MAKERERE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY
BARCHELOR OF INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
HUMAN FACTORS PSYCHOLOGY

COURSE CODE; IOP 2203

GROUP 4

AINOBUSHOBOROZI DAGLUS 20/U/9231/EVE

ATWONGIIRE DALLEN 20/U/9173/EVE

KAMUNTU JIM 20/U/9174/EVE

NAKABUYE MARGRET 19/U/2052/EVE

WASSWA TIMOTHY 20/U/9187/EVE

NALUKWAGO SHUFURAH YASMIN 19/U/9989/ps

Qn 1

Individual differences can be defined as the aspects that distinguish one person from another. In keyboard
data entry tasks e.g., the best typist will probably be twice as fast as the poorest and make 10 times fewer
errors.

Human-computer interaction is a multidisciplinary field of study focusing on design of computer technology

and in particular, the interaction between humans and computers. Human computer interaction surfaced in
the 1980s with the advent of personal computing, just as machines started turning up in homes and offices in
society changing numbers.

Individual Differences in Culture. Culture shapes social life and social life shapes culture. This is evident
in a way people’s action reflect their cultural backgrounds, including the use of computers. Each culture has
its own beliefs, behavior, and perception. Members of the same culture are likely to have the same
knowledge of certain things and would think and act similarly in certain situations. I’ve made my research
and it shows that in a number of companies, the Western people (banyankole) are better at using machines
at work than the Baganda because you can find the Baganda in a company like coca cola doing the heavy
work of lifting things while the other tribe just sits on a machine and starts doing work.

Individual differences in generations. Here we are looking at the gap between the old period of time to the
new period we are in. In some homes you will find that a child has a phone and a laptop while the parent
does not have these items. You will ask yourself, why is it like this? During the generation of our parents,
these gadgets had not yet been introduced, so the parent does not know how to use the gadget but since the
child has been born in the error they call ‘Dotcom error”, they grow up knowing how to use these gadgets.
In a similar way here in town, when someone wants to do farming, they employ digging machines like
tractors, but our people in deep villages have never seen this technology, so they use hoes and their strength
to do farming. This is because, in their generation, they used hoes and they have no idea on how these
machines do farming.

Individual Differences in Values. Values refer to stable life goals that people have, reflecting what is
important to them. Values are established throughout one’s life experiences and tend to be relatively stable.
Individuals who are emotionally unstable cannot operate machines. This is because of the fear to make
mistakes and cause accidents at the work place. An example would be a man coming to operate a machine at
work with home stress, maybe fought with the wife at home, this makes this human being unstable and can
cause harm to others because of making a certain mistake while operating a machine. Whereas those who
are stable are prone to making mistakes at the workplace.

Individual Differences in Personality. This has a direct relationship to an individual’s use of Human-
computer interaction. Personality encompasses the relatively stable feelings, thoughts and behavioral
patterns a person has. Our personality differentiates us from other people and understanding someone’s
personality gives clues about how that person is likely to act and feel in a variety of situations. A stable
person with the positive feelings, thoughts and behavioral pattern is likely to concentrate and operate a
machine whereas a person who is unstable is likely to make a lot of errors and mistakes when operating a
machine.

The Relationship between individual differences in human-computer interaction and human factor
psychology include the following

 Individual differences introduce a whole range of new ideas in the workplace because if for example
two persons have different personalities, each person will be with their own idea hence this will
bring in the creativity.
 If for example one employee knows how to operate a certain machine while other workers are not
well conversant with the use of such a machine, then this employee who knows how to use the
machine will be able to teach others hence bringing out the point of training.
 Individual differences and human factors psychology both bring out the learning importance in that
all people can never be the same, some are better than others in certain ways, therefore those who are
not well off at work can learn from those that are better at work.
 Individual differences bring out the admiring our peers at the workplace. When someone is better at
operating a machine at work place, he or she is admired by the fellows who are not well conversant
with the type of technology. Those who know how to operate the machine become role models.
 Individual differences bring out segregation as well. This comes as a result that those who know how
to interact with machines can form a group of themselves as them who know how to operate the
machine and segregate those who don’t know very well, giving an excuse that these peers will slow
them down.

QUESTION 2: Use of virtual reality on HR practices and work (e.g., training, counselling
recruitment, teleconferencing etc.) give clear examples

What is the relationship between virtual reality in HR practices and work and human factors?

KEY TERMS

VIRTUAL REALITY: Is a simulated experience that cab be similar to or completely different the real
world.

WORK: activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result

HUMAN FACTOR PSYCHOLOGY

USE OF VIRTUAL REALITY IN HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES

Virtual reality in HR can improve a variety of processes in recruitment, hiring, onboarding and employee
training. Yet virtual reality has also been one of those cool technologies that are just around the corner -- for
a couple of decades.

Things might be different this time, though, due to the widespread availability of low-cost VR hardware,
improved content development workflows and the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is now practical to buy dozens or even thousands of VR headsets and give them to employees. Accenture
just bought 60,000 VR headsets for training, and Bank of America is rolling out a VR training program
across nearly 4,300 locations. Millions of potential employees have already bought VR headsets for gaming
and entertainment, opening an attractive new channel for more immersive recruitment ads. And big
companies like Nvidia, Microsoft and Meta (Facebook) are creating the technical infrastructure that could
make broader adoption of simulated environments more of a reality.

