EFFECT OF VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) AIDED TRAINING ON EMPLOYEE SKILL RETENTION: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM SERVICE SECTOR EMPLOYEES AT TECH MAHINDRA

This study provides comprehensive empirical evidence that Virtual Reality aided training exerts a significant, positive, and measurable impact on employee skill retention within the service sector. Conducted at Tech Mahindra with a purposively selected sample of 100 VR-trained employees, the research employed a rigorous quantitative methodology to establish both the correlational and predictive dimensions of this relationship. The findings demonstrate that VR training is not merely a technologically impressive novelty, but a pedagogically substantive intervention capable of transforming how service sector organizations develop, retain, and deploy human capital. The high satisfaction rates (80%), strong practical skill application (75%), and the identification of VR training as a driver of enhanced task efficiency, problem-solving capability, confidence, and reduced retraining requirements collectively paint a picture of transformative training impact. The regression model's confirmation that VR training accounts for 65% of the variance in skill retention outcomes establishes this technology as a primary determinant of training effectiveness, not merely a supplementary tool. For organizations operating in technology-intensive, customer-centric service environments — where the speed and durability of skill acquisition directly influence service quality and competitive positioning — this finding has profound strategic implications. As VR technology continues to evolve — incorporating artificial intelligence, haptic feedback, spatial audio, and real-time biometric monitoring — its capacity to deliver increasingly personalized and physiologically immersive training experiences will only deepen. Organizations that proactively embed VR into their learning and development strategy today are positioning themselves to sustain a durable competitive advantage through superior human capital development. The present study contributes to this trajectory by providing robust empirical grounding for the organizational adoption of VR-aided training as a cornerstone of contemporary human resource development practice.

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