Bank of America: Changing the Way We Train with VR

In this episode, Michael Wynn from Bank of America joins us to discuss their VR program. Discover how they're harnessing virtual reality to revolutionize corporate training and employee engagement.

Bank of America has reimagined onboarding through immersive virtual experiences. In their VR portal, users explore the Bank of America Museum, engaging with audio, visuals, and interactive elements that intricately unveil the company's ethos and culture.

They’ve also crafted a metaverse where employees experience a "day in the life" scenario, coupled with recreational mental wellness activities. Employees can also chat with HR to discuss benefits in an engaging virtual setting. Michael shares how Bank of America has also created coaching simulations, where AI and VR redefine role-playing. This innovative approach provides guided feedback on soft skills, significantly elevating professional capabilities.

The decision to adopt VR goes beyond statistics; it's about experiential learning. Virtual reality's ability to replicate real-world situations enhances understanding and retention, especially in critical contexts like bank robbery responses.

We discuss insights into the challenges of deploying VR in a vast enterprise, managing logistics, and ensuring seamless VR experiences. Looking forward, Bank of America's plans to have 40+ VR experiences for its employees by the end of the year.

Join us in this episode to witness how VR is reshaping finance and technology, from training paradigms to employee engagement and well-being.

Timestamps:

• Intro (00:46)
• Origin story (01:08)
• Michael’s start at BoA, how the tech evolved (02:58)
• Recent training event (08:01)
• Why VR (14:39)
• Types of content for training (18:05)
• Journey through challenges of deploying at scale (21:03)
• Remotely doing event in NY (27:21)
• Practicals (30:17)
• VR training at BoA in 5-10 years (33:25)
• Football + outro (36:33)

About Michael Wynn:

Mike Wynn is a Senior Vice President, Innovations and Learning Technology Executive for The Academy. In this role, he is responsible for delivering innovations and managing the technology roadmap to increase synergies and reduce inconsistencies between individual learning programs offered by the Academy. He is also responsible for solving common learning challenges and creating a holistic, high tech and high touch employee learning experience to foster career growth and development.

Mike joined Bank of America in 2005. During his 16 year career he held several roles within the Consumer channel which include Financial Center Manager, Market Training Leader, Consumer Market Manager and Associate Readiness Manager. As a Readiness Manager, he had responsibility for driving employee readiness, client satisfaction, and sales performance for all Financial Centers in South Carolina.

As a part of his current responsibilities, he manages a team behind the scenes to bring innovative solutions to the Bank. Those solutions include the use of Virtual Reality, which is designed to increase employee engagement and learning retention using state of the art technology. Additionally, his team also develops AI Bot Conversation simulations and systems simulators. His team specializes in interactive learning solution design to help improve the overall learning experience by combining dynamic graphics and audio to deliver memorable content. He resides in Waxhaw, North Carolina.

About ArborXR:

ArborXR helps organizations confidently manage VR & AR devices at scale, remotely install content, and control what users can see and do in the headset. Our mission is to help people live more meaningful lives through the power of XR. Learn more at https://arborxr.com.