Overview
We continue our coverage of The HRExaminer 2020 Watchlist today with the second of twelve organizational profiles. The entire list of organizations appearing on this year’s Watchlist can be seen on our introductory Watchlist post located here. Each of the twelve companies we’ve selected this year represent a different value proposition and core functionality across the entire spectrum of the industry.
These outfits are pushing the boundaries out. Individually, they each have a specific value proposition that was not conceivable even three years ago.
Primary Business & Award Category
Primary Business: Transformational Workforce Applications – Virtual Reality & Mixed Reality
Award Category: Best Virtual Reality Deployment
Profile
Company: Talespin
Size: 70 Employees
Age: 4 years
Location: Culver City, CA
Web Address: talespin.company
Phone: (323) 452-6998
Email address: learnmore@talepsin.company
Company Description
Talespin creates enterprise XR (virtual, augmented, and mixed reality) workforce transformation solutions.
Talespin’s most observable offering is Barry, the guy you can fire over and over again. Barry lives in virtual reality and has passed the thresholds. Your job is to let him go as effectively and humanely as possible.
Until now, people got good at these skills (hiring, firing, performance evaluation) slowly and over long periods of time. The training programs that created practice environments were stiff and infrequent. Role playing the other half of a communications context is hard to sustain.
Barry reacts like a human being. While it is clear that the simulation will get better over time, the core experience available today helps learners learn to navigate the hard parts. Barry tugs at your heart strings with the predictable passion of someone being fired. He does all of the things you were afraid he’d do.
Why This Matters
The use of XR in HR is slowly taking shape. Large employers from Walmart to the military are using VR to accomplish fundamental training. Often, task specific training benefits from a simulation of the actual context. Even more important, the soft skills required in certain jobs are like muscles that benefit from practice and exercise.
The arena ranges from hard conversations with employees to navigating the realities of customer service. We’re entering an era of radically reduced time to full productivity because XR solutions create useful practice environments.
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