Training Programs Built for Yesterday’s Drivers
UPS is a 110-year-old company that was initially launched as a Seattle-based messenger service. Throughout much of its history, the company’s workforce training programs have been largely low-tech.
At one time, training for new drivers was a two-day affair that opened with a facilitator-led presentation supplemented by slides and printed materials. As for driver skills training, essentially there was none. When drivers were assigned new routes, including first-timers, they would simply be handed a marked-up street map and sent on their way.
“Never during that initial instruction did learners drive a vehicle prior to the actual road test,” says Joe Finamore, vice president of global leadership and talent development at UPS. The first time he even climbed aboard was to accompany his supervisor on the second training day. The morning was spent observing his supervisor drive a delivery route while informally imparting how-to insights.
The Challenge:
UPS recognized that they had to reimagine their driver training program to be more effective and adapt to evolutionary changes (new services, assignments, and so on) in drivers’ jobs while still remaining efficient.
Four UPS employees with strong operations backgrounds were set to revolutionize training at the company. They sourced outside experts to help design experiences and leverage technology to launch UPS Integrad, an intensive campaign within UPS to recruit, train, and retain qualified individuals as drivers of its “package cars,” and to provide a framework for career advancement within the company.
How it Came Together:
In search of qualified insights and connections to its virtual reality approach, UPS turned to the ATD Forum. Through benchmarking surveys, connections, and best practices, the ATD Forum connected UPS to contacts within the Forum that had experience with virtual reality as well as to external subject matter experts. These connections assisted UPS along their journey of discovery, experimentation, and implementation with VR.
Using the information they had gained from their research and benchmarking, UPS piloted using virtual reality in their training facility, doing a proof of concept at two Integrad locations. The VR training content was created entirely in-house by the UPS IT department and the L&D team. They selected the HTC VIVE as their core delivery headset and platform, and developed a working prototype.
UPS Integrad purpose: To compete vigorously for talented employees in today’s shrinking global workforce.
The Pilot - Learning As You Go...
UPS tested the VR content and experience, which had an overwhelming positive impact on the participants; 100 percent of users said that virtual reality added to the learning experience. Unfortunately, nearly a third of participants felt that VR also distracted them from the learning experience. UPS investigated the root cause of the distractions and identified that some individuals suffered from motion issues, which were impacting the experience. Having extensive feedback and participant insights has helped the UPS team make revisions and adjustments to the experience with the IT team. With such a positive launch to the VR experience, UPS is looking to expand their VR training.
Components of UPS Integrad an Absolute Game-Changer
The UPS Integrad new driver course is built on a foundation so succinct it could double as the department’s mantra: “Teach me. Show me. Let me.” The concept is no mere slogan. “Everything we do here aligns to that premise,” asserts Jeanne Lawrence, UPS Integrad’s expansion director and a former package-car driver. She calls it “an absolute game-changer” that dramatically contrasts with the days “when we sat people in front of an instructor and expected them to ‘get’ it.”
The physical layout of today’s UPS Integrad facilities includes three separate areas:
- Classrooms. Separate training areas accommodate the entire class and independent self-directed learning. For example, a simulated check-in counter mimics how drivers retrieve and check their handheld DIADs daily on the job. They are linked by Bluetooth to computers so each student’s learning progress can be monitored. Other stations are devoted to package-handling skills, customer service tutorials, and defensive driving techniques (the last employing VR technology).
- Learning Lab. Behind the facility is a large, spotless, well-lit area that includes four refurbished package cars with their engines removed. It is where students practice the skills of loading packages on vehicles by order of delivery, placing them, if necessary, on hand carts, and squatting and lifting ergonomically. One activity is videotaped by omnipresent TV cameras for later review. Other stations train drivers how to properly carry packages through a door and negotiate slippery surfaces.
- Clarkville. An outdoor integration station gives new drivers ample opportunity to hone the critical skills of maneuvering their vehicle. Dubbed “Clarkville,” it is a replica village complete with streets, street signs, sidewalks, and six simulated pickup and delivery stops.
The team ultimately agreed on a blend of delivery methods that includes interactive learning webcasts, 3-D simulations, virtual reality, and hands-on learning.
Taking It to the Next Level With VR/AR
It was a logical move to incorporate VR technology into the UPS Integrad curriculum, and a relatively speedy one, too. Its September 2017 debut came only nine months after the first internal meeting on the concept was held. The idea had drawn enthusiastic support from the company’s new chief information and engineering officer, Juan Perez, as well as its president of U.S. operations, Myron Gray.
“Virtual reality offers a big technological leap in the realm of driver safety training,” Perez enthuses. “[It] creates a hyper-realistic streetscape that will dazzle even the youngest of our drivers whose previous exposure to the technology was through video games.”
Such ringing endorsements from the C-suite helped make the VR module adoption “one of the easier initiatives that we’ve undertaken of this scope,” says Finamore. He recalls that Perez “fell in love” with the UPS Integrad product in general, and that “as we discussed bringing advanced technology into it, he was all-in.”
“This training is foundational, and virtual reality brings it to life,” says Jeanne Lawrence, UPS Integrad expansion director. “VR complements real-world training in a way that deeply engages our employees in the UPS Integrad curriculum.”