HOW VR CAN IMPACT HUMAN REASOURCE

Computer-based training has been around since the '90s. VR brings a deeper sense of immersion that can
improve training and employee engagement.

"What's different about VR is the ability to interact with others in a dynamic way where teaming can be
applied," Sorensen said.

Imagine, for example, a new cohort of high-potential leaders strapping on VR goggles and being put
through complex business scenarios with key customers or a virtual board of directors or analysts. VR
provides a way to expose people to situations they will likely encounter as they move through the corporate
hierarchy but does it in a safe and controlled manner that aids learning and development.

"A key benefit of VR training is learners are immersed in the experience and not distracted," said Dan
Eckert, managing director of PwC's applied research lab for AI and emerging technology. They cannot text,
catch up on email, or play games on their phones. This leads to a much higher level of emotional
engagement and content retention compared to other learning modalities, according to Eckert. VR is also
valuable for high-stakes training where safety or other concerns make the realism required for effective
learning too difficult or costly to create.

Here are six areas where VR in HR could pay off.

1. Hiring and recruiting

In some respects, VR is simply the evolution of flashy recruitment videos designed to build buzz by using
the latest tech. General Mills demonstrated a 3D video recruiting experience back in 2015 that helped attract
attention at busy job fairs. The biggest challenge back then was content creation. The video required a
special rig built from multiple GoPro cameras.

Now it is getting more practical and less costly to create similar experiences using off-the-shelf equipment
and dedicated 3D content-development tools. For example, in 2017, Toyota began working with Instar to
create office tours that run on more modern VR equipment. Instar develops tools for capturing, editing,
publishing and analyzing 3D experiences.

Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, said VR has not been widely
adopted for recruitment but is coming. Recruitment videos have become common practice over the last
several years, and VR has the potential to make these kinds of experiences even better.

"You can present your company in much better ways through AR and VR than you can through the
traditional YouTube video," Mueller said.

Improvements in VR and AR will undoubtedly help. But HR teams will have to experiment to figure out
how to make VR content stand out.

2. Vetting candidates
Others are not convinced that HR teams will invest a lot of money in flashy VR promos. But VR could
make it easier to vet potential candidates by simulating and testing the skills required for a job.

John Sumser, founder of HR Examiner, said turning workplace simulations into VR experiences could help
with high-volume hiring.

"Imagine you're hunting for people to do what Lucy and Ethel did on the assembly line; you could probably
model that behavior and assess those skills with a virtual reality tool, and it might be better than the tools
they currently use," he said.

It will probably be several years before these kinds of simulations are good enough to perform meaningful
tests, but this might be a good time to get started, according to Sumser. Current supply chain challenges and
political issues may motivate many companies to bring manufacturing jobs back onshore. VR simulations
could help their HR teams identify candidates with the right talents rather than ones who may have the right
credentials but lack the necessary talent, he said.

3. Onboarding

It is widely believed that a better onboarding experience can lead to happier and more efficient employees.
"VR for meetings, workshops, training and virtual classrooms offer a fantastic way to onboard new
employees," Eckert said.

This is particularly important in the wake of the social isolation caused by the pandemic and working from
home. The pandemic interfered with the social aspects of the onboarding process, such as connecting to
people and team building.

"VR offers something you cannot get from a 2D video call: presence, the feeling of being connected to
others," Eckert said.

The technology enables people to onboard together even though they may be thousands of miles apart, an
invaluable benefit because it quickly allows new employees to build trust and develop professional
relationships with their colleagues, according to Eckert.

VR can also help employees learn the physical skills required to start a new job much faster. For example,
Walmart worked with Strivr, which makes a VR training platform, to reduce the time needed to teach new
hires goods-pickup skills from eight hours down to 15 minutes.

4. Employee training for soft skills

VR shows tremendous promise for simulation training for soft skills, such as leadership diversity equity and
inclusion (DEI) and interpersonal skills. PwC worked with Talespin, a VR content development platform,
on a soft skills study that found people could train four times faster than in a classroom, were 2.75 times
more confident in applying the new skills and 3.75 times more emotionally connected to content than
classroom learners.

Another example maybe a pilot. A pilot learns the theoretical bit of flying an aero plane but you cannot
wakeup one morning and take him to the field direct to fly the Airplane. He has to 1st go through simulation
program where he is put in a room that looks exactly like an airplane, then he is given glasses such that he
gets that exact experience of a real airplane. By the time he finishes the simulation training, he will be able
to fly a real airplane.

In the past, this type of training was customarily reserved for the executive team and an organization's
highest performers. VR democratizes it and enables it to scale to everyone.
Academics are even exploring how VR might improve training to meet DEI goals. For example, Courtney
Cogburn, an associate professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work, developed an
application that allows users to experience being black firsthand.

5. Career development and learning

VR and AR also show strong potential for technical training. They are already widely used in high-stakes
jobs where mistakes can be hazardous, such as the aviation, defense, oil and gas, and chemical industries.

