Simulation in employee training

Overview

Simulation is one of the most important parts of employee training, which helps employees experience real-world problems by mimicking real-life scenarios. This speeds up their working process and presents various scenarios that they might have to face in their jobs. Using simulation for training is one of the most effective methods, as it minimizes the chance of errors.

Why use simulation?

Employees who are having hands-on knowledge about a subject require a place to implement their learning. Simulation provides them with the space with minimum risk factor attached to it. Simulation provides a virtual environment that is suitable for testing out new applications, tools or methods (Vaughan, & Dubey, 2016). Usually, simulation is done through a digital medium, and the virtual medium provided by it mirrors real-life situations within a controlled space.

Using simulations in training reduces costs for a company and lowers the risk factors. Employees can implement and apply their knowledge in the virtual environment and learn from their mistakes. They can also understand the work needs and can anticipate what to expect in the field. Some simulations might also provide options for the employees, and they can change their work environment for their practice (Caballero, Niguidula & Caballero, 2019). This increases their versatility.

Is the simulation required for quality improvement?

The given article describes a web-based incident command training simulation called Interactive Synthetic Environment for Exercise (ISEE), which is very much required in this situation. ISEE was designed to strengthen further the roles of the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The NIMS was established in 2004 by the department of homeland security and was meant to be the standard for all emergency response units (Salzman, & Fuentes, 2019). The ISEE has a database of local resources along with real response timings, which will help the employees in their practice and help them improve their training. This will also enable the trainees to understand emergency response protocols. Also, ISEE has a host of additional benefits such as log, which records communication, and it uses ICS profiling strategies for better understanding the situations. The employees have a much better scope of understanding their roles and get a scope for implementing their knowledge. This might not be the case when they are training without a simulation.

Offline training methods provide a very little scope of understanding the real-world scenario and instead focus on a theoretical approach. Also, they offer a limited option for the employee to test his/her skills, thereby restricting their ability to function under various circumstances. Training under real-life situations might also provide the same option, but it poses a significant risk as opposed to training in a simulation.

Conclusion:

Proper training of employees is necessary to prepare them for their job roles. Training under a simulation gives them a scope to test out and implement their knowledge, as well as gain insight about real-world scenarios. Simulations also provide options for training and help the employee develop solutions to a wide variety of problems. Thus, training with simulations is a necessary aspect of employee training in companies.

References:

Salzman, S. M., & Fuentes, R. W. C. (2019). EMS, National Incident Management System (NIMS). In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Vaughan, N., & Dubey, V. N. (2016, August). Hip Replacement Simulator for Predicting Dislocation Risk. In ASME 2016 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers Digital Collection.

Caballero, A. R., Niguidula, J. D., & Caballero, J. M. (2019, October). Disaster Risk Management Training Simulation for People with Hearing Impairment: A Design and Implementation of ASL Assisted Model Using Virtual Reality. In 2019 4th International Conference on Information Technology (InCIT) (pp. 60-64). IEEE.