Building Confidence with VR Simulations
Confidence is often the missing ingredient in workplace performance. If organisations want people to step into complex or sensitive situations with certainty, they must move beyond passive instruction and offer meaningful practice.
This is where virtual reality simulations have become a powerful tool for Learning and Development teams when they’re exploring corporate training. They provide realistic, repeatable experiences where learners can apply knowledge, explore choices, and understand consequences in a safe environment. At Totem, we have spent more than a decade building simulations across healthcare, rail, energy, corporate leadership and highly regulated industries. The result is consistent: when learners practise in scenarios that feel real, their confidence grows quickly and sustainably.
Who are Learning and Development teams, and why are they central to this work?
Learning and Development teams sit at the heart of organisational capability. Their work spans onboarding, leadership development, technical training, behavioural change and future‑skills planning.
Because of this, L&D teams are uniquely positioned to recognise not just where confidence falters, but how vr simulations can directly resolve those gaps. They understand which skills require practice rather than theory, where traditional training leaves learners uncertain, and how immersive rehearsal can transform hesitation into capability. Their insight into real-world challenges makes them the ideal partners for designing VR scenarios that genuinely strengthen confidence in corporate training.
Why are VR simulations so effective for building confidence?
VR offers an immersive level of presence that traditional learning formats cannot match. Learners navigate environments that mirror their workplace, interact with realistic characters, and make decisions that directly influence outcomes. This sense of agency transforms learning from passive observation into active skill‑building.
Behavioural science reinforces this. People develop confidence when they can experiment freely, see the cause-and-effect of their actions, and repeat scenarios until their responses become natural. Vr simulations support this cycle with autonomy, clear feedback and a psychologically safe space to make mistakes.
How do L&D teams create strong scenario flows?
A successful VR scenario is not a digitised version of a classroom exercise. It needs structure, emotional credibility and a clear behavioural purpose. When partners work with Totem, we begin by identifying the challenges learners face in the real world: where hesitation appears, which decisions they find difficult, and what a confident response should look like.
From there, we co‑design the flow of the scenario. This includes the narrative arc, the pressure points, the environmental cues and the branching choices that define the experience. Elements such as tone of voice, time pressure, social dynamics and unseen constraints all contribute to realism. When these details are captured, the simulation feels familiar and trusted, which strengthens learning impact.
What does Totem’s co‑creation approach involve?
Totem’s approach is grounded in shared innovation. Your subject knowledge and operational insight combine with our game design, behavioural science and immersive technology expertise. Together, we create simulations that reflect the practical demands of your environment.
Co‑creation begins with collaborative exploration: clarifying the behavioural goals, understanding user journeys, and agreeing the key decisions that shape performance. Totem then refines these insights into a clear scenario structure. Early prototypes allow teams to test tone, realism and difficulty before development accelerates.
Throughout the process, Totem’s Shared Innovation Principles ensure transparency around IP ownership, portability and licensing. Partners retain full rights to foreground IP, and simulations remain flexible for long‑term organisational use.
How does accessibility influence confidence?
Accessibility should never be a technical checkbox, as it directly affects confidence. When learners struggle with text size, rapid movement, poor audio clarity or input methods that do not suit their needs, they experience friction before learning even begins. This can create anxiety, motion discomfort or hesitation, all of which undermine the confidence the simulation is meant to build.
Removing these barriers supports learners of all abilities. Our approach includes readable text, clear formatting, support for alternative control methods, stable camera handling and inclusive design considerations that reduce cognitive load. By embedding accessibility from the start, vr simulations become more welcoming, more effective and more empowering.
What results do organisations see?
Across industries, organisations report similar benefits from high‑quality VR simulations: higher engagement, better retention and stronger capability under pressure. Some programmes see dramatic reductions in unsafe behaviours, while others observe faster, more accurate decision‑making in complex environments.
The value is not only immediate. When employees feel confident to act, they contribute to safer operations, smoother processes and more consistent performance across teams and locations.
How can L&D teams begin designing their own simulations?
A practical starting point is to take an existing real‑world scenario, such as a conversation, technical task or operational challenge, and map the key decisions involved. This simple outline often provides enough foundation for us to begin shaping a structured, immersive scenario flow.
Learners build confidence when they experience situations rather than simply reading about them. With Totem’s blend of behavioural science, learning design and immersive technology, vr simulations become a measurable way to build capability at scale.
How do VR simulations strengthen long‑term organisational capability?
Beyond individual performance, simulations contribute to organisational consistency. When everyone experiences the same structured, high‑quality practice, knowledge becomes standardised rather than dependent on the individual delivering the training. This creates fairness and reliability across teams and locations.
Analytics embedded in simulations give leaders valuable insights into behaviour patterns. They can observe where people hesitate, which decisions cause repeated errors, and how confidence increases over multiple attempts. These insights support continuous improvement and help organisations refine training with precision.
Supporting human factors
Many workplace challenges are rooted in human factors, not technical steps. VR simulations allow learners to rehearse conversations, explore team dynamics, understand emotional cues and practise judgment-based decisions without real‑world consequences. This strengthens confidence in the moments where human behaviour has the most impact.
Enhancing safety and compliance
In safety critical roles, confidence is tied to accuracy. VR simulations allow learners to explore hazards, practise emergency steps and build instinctive responses in environments that would be risky or impossible to recreate physically. In compliance contexts, simulations show why rules matter, making learning more meaningful and memorable.
What future opportunities can L&D teams explore with Totem?
Organisations are increasingly blending VR with microlearning, elearning and live facilitation. Totem supports this by providing consultancy, XR delivery guidance and tools that help internal teams build sustainable capability. As technology evolves, scenario flows can become more adaptive through AI‑driven branching and responsive character behaviour.
These advancements expand the impact of vr simulations, offering richer, more personalised learning experiences that strengthen performance over time.
If you are exploring how VR can support long‑lasting behaviour change and help learners perform with confidence, Totem can help you turn your ideas into a structured and impactful simulation.