"Industries such as manufacturing, aerospace and government agencies are ahead of the curve in using VR
and AR to develop technical or complex skills," said Kelly Rider, chief learning and talent officer at PTC,
which is building software for digital twins. "For example, industrial companies are using VR and AR to
learn how these systems work, improve workforce efficiency, improve quality and yield, and reduce waste
caused by human error."

Eckert predicts these early tools will be improved by the use of new headsets capable of cognitive load
measurement, a technique for matching training materials with an individual's ability to process and retain
the information. This data will continuously feed into an AI-based human resources management system
and learning management system to determine what training is needed for a specific individual to complete
a task or a role and customize training on the fly.

"Cognitive load measurement will [enable] growing your human resources more effectively and account for
a variety of learning styles and truly enable neurodiversity," Eckert said. But the systems will require new
ethical and privacy safeguards because the data has the potential to be misused.

USE OF VR AT THE WORK PLACE

You may think that virtual reality is something that is mostly destined for the gaming industry? Think again.
This may have been true at first, but lately, the focus of all virtual reality innovations is shifting more and
more onto business applications.

The truth is that like all innovation, some of the virtual reality ideas for business will turn out to be just fads.
Any kind of investing carries some degree of risk, and that’s the beauty of the risk and reward balance.
Because, on the other hand, it is equally true that the ones who do take a chance and invest in a tech
innovation just might hit the jackpot. If you adopt a new method or tool to aid you in your business and if it
ends up being adopted by everyone else eventually, you will get a head-start on productivity that will help
propel you further ahead.

The good news is that investing in a tech innovation doesn’t have to be a life-or-death decision for your
business. Little tools and apps that help bring more value to your processes don’t usually require a huge
investment, so even if some of them end up not making a difference, it wouldn’t be a major loss. In one way
or another, virtual reality is the future, so it would be wise to get used to it and experiment with as many
forms of VR products as possible.

Five Ways You Can Use Virtual Reality for the Workplace

1) Make Recruiting and Screening More Real with Virtual Reality

Talent acquisition is always a cornerstone of success for any business. The job name of ‘headhunter’ may
sound funny when you think of it, but it highlights just how crucial securing exceptional employees can be.
Making mistakes in recruiting and screening will result in average performance and a lot of time waste until
you can part ways with this employee and find another one.
This is one of the chief uses of virtual reality for the workplace: it offers recruiters an environment in which
they can assess potential hires much more effectively. But it’s not only about screening, but also
about connection: by using VR, both the recruiter and the applicant can get a better sense of whether their
values are indeed aligned and compatible.

2) Create Incredible Training Programs for Staff

At first, only NASA used virtual reality to create training sessions for its pilots. It made sense since it was
all about fast reflexes and every fraction of a second mattered. Since simulating a spaceflight doesn’t strike
us as being that much different from playing a futuristic computer game, NASA’s use of VR made sense.
Using VR in education was the next step.

But then, slowly, many companies started using VR training programs for their staff, even though their line
of work looked nothing like a space mission. UPS, KFC, and Siemens are only a few examples, and more
are following in their footsteps.

Furthermore, by using VR during the training of new hires, you can also help them have much more realistic
expectations about the job they will perform. This reduces the time of adjustment and transition to the role,
making them to be much more productive in the long run. Plus, it’s fun, so what more could you ask for?

3) Video Interviews may come to life by use of Virtual Reality

 People thought video interviewing would live up to its promise but later it was realized that both hiring
managers and candidates can lose out on some important interpersonal interactions in video interviews. But,
by giving a look at this demo video from Microsoft, it gives clear indication that the concept of virtual
reality can actually give the feeling of real-time and very close interpersonal interactions during the video
interviews by simulating the real-life environment.

 4) Transform Collaboration and Telecommuting into a True Community

 There are already plenty of tools that help businesses work with freelancers or even employees located at a
distance. Managers tend to be content with conversations over Skype or Slack and think that they make real-
time collaboration as real as it can get. But when VR also comes into the equation, the previously inevitable
time waste is cut down drastically

Furthermore, you enable your teams to actually foster a sense of community previously reserved only for a
traditional office setting. You could even mix AR (augmented reality) with VR for an incredible blend that
will completely transform your workplace collaboration for the better.

5) Help Your Support Staff Connect to Consumers in Real-Time

A huge part of making a business success revolves around finding new ways of stimulating your sales team
and enabling it to become more performant. To a huge number of businesses, hacking the formula of sales
performance equals more or less to lasting success in their niche.

This is where VR steps in as a game-changer: if you give your sales team (and support staff) a way
to really interact with the customers. This will help both your employees find ways to understand how to
operate more effectively and what the customers want, and you will also provide your customers with
a first-class experience of service.

Virtual Reality Is Transforming Data Visualization

When we think of how we visualize data, we generally think of the usual suspects: pie charts, scatter plots,
histograms, bar graphs, and more. Data science has tremendously raised the quality of visualizations,
offering a broad spectrum of charts to present data – including line histograms to illustrate the distribution
of many data points for a single variable, and a waterfall chart to show static composition. In fact, we’ve
now moved to 3D data visualization, with researchers now able to visualize seismic activities occurring
within the earth.

But soon, these modes of visualizing data will no longer be enough. Data science projects today include
several hundred variables from sources both structured and unstructured, and to visualize this data,
something more than 2D charts or 3D graphs will be required. This is where Virtual Reality comes in.

