Honeygrow is onboarding staff with VR these days

Next time you get some noodles at honeygrow, remember your server might have learned to boil those bad boys on virtual reality first.

See, the Philly-based restaurant chain, known for its organic salads and stir-frys, tapped NoLibs creative agency Klip Collective to bring VR into the mix when training staff. Klip developed a 15-minute orientation VR experience, featuring 3D graphics, interactive learning situations and mini-games.

“We’ve been researching and developing VR as a medium for over two years now and, as an experimental installation artist, it piqued my interest,” Klip Collective Director Ricardo Rivera told Technical.ly. “With honeygrow, we started with the orientation process to grease the wheels and do more down the road.”

Here’s a little preview of what the experience looks like now:

For Justin Rosenberg, honeygrow founder and CEO, virtual reality lets employees have a “consistent yet unique onboarding and initial training experience” across locations. The company now has 17 spots across the U.S.

“Klip really impressed us with taking our ideas and exceeding our expectations by making them a reality,” Rosenberg said in a statement.

It may seem odd that Rivera, better known for his hella trippy art installations alongside the Klip Collective team, is taking a training video for a corporation with such enthusiasm. But the creator said this kind of project is where the sweet spot lies for VR technology.

“I think it’s great that they’re using [the VR experience] now, but I ‘m more excited to take it to the next level,” he said. “I think training and education is part of what makes sense for virtual reality and, for honeygrow, the future is giving them a suite of apps that offer different parts of their training process.”