.
Using AR provides an immersive learning experience that achieves maximum engagement from each new hire on their very first day on the job. AR encourages active participation, which helps everyone get their bearings in a realistic simulation of real-world environments.
In fact, a 2023 study by the e-learning firm Intellezy found that using augmented reality (and virtual reality) learning models boosted information retention by a whopping 75%. By comparison, lecture-based learning models only improved retention by 5%, while reading text-based materials improved retention by 10%.
This can be especially helpful in the construction industry, where complex processes and detailed safety procedures are part of the day-to-day operations. A safe job site starts with a comprehensive onboarding process, and AR can create realistic scenarios to help workers practice dangerous tasks in a controlled environment. The better your employees remember their training procedures, the better they’ll perform on each job site.
3. Improve hazard awareness through AR onboarding.
You can train incoming employees on complicated processes and hazardous settings through relatively risk-free and realistic AR demonstrations. The same TeamViewer study cited earlier also reports that using AR during the onboarding process decreases employee errors by 49%.
In the construction industry, employee mistakes can be tremendously costly, leading to financial loss, worker injuries, and even deaths on the job. Improved understanding of hazard awareness with AR training models can literally be a life-saver for your organisation.
4. AR saves time and money compared to traditional onboarding methods.
According to research by the AR firm Gravity Jack, using AR for onboarding speeds up the process by about 50%. Gravity Jack also reports that the typical business spends roughly £850 per employee on traditional training, and faster training means less expensive training.
Creating an AR onboarding scenario can be costly upfront, but it’s something you can use over and over without reinvestment. Beyond the software itself, all you need are iPads for each new hire to follow along — you can also use AR glasses like Meta Orion or Apple Vision Pro if you have a bigger budget. Or, for maximum cost savings, you can set it up so each employee can use their own cell phone.