What is Virtual Reality and how does it help with data visualization?

Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated model of experiencing in which, although the surrounding is
not real in the technical sense, they appear to be so. Virtual reality can make a user feel as though they have
been transported to another place, and the reason this can be helpful for data science is that it might allow
the user to literally experience the data around them. Instead of looking at a boring graph or pie chart, a
user’s experience of data becomes more interactive and memorable. Moreover, a 360-degree
environment broadens the field available for representation and makes visualizing data simpler.

Integrating machine learning with VR can help various enterprises in a range of different ways. The total
amount of data gathered doubles every single year, and of this, only one percent of the data is fully
analyzed. Even with this minuscule amount of data being analyzed, the analysis is often rendered
completely unhelpful, owing to the limits of visualization tools which can’t do a very good job of presenting
complex information in a concise manner.

A lot of big enterprises are investing a lot of money in data science projects, but aren’t getting enough
returns precisely for this reason. Let us say that a data science team reaches the conclusion that seven out of
a possible 50 metrics will provide a certain favorable outcome. With the current technology, it is impossible
to visualize all these seven metrics at the same time or to understand how they interact with each other, or
how the absence of a certain metric impacts the remaining ones.

Seeing Data Differently

The advent of VR in data science is poised to change the way data is seen. Here are some ways in which
that will happen:

1. More data visualization possibilities

When data is presented on a 3D canvas instead of a 2D plane, it affects the way the data is received. When
data wraps itself around the user, it can be understood differently as well. For instance, many more
dimensions than the traditional placement coordinates (X,Y, and Z) become available, because they can be
distinguished by color, size, transparency, or any number of variables set forth. Depending upon the kind of
data visualized, it can even be classified according to direction or magnitude of a vector.

2. Intuitive approach

It is also of crucial importance to keep in mind that the way VR will present data is the way we interact with
the world at large. Humans have evolved – over a period of several thousand years – to interact with the
environment in an intuitive way. This is certainly one of the guiding posts when it comes to data
visualization in VR, and is sure to change the way data is conceived in the first place.

3. Multiple users
When data is presented in VR, multiple users can inhabit the environment at the same time. Contingent on
the number of headsets available at a certain point in time, many people can visualize the data together,
leading to more fruitful collaborative efforts without the requirement of any other technology. This makes
the process of sieving through and drawing insights from data a simpler one.

4. Eliminating distractions

With a user tapped into data presented in VR, their visual and to some extent aural senses are completely
governed by the VR environment. Due to this, they can focus on what matters – the data – without the
potential risk of being distracted due to extraneous factors.

The change in data visualization is underway

VR-enable data visualization has already set off several industries-wide movements. Although VR was
initially thought to be important within the entertainment industry, with the increasingly complicated nature
of data acquired – and practically no ways to make sense of it – multiple businesses are now looking
towards VR to understand their data better.

One example of a business using VR in visualization is Goodyear, the tire manufacturer. They created a
simulation in which every aspect of their racing tires was examined, and these changes were correlated with
their effects on changing variables (such as road surface or weather), with the results being calculated in real
time!

Thus, data science is poised to grow manifold through its applications in the field of virtual reality. Don’t
lose out on the opportunity to learn a valuable skill which will doubtless be helpful in the near future!

HUMAN FACTOR PSYCHOLOGY IN VIRTUAL RELATIONSHIP

Although there is much potential for the use of immersive virtual reality environments, there are problems
which could limit their ultimate usability for assessment and rehabilitation. Some users have experienced
side-effects during, and after exposure to virtual reality environments. The symptoms experienced by these
users are similar to those which have been reported by users of simulators with wide field-of-view displays.
These symptoms have been collectively referred to as simulator sickness. Simulator sickness is
characterized by three classes of symptoms:

ocular problems, such as eyestrain, blurred vision and fatigue;

disorientation and balance disturbances;

nausea.

Problems of disorientation and nausea in simulators and virtual reality environments have been ascribed to
sensory conflict, or the discrepancy between visual and vestibular information about body orientation and
motion (Kennedy et al, 1995). Lags between head movements in an immersive virtual

Like many disruptive technologies in the enterprise, VR training is rewriting the rules on how to calculate
the impact of corporate training’s fusion with experiential learning. Using quantitative and qualitative data
from Strivr’s many scaled deployments and intelligence from millions of VR training sessions, we now
know the VR training benefits that are allowing many companies to be so successful. 

8 VR training benefits that companies are seeing in terms of cost savings, operational efficiency, and
employee engagement.

Accelerate speed to proficiency

To rollout innovation that will provide a competitive edge, it needs to be done at scale consistently and
efficiently. VR training is an effective replacement for instructor-led and on-the-job training because it
significantly reduces time spent training without sacrificing effectiveness or engagement.

Walmart wanted to introduce an in-store pickup option via new technology called a pick-up tower, but
needed to maintain a strong customer experience. They could not afford a lack of consistency or long wait
times for pick-up. 

VR training benefits associates by affording them the opportunity to train before the equipment is even
installed, making virtual use of the best teachers. This removes interruptions to the regular business flow,
and trims the time needed for training from eight hours to 15 minutes.

