Onboarding at a new job typically doesn't involve riding a unicorn or peering down over lush scenery and rice fields from an island floating in the sky.
All that is possible when new hires onboard while wearing virtual reality headsets. Moreover, two banks that have deployed or tested this method in the past two years — Bank of America and the Toronto, Canada-based TD Bank Group — say that it's practical as well as fun for new employees. Interns at TD, for example, reported that it was easier to come out of their shells in these whimsical spaces. Bank of America saw connections form in its virtual space that transitioned to the real world. New employees could meet senior-level executives in one place. Both banks found that VR generated significant enthusiasm.
For now, the promise of virtual reality in banking mostly lies in employee training or onboarding. The devices are not widely adopted among consumers, meaning customer applications don't make sense yet. But in hybrid work environments, virtual reality could be a fit.
Even as back-to-office mandates
Mike Wynn, innovation and design executive for The Academy, Bank of America's career development program, has his eye on this technology as he considers use cases.
"When it comes to hardware and how it's evolving, I'm always looking at every manufacturer and what they're doing," said Wynn. A key element is ensuring people are comfortable wearing headsets for a long time, which means evaluating everything from the fit and weight of it to how easily one can navigate the menus.
The
It was the second year that Bank of America held such an event with VR headsets, but the first time that it gathered employees from all over the world, with hires from close to 30 countries present. The group last year had closer to 1,500 participants.
"This one was so much more fun," said Wynn.
Once headsets are on, participants find themselves in a stadium. A helicopter lands and Wynn — more specifically, the avatar he designed — steps out to greet them. Attendees can then enter the Bank of America campus through a portal and visit booths for more information about working at the bank or toss around a basketball. A lake is surrounded by portals into other experiences, including a Bank of America museum, the tropical "Benefits Island" with interactive opportunities to learn more about benefits at the bank, experience a day in the life of a financial services advisor, engage in meditation and ride a unicorn.
"Once we put them in headsets, the smiles on their faces were unbelievable," said Wynn. "We wanted them to feel like we were providing a world-class onboarding experience." He divided attendees into groups of 40. "There were points where we had to slow down the groups from coming in because everyone wanted to check it out."
The experience bridged reality to help new hires form human connections too. Wynn remembers one group of participants playing basketball in the virtual space, then taking off their headsets to introduce themselves in real life.
"There is always an investment with two thousand people, but when it comes to onboarding, the goal is to make it world class," said Wynn. "There is no second impression."
Even the unicorn ride has its purpose: giving new employees a mental reset.
The July event also featured an expo where employees could experiment with the headsets that Bank of America deploys to branches and contact centers for
The bank is giving virtual reality headsets to branch employees, which they'll use to practice conversations in private before they happen in real life.
Wynn finds these training methods more realistic and less awkward than traditional role-play while building muscle memory in a unique way. For instance, he has received emails from employees who experienced a
Bank of America declined to name its vendor.
TD Bank Group, which has $1.4 trillion of assets in U.S. dollars, styled its own VR-onboarding program this year. Between January and April of 2023, 100 co-op students and interns in Canada opted into a VR experience on top of the standard programming.
Moreover, "It doesn't hurt to project our brand as a company interested in new technologies," he said.
TD mailed VR headsets to 100 new hires and scheduled times for the activities to take place. When the participants slipped on their headsets and logged into the application, they landed in the TD Hub, a central location with access to boardrooms and other spaces. One boardroom floated in the sky, overlooking Montenegro. Another view gave way to rice fields in Vietnam.
This environment set the stage for them to network with other students and executives (for instance, Khan himself dispensed career advice in one session), complete onboarding activities, take yoga and fitness breaks, play games to unwind and undergo training. The application scanned pictures of participants to create avatars.
"Many of them said they are normally introverted but in this environment, they felt more comfortable so they could engage more," said Khan.
The bank plans to bring the VR experience back in the fall and in 2024. TD turned to the Mesmerise Group, a United Kingdom-based company that specializes in immersive technology and the metaverse, and consulting firm Capco to design this program.
Victor Plante, principal consultant at Capco, says Capco is talking to multiple banks globally who are interested in using VR for onboarding, learning and development.
"We tried to create an onboarding experience that was immersive, where people could find new ways to engage with each other that were more 'natural' as opposed to calling each other using videoconferencing tools," said Plante.
Both Bank of America and TD find that VR has mileage with employees right now, rather than consumers. But that may change.
TD has tested consumer experiences before. In 2019 it piloted a digital welcome kit to new customers that included a VR headset compatible with a customer's smartphone and a QR code. Customers would scan the code to play games that taught them about digital banking features and to watch training videos.
The bank did not extend the pilot.
"There is a lot of promise in the technology," said Khan. "I think it will advance quickly and will become ready for prime time from a financial services perspective. But that isn't now."
It's akin to a smartphone application.
"We need the technology to be adopted. Then we would create the applications," said Khan.
Wynn feels similarly about connecting with customers via virtual reality headsets.
"That's what we're looking to do in the future," he said. "We're not there yet. But the future is coming pretty quickly."
