Training programs / Business case and evaluation

For the person writing the paper: the business case, and how to evaluate the result

What you can show, what the published results measured, and what violence and turnover cost.

Your first question

What will we be able to show at the end?

Choose the measures and take a baseline before the first session. The Kirkpatrick model names the levels; a pilot fixes them up front.

A participant discusses an XR rehearsal with a facilitator. — A participant talks it through with a facilitator.

Confidence before and after

Each participant rates confidence before the first session and after the debrief, on the same scale.

A participant rehearses in the headset while observers watch from another part of the room. — Observers watch a participant rehearse in the headset.

Behaviour observed at work

The behaviour level asks whether people use the practised behaviour at work and are supported in it, recorded by an observer’s checklist or a manager’s note.

An incident controller waits for a decision. A first person VR training scenario for government and public sector, seen through the headset. — A presenter reviews options on a floating panel.

Incident and claims data

Compare incidents, complaints and workers’ compensation claims over like periods.

People sort tokens beside an analytics display. A VR training scenario for immersive VR training questions answered. — Sorting tokens beside an analytics display.

Survey and retention

A short survey after each session covers reaction; turnover comes from your own HR records. The NSI 2026 report: “The cost of turnover can have a profound impact on hospital margin. Although retention is viewed as a key strategic imperative, less than half (46.1%) of the respondents track this metric.”

What regulators expect

Is a list of completions enough?

Completions show participation; evaluation shows whether the training works.

A case manager leans toward an older man. A VR training scenario for aged care and disability services. — A case manager listens to an older man.

Australia and the United States

Aged care’s Quality Standards Action 2.9.5: “The provider regularly reviews and improves the effectiveness of the training system.” NSQHS Action 1.20 asks a hospital to monitor participation, which a completion list supports; what assessors look for. In the United States, the EEOC recommends, though not as a legal requirement, training “Routinely evaluated by participants and revised as necessary”.

The published results

What do the published results say, and who measured them?

Reaction and learning measures, plus a controlled trial.

A home-office video call from the Google DEI scenarios. — A home-office call, a Google scenario.

Peer reviewed: Google, ACM CHI 2024

Led by PTR co-founder Leonie Sanderson and built with Equal Reality, a subsidiary of People Tech Revolution. In the paper, the 7 trainees who returned the optional survey gave 82% average agreement that it beat Google’s standard DEI training and 94% average satisfaction.

Inside the Mater build: an older patient sits up in a hospital bed, a meal tray across the blanket, curtains drawn beside him. — Inside the Mater build, at a bedside.

Client evaluation: Mater Education

Mater Education evaluated its own pilot. In its closure report, 90% reported better concentration and over 96% wanted more training in VR. The case study.

A nurse leader wearing a headset stands in a ward corridor facing simulated colleagues, a colleague looking away. — A nurse leader faces colleagues in a corridor.

Published research: Mayo Clinic

People Tech Revolution built a DEI module for Mayo Clinic nurse leaders. In Mayo’s education evaluation, 91.9% of respondents agreed they achieved the objectives (593 of 1,131 responded). In a controlled trial, measured in the week after the class, self-reported empathic feeling rose an average 0.11 points in the intervention group while a control group not yet trained fell 0.02 (p = .002). At the follow-up 6 to 8 months later, with everyone trained and no control group, the sample’s average was still significantly above baseline. Each is a self-reported DEI measure; our published work includes no incident, retention or de-escalation result.

Download the Google research paper PDF Download the Mater case study PDF

The cost side

What does violence or turnover cost us?

Public data, labelled by the agency that collected it.

A consultant wearing a headset speaks with a family member in a hospital corridor. — A consultant updates a family in the corridor.

Australia: claims, by Safe Work Australia

Safe Work Australia: “From 2017-18 to 2021-22p, there was a distinct 56% increase in the number of serious workers’ compensation claims (involving at least one week away from work) for workplace violence and assault”, and, in the 10 years its August 2024 report covers, “53,139 accepted workers’ compensation claims for being assaulted by a person or persons”.

Nurses discuss a handover at a ward station, a headset on the nearer nurse, a corridor behind them. — Nurses discuss a handover at the station.

United States: injuries and turnover

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts nonfatal workplace violence cases requiring days away from work, job restriction or transfer; in private-industry health care and social assistance, 2021 to 2022, they occurred at “an annualized incidence rate of 14.2 cases per 10,000 full-time workers”. The NSI 2026 report: “The cost of turnover for a staff RN is $60,090”, against a staff RN turnover national average of 17.6%.

The paper