Improve customer service

There are so many factors that go into customer satisfaction, one of which is well-prepared customer-facing
employees. VR training benefits customer service agents by affording them on-demand practice learning
both the procedures to be effective and productive, as well as the empathy and communication skills to
handle all types of customers, from the frustrated to the inquisitive. 

Call center agents at a major financial institution face difficult and emotional financial conversations
regularly, and navigating them properly and with empathy is key to maintaining strong customer satisfaction
scores. One main VR training benefit is that it allows people to practice critical thinking and gain a holistic
picture of customer needs. For call center agents, this helps them better develop empathy and
communication skills. 

The financial institution also gained higher visibility into employee performance and the ability to identify
gaps in training and skill, leading to a 10% increase in customer satisfaction in less than six months.

Reduce onboarding time

After a new employee is hired, that person needs to contribute as quickly as possible. VR training benefits
new employees by providing realistic training in a virtual world that replicates the real world so new hires
gain the necessary knowledge and skills faster.  

As a result of the pandemic, Sprouts found itself needing to hire thousands of new employees quickly, even
as protocols were changing to keep everyone as protected and healthy as possible. Faster, safer
onboarding was critical to meeting customer needs during a challenging time. 

With VR, Sprouts reduced new hire values training from four hours to 45 minutes – an 81% decrease. Most
importantly, Sprouts can continue to hire and onboard as needed because they no longer rely on an approach
that requires days-long group instruction or travel. 

Improve workplace safety. For employees to thrive, they need to feel confident and prepared, even in the
most high-stress, rare situations. VR training enables mental repetitions in a safe environment that feels like
real life, making it an ideal approach for such critical moments. 

Verizon wanted to provide realistic training to teach employees how to react to armed robbery situations. By
teaching employees how to manage emotions, the company emphasized what was most important: the
safety of their employees and customers. 

VR training benefits Verizon associates by affording them the experience of going through the critical steps
of de-escalating a high-risk moment and making the right decisions under intense pressure. With VR
training, 97% of Verizon associates felt prepared for these real world, dangerous situations.
of Verizon store employees felt prepared for dangerous situations.

Decrease turnover. VR training can provide a realistic job preview to candidates and new hires, reducing
the likelihood of turnover and increasing retention rates. In the headset, they are exposed to the sights,
sounds, and atmosphere of their future workplace. There are no surprises when they step onto the job on day
one; they show up mentally and physically prepared. 

For a global shipping company, loading dock workers turned over at an exceptionally high rate, oftentimes
because they did not fully comprehend the nature of the work they would be doing. In some cases, new hires
would even quit the same day they started. 

VR training benefits every new employee across the company. Employees are getting the same realistic
preview of the job experience. This improved consistency and the right expectations are set at scale. Not
only are new employees extremely excited and intrigued by the training, but the company has doubled the
retention rates of loading dock workers since implementing VR training. 

Decrease incident costs. One powerful remedy to create a safer workplace is better workforce preparation,
and that does not come with reading a manual. VR training benefits companies by allowing their employees
to practice critical job skills in a realistic environment. The experiential learning medium helps develop
situational and spatial awareness that leads to safer workplace behaviors, fewer incidents, and reduced costs
for Strive customers.

A multinational food processor trained employees to work safely and efficiently on the line and practice safe
behaviors in the virtual plant environment. VR training is a unique medium of experiential learning; it has
transcended language and cultural barriers, while touching both managers and new hires for refresher
training and onboarding, respectively. 

After just a 15-minute immersive training experience, 89% of employees felt more prepared to handle safety
hazards of employees at multinational food processor felt more prepared to handle safety hazards

Improve brand & scale culture. As onboarding moves to be more remote, it becomes more challenging to
communicate brand values and engage employees in company culture meaningfully. VR training benefits
Learning & Development organizations by offering real world experience with company values. For both
new employees and as a refresher for tenured employees, VR can help create and improve brand
consistency around customer experience.

VR training helps Sprouts to scale their unique culture in a standardized way, all while reinforcing the
importance of customer service. When employees were tested on their conceptual understanding of the core
values, 48% of the learners who did VR learned all six values perfectly, compared to only 3% who trained
using traditional methods – a 16x improvement. VR learners even outperformed senior managers who had
trained under the old paradigm. 

Eliminate business interruptions. Whether it’s pulling an employee off the sales floor or paying for an
aircraft to be taken out of commission, training can be a significant disruption to normal operations. VR
training benefits companies by giving on-demand access to high value material anywhere, anytime, and
providing effective training in the flow of business.

At a major U.S. airline, Immersive Learning allows ground technicians to get valuable practice on A320
inspection, building the capability to identify key mistakes on a “dirty” plane and ingrain the correct order
of process. The training offers real world, hands-on practice on planes that normally would cost $10,000 at a
time to rent, reducing the need to rent planes and take them out of commission for training purposes.

Question 3
History between the Social web and work:

TIMELINE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

To have a better understanding of the history of social media, here’s a timeline of social media. There have
been so many players in this game, but we’re going to mention the most important ones.

1973: Talkomatic is created by Dave Wooly and Douglas Brown at the University of Illinois. It was a multi-
user chat room with limited features. 

1997: Andrew Weinreich created SixDegrees.com.

