Web-based platforms have reduced the financial barriers associated with immersive learning, opening the door to broader and more scalable adoption.
Headset-free 360° virtual reality (VR), delivered through web-based extended reality (XR), is transforming induction training. It gives new staff a vivid spatial understanding of what will become their work environment without cumbersome and expensive hardware. The result is an induction experience that feels human and connected, even when teams are widely dispersed.
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Anderson Studios has played a leading role in this shift, developing browser-based XR solutions that bring operational environments to life.
A new era of immersion: XR without the hardware
VR’s value in onboarding has long been recognised. But traditional virtual reality relies on complex and costly headsets and associated hardware, which can be difficult to source and maintain. Web-based XR changes this entirely.
It is as accessible and intuitive as Google Street View. Employees can now explore their new workplace with interactive 360° photography, all from a browser. This offers three main advantages:
- Universal accessibility: Any learner with a digital device can step into the experience.
- Significant cost reduction: No need to buy and maintain VR headsets.
- Rapid deployment: Experiences can be launched instantly across sites and teams.
For large, decentralised or shift-based workforces, this level of accessibility marks a significant breakthrough.
Bringing complex environments to life
Anderson Studios recently applied this approach to recreate the high-stakes operational settings of a major energy organisation. The goal was to give new employees an induction that communicated safety expectations, operational context and workplace culture with depth and realism. All of this, without exposing them to risk.
The benefits of web-based XR were clear:
- It delivered realistic, interactive 3D environments via web browsers, allowing learners to gain essential spatial awareness early on.
- It removed cost and accessibility barriers tied to VR hardware, giving teams at multiple sites access the same high-quality experience.
- It provided safe, risk-free practice for critical operational tasks, allowing learners to observe processes and identify hazards from the safety of a desk.
- It scaled immersive learning across the workforce with ease, deploying training rapidly and consistently to large numbers of new staff.
Building human connection
Induction is often the new hire’s first encounter with an organisation’s values and culture. Immersive XR strengthens this by building connection, familiarity and confidence long before they arrive on site.
- It creates a sense of place before day one. Learners enter a realistic version of their future workplace, reducing first-day anxiety.
- It unifies distributed teams. Remote, hybrid and multi-site employees begin with the same rich onboarding experience, supporting cultural cohesion.
- It conveys organisational values through environment and narrative. Safety and professionalism become embedded through lived experience rather than static slides.
- It supports inclusive learning. Interactive design and visual immersion cater to a wide range of learning needs.
Instead of passively receiving information, new employees explore, interact and connect with the organisation’s world, making induction far more memorable and meaningful.
A scalable future for induction training
Headset-free 360° VR represents an evolution in induction design. Organisations can now:
- deliver consistent induction across multiple sites
- strengthen behavioural expectations from day one
- support safer decision-making before employees reach operational areas
- blend creativity with practical, context specific learning design
- offer immersive onboarding without increasing technical overheads
As expectations for digital learning rise, induction programmes must do more than explain processes; they must help people feel connected. Anderson Studios’ headset-free XR solutions achieve this, combining creative design with accessible technology to deliver an induction that is vivid, inclusive and genuinely human.
Ready to move beyond flat slides and PDFs?
Contact Anderson Studios to explore how a headset free 360° VR induction can transform your onboarding, build deeper connections, and equip every new employee with the confidence to perform from day one.