1997:  Barry Appelman, Eric Bosco, and Jerry Harris created AOL instant messenger.

1999: Jerry Yang and David Filo established Yahoo! Messenger.

1999: Microsoft creates MSN Messenger to offer new features like video calling.

1999: Brad Fitzpatrick created LiveJournal; a platform for blogging.

2001: SixDegrees.com shuts down.

2001: Windows Messenger, the integrated version of MSN Messenger is out.

2002: Friendster is born; a place for gaming and social networking. it’s a brainchild of Jonathan Abrams. 

2003: Reid Hoffman and some of his coworkers introduce LinkedIn.

2003: Thomas Anderson founds Myspace.

2003: Niklas Zennström and the Dane create Janus Friis Skype.

2004: Mark Zuckerberg starts the legendary Facebook. 

2005: Aaron Swartz introduces Reddit. 

2006: Twitter is out. Jack Dorsey founds this platform.

2006: Pavel Durov founds VK (VKontakte).

2010: Ben Silbermann establishes Pinterest.

2010: Kevin Systrom introduces Instagram; one of the most popular photo-sharing platforms ever is
launched.

2011: Evan Spiegel founds Snapchat.

2011: Google executive Bradley Horowitz introduces Google plus.

2011: Justin Kan introduces Twitch, a live-streaming platform for gamers.

2012: Sean Rad launches Tinder, one of the most favorite dating apps ever.

2012: Instagram is owned by Facebook for 1 billion dollars in cash and stock.

2013: Larry Page and Sergey Brin who invented Google, invent Google Hangouts, too.

2014: Amazon acquires the live-streaming service for gamers, Twitch.

2014: Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang invent a lip-syncing app called musical.ly.

2015: Friendster ceases to exist.

2015: Discord starts.

2016: Yahoo! stops on Windows, Linux, and Mac. 

2017: ByteDance owns Musical.ly for 1 billion dollars.

2017: a platform for short video sharing called TikTok is out.

2018: Yahoo! Shuts down

completely.

2019: Google plus shuts down

What do people in the workplace need to be aware of in regards to the social web

1. Social media is highly addictive

People who use social media tend to become absorbed with it as they get to entertain themselves with
photos, posts, and videos from all around the world. As a result, they end up wanting to use it more and
eventually become addicted to it.

What these people fail to realize, however, is that overusing social media does not give them any sense of
real fulfillment. Instead, it keeps them pre-occupied in a very unproductive manner.

Thus, employees who are highly addicted to social media often have the highest likelihood to perform in a
somewhat slower and sloppier pace. They also tend to lose focus, thus, making more mistakes and affecting
the overall productivity of the company.

To prevent this from happening, employees should be wary of the amount of time they spend on social
media. You should remind them that an office is a place where they should work and not a place where they
could slack off. 

2. Social media could harm your privacy

When using social media, people would often get caught up in the moment and overshare every single thing
about their personal lives that are sometimes best kept to themselves. However, this could harm your
privacy and allow people around you to judge you, sometimes subconsciously, based on your opinions,
choices, and personal life.

Your colleagues are no different from the people surrounding you. They could also form prejudices about
you based on your activity on social media and make ridiculous rumors that could spread from one
department to another. They would often overlook your performance at work or how you act towards your
co-workers even if you are one of the top-performing employees in the company.

\The best way to keep your employees’ privacy to themselves is to keep things professional at work. 

3. Social media could make you crave for attention

When teenagers get too absorbed with social media, there is a considerable chance that they would become
attention-seeking individuals when they grow up. They would regularly check the number of likes and
shares on their photos and posts and spend most of their time trying to please others.
Similarly, adults could also end up acting that way. However, when their obsession for attention becomes
overboard, they could become dependent on social media to feel a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. As a
result, it could affect some aspects of their lives, including their work ethic and performance. 

4. Social media could affect your general well-being

Numerous studies and reports have proven how social media affects our minds. Using it for an excessive
amount of time could make people less social and give them a temporary and sometimes, false sense of
well-being.

People who depend on social media to get validation and satisfaction may, most of the time, suffer from
personal issues like low self-esteem. As a result, they would often experience episodes of anxiety or
depression, thus, affecting their performance at work. 

5. Social media could make you psychologically unhealthy.

Social media could make people dependent on the people around them to feel validation and gratification.
The number of likes or shares they have on a post could start to become a measure of their self-worth or
how important they are to other people.

They would only feel ecstatic when their posts go viral on social media. But they would become miserable
and believe that they are unimportant when they do not get enough likes, shares, or followers. As a result,
they become psychologically troubled and may affect how they come about their daily activities. 

6. Social media could make you prone to bullying and harassment.

Having social media accounts can be dangerous when misused. For instance, some employees could express
their views about their work, employer, or other colleagues on social media. However, no one could control
how complementary or demeaning these views are.

If one employee’s post is discriminatory to another, this could result in the form of cyberbullying and may
significantly affect the well-being of the other party involved. Employees who bully other colleagues may
create an intimidating or humiliating atmosphere to the rest of their co-workers and may eventually
aggravate into severe mental issues that could harm both your employees and your business.

Employers should never overlook comments or posts that are of bullying or harassing nature. They should
be able to create and proceed with disciplinary actions over employees who discriminate or harass their
other colleagues to maintain a healthy and untroubled atmosphere in the company. 

7. Social media can turn your problems into work problems.

Because of social media, your employees’ problems could further aggravate and affect their performance at
work. Their issues could keep them preoccupied in a rather unproductive manner.

In some instances, when an issue arises between two of your employees, it could create an awkward and
unprofessional atmosphere in the office. It would also be difficult for them to engage and cooperate,
especially if they are both working under the same department and team.

Employers should remind their employees to keep things professional in the office as their problems with
themselves or with their other colleagues can significantly affect the whole operation of the company. 

8. You can easily make derogatory remarks on social media.

Employees could express their views on their social media accounts when they become frustrated at work.
In some cases, they can also share their opinions or post photos or comments that could be discriminatory.
As a result, people could identify them as your employee and could lead to negative publicity for your
company.

Employers should present a workplace policy or include a restriction in their employment contracts that
would restrict their employees from posting derogatory comments or photos. This offensive content could
significantly affect your company’s reputation to the public and make them lose their trust and confidence in
your company. By doing so, you would be able to sanction them when they breach the policy. 

9. You are giving yourself a bad name because of social media.

Posting about any drama happening in your office could make you look like an attention-seeker and an
overly needy employee. As a result, your current and potential employers would regard you as such and
would not be impressed with you.

Ranting about the issues in your workplace could imply that you are not a team player, which is
significantly essential to the success and growth of a company. It could also jeopardize your future career
opportunities. 

10. Employees can use social media for non-business matters.

Using social media in the workplace could also tempt your employees to use their work equipment for
improper non-business use, primarily if your company does not regulate their social media use. They could
scroll through their social media accounts during working hours, therefore, affecting employee productivity
in the workplace. 

11. Everything in social media becomes permanent content. One major problem with social media is that
every single thing that you post is subject to other people’s opinions. When you get caught up in the
moment, you can easily overshare or display ideas and emotions that would be hard to take back.
Your colleagues and employers could see them and judge you based on these posts. Some of them
could also take screenshots and forward them to others even if you try your hardest to delete all your
concerning posts.
Employers should remind employees that social media is a public space, and everything posted on it could
become permanent even when they try to delete their photos or posts. But when these ideas and opinions are
not adequately understood, bullying in the workplace could arise. As a result, your employees could become
emotionally and mentally unhealthy. They could also begin to underperform and lose focus on critical
projects and instructions.

It is essential for employers to take necessary actions to regulate social media in the workplace as its misuse
and overuse could make your employees mentally unfit for their tasks and responsibilities. They could
conduct wellness programs that would significantly boost the productivity and morale of their employees.

12. Social media can decrease employee relations

Contrary to what most people believe in, adults are also known to become easily jealous of their peers,
especially their colleagues, who get more social media attention. When compared to teenagers, employees
who are jealous of their more successful colleagues can cause trouble in the workplace. Work relationships
can suffer and eventually may lead to decreased team performances during projects and meetings.

Bullying and harassment in the workplace could also occur. An employee may send negative remarks or
spread baseless rumors about another colleague. They may also get into embarrassing situations and post
false information about their co-workers. As a result, these activities could hinder team cooperation and
collaboration. 
 13. Social media can decrease employee engagement
Similarly, when employees get jealous of another co-worker, they are less likely to engage with them. They
could also avoid working or interacting with each other and could create an awkward and unprofessional
atmosphere for all the other employees in the office.

In some circumstances, employees could also get too absorbed with the fame and the happenings in the
digital world that they forget to engage with their co-workers. They become more preoccupied with
themselves and eventually change how they interact with their co-workers and higher ups. 

14. Social media can deflate workplace morale

Discussing work-related topics such as promotions or salaries can spark jealousy and hatred among
employees in the workplace. As a result, employee engagement and relations would suffer and would lower
work productivity and performance.

Some employees may also overshare about their promotion and some confidential information about their
role through their social media accounts. They may unknowingly breach their company contract and harm
the reputation and confidentiality of your company. 

15. Social media can lower work productivity

One of the most obvious problems associated with the usage of social media in the workplace is that it eats
up the time of your employees and significantly lowers their productivity. The time they spend scrolling
through their social media accounts could have been used to complete their tasks and responsibilities ahead
of time instead.

Employees should focus on performing at the best of their capabilities to further succeed in their
professional life. Spending most of your precious time browsing through your social media activity will
slow your productivity and progress down in the future. Employers should also consider taking the
necessary steps to boost workplace productivity. 

16. The risk of disclosing confidential information on social media is high.

Companies that allow their employees to post about work-related things on social media as part of their job
should be wary of the possible harm it could have on the company.

Valuable and confidential information about your new and unreleased services or products might be leaked
and stolen by other companies. Access details such as usernames and passwords used in your business
systems may also be disclosed accidentally by your employees. When employees release this essential and
confidential information to the public, the security of your company could be at risk and is more prone to
online scammers and criminal activities. 

17. Employers have greater liability over their employees because of social media.
Employers are undoubtedly liable to their employees. Thus, when their disgruntled workers rant about the
products or the inefficiencies of the company on their social media accounts, the employers are at risk of
facing legal trials. 

18. Social media can increase your company’s bills.

Viewing videos and photos on social media sites could take up vast amounts of bandwidth and may slow
down the company’s network. In addition to this, using the company’s internet and work equipment for an
excessive amount of time could also result in higher electricity bills. Moreover, damaged computers because
of unwanted malware and viruses may prompt employers to replace them with new equipment. As a result,
the company would have to pay more to make up for these inefficiencies and damages.

19. Social media can lead to system inefficiencies.

Using social media in the workplace could result in several system inefficiencies, especially those that
require high levels of bandwidth like business emails. The updates and the video links available on social
media sites like Facebook may take up large amounts of bandwidth and may slow down the speed and
productivity of your company. 

20. Social media can spread malicious code and viruses on work equipment.
Social media is also used by some hackers to commit fraud. The company’s systems are prone to acquiring
malware due to these online criminal activities. Hidden viruses on some pop-up advertisements or
downloaded applications may also damage your company’s equipment and networks. In addition to this,
viruses and malware may also result in the corruption of critical work-related files. 

21. Social media can tarnish your company’s reputation.

Employees who use social media as part of their job may accidentally post malicious or wrong content on
your company’s social media sites. They can also share discriminatory or political remarks on their accounts
and potentially harm the respectable reputation that your company has. 

22. Employees with malicious intent can damage your company on social media
Arguments among employees and employers are common in the workplace. But disgruntled workers who
cannot take the pressures of their jobs can attempt to sabotage the image of your company.They could post
comments or photos that could potentially damage the trust and confidence of your clients to your business.
They could also share rants or create false rumors about you and may even end up in court in some extreme
cases. As a result, resentful employees may damage your public image and create a dreadful atmosphere in
the office and a wrong impression to the public. 

23. Social media can cause inappropriate familiarity among employers and employees
Both employees and employers should keep things professional in the workplace. But adding or following
your colleagues on any social media site may cause improper familiarity among each other. As a result, co-
workers may lose respect with each other and interact with one another casually like a typical friend. 

24. Social media can cause wage issues

Employees who get paid hourly may use social media instead of working. They may scroll through their
Facebook accounts instead of focusing on their work-related tasks. As a result, they may underperform at
their work yet still get paid for every hour they are in the workplace. Those who get paid on a fixed salary
may also perform carelessly and produce unsatisfactory outputs but get paid for being in the office.

Stop Doom scrolling

Doom scrolling is the compulsion to consume negative news on social media. In Psychology Today, Pamela
B. Rutledge Ph.D., M.B.A. writes that our brains are hardwired to doom scroll, especially in times of
uncertainty.

According to experts at the University of Pittsburgh, the reason people are incessantly scrolling for negative
news is that “we’re hard-wired for it on an evolutionary level because if we learn about the big scary thing
or we get the answers, then we can control our environment.”
How can one best use the social web to enhance their work?

Stop doom scrolling:

Doom scrolling can lead to anxiety, depression and fatigue. Whatever you give your attention to will grow
in your life and doom scrolling or giving your attention to negative news is creating your life by default.

Use social media For Learning. Social networks like LinkedIn and online learning apps are all creating
learning hubs where students and employees can up-skill, re-skill, and prepare themselves for a new world
of remote work. This can enhance your job skills and performance.

Earn A Living with social media

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or an employee, there are many advantages of social media for business.
Most businesses now use social media for marketing and with remote work booming, employers use social
media to hire, too.

As an employee, you can learn how to use social media to your advantage when looking for a job or learn
how to use social media for business, if you’re an entrepreneur.

Freelancing and gig work has taken off with many good social media apps making remote work and earning
opportunities accessible to those who live in remote areas or are unable to work outside the home for
cultural or safety reasons.

Relationship between the Social web and work:

There are positive and negative relations between social web and work

Positive relations

Improves employee engagement:

Strengthens workplace relationships

Boosts employer brand

Helps improve employee recognition and retention

Improves employee learning.

Negative relations:

Reduced productivity at work:

One of the most obvious negative effects of social media in the workplace is that it consumes valuable time
that could otherwise be spent improving your work.

Anxiety and depression:

Spending too much time on social networking sites can harm your mood which can affect your workplace.
Chronic users are more likely to have poor mental health, including anxiety and depression symptoms. It
doesn’t take much thought to figure out why this is the case.

Social media is psychologically unhealthy:

People who are addicted to social media become heavily dependent on their virtual activities for satisfaction
and validation. Before you know it, your self-worth is measured in likes, and your importance to the rest of
the world is measured in shares. A small event, such as your post going viral, might make you feel on top of
the world, while an equally inconsequential occurrence, can make you feel impossibly low.

Social media is a tool for gossip and harassment:

Many employees take to non-work communication channels to denigrate coworkers and managers and it can
end up being an HR nightmare.

References;

https://www.egroupengage.com/b10

https://www.shrm.org/resourceandtools.tools.samples

https://www.ism.univmed.fr/mestre/CDRVC/Documents/sites_Enregistres/
www.cybertherapy.info/pages/hfact.htm

https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/tip/VR-in-HR-How-human-resources-can-use-
VR-and-AR-technology?amp-1

https://www.viar360.com/5-ways-can-use-virtual-reality-workplace/?amp