Workplace and enterprise, our largest body of work

Leadership, inclusion and change programs built with global technology, transport, aviation and telecommunications organisations, so leaders practise the conversation before they have it.

A manager wearing a headset sits facing a simulated team member across a small table, rehearsing a performance feedback conversation in a plain meeting room before having it for real.

The moment

A probation review at nine, rehearsed at an empty desk the night before

A team leader at a telco has a probation conversation in the morning with someone she likes. She has read the policy twice and still does not know how to open. If it goes badly he leaves in the spring, HR asks what she said, and the rest of the team hears their own version of it.

An employee wearing a headset stands facing a simulated senior stakeholder seated at a boardroom table, leaning back. — Your managers push back on a deadline to a senior stakeholder, with room to try it twice.

A manager wearing a headset sits opposite a simulated employee who is speaking carefully, hands together, rehearsing a sensitive workplace concern in a private meeting room. — Your people say the concern out loud in the practice run, so the real conversation is not the sole time they have said it.

A service agent wearing a headset stands at a counter facing a simulated customer with one hand raised, practising how to de-escalate a difficult exchange. — Your frontline staff take the fourth call about the same fault without losing the customer.

What Google measured

The cohort that rated it above their standard training

At Google, a VR DEI training co-designed by PTR co-founder Leonie Sanderson and 13 Google DEI volunteers ran four scenarios, each experienced from two perspectives. The work appeared in a peer-reviewed paper at CHI 2024, co-authored by Google researchers and Sanderson. The opening cohort of Google security team staff reported 94% satisfaction, and all but one rated it better than Google’s standard DEI training.

Inside the simulation: three executives sit at the far end of a boardroom table facing the viewer, one mid-sentence, two listening.

Read the Google case study. Your executives sit across the boardroom table from the bias they are asked to notice.

Three colleagues sit at a round table in a simulated meeting room, one wearing the headset, one turned toward a wall screen. — Your hybrid teams rehearse the meeting where the person on the screen gets talked over.

An employee sits forward in a simulated corner office, city beyond the glass, as a manager wearing the headset sits opposite. — Your managers practise the conversation about what comes next before a promotion round.

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Work in this sector

Metro Trains, Etihad Airways and Optus

With Grit Leadership, PTR delivered VR training using the Everyday Inclusion module to Metro Trains head office and operational leaders; it surfaced systemic bias in recruiting and keeping women in roles such as train maintenance. With Utano Global, PTR ran a two-day VR training pilot for 36 Etihad Airways cabin crew. For Optus, PTR built an experience that supports a culture of belonging.

An events coordinator briefs two colleagues during setup. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise.

Read the Metro Trains case study. Your leaders reconsider facility design and resourcing after standing in the scenario.

A front-desk supervisor stands at a counter facing a guest, practising the exchange in a simulated arrivals hall.

Read the Etihad case study. Your crew rehearse cultural misunderstandings and hierarchy-driven breakdowns before the flight.

A supervisor wearing a headset stands beside a colleague at a call centre desk, coaching a call. — Your people step into the shoes of both employee and manager and see the impact of bias as it happens.

What clients say

In their words

Three clients on what changed in the room.

Nic Barry, Digital Learning & Organisational Capability, Domain Group

Rhonda Brighton-Hall, CEO, MWAH - Making Work Human Again

Sally Wagnon, Senior Campaign Manager, 89 Degrees East

Why VR

Why VR, and what the studies measured

Classroom-style diversity training has a credibility problem: Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev found mandatory diversity training frequently produces no improvement, and sometimes a decline, in workplace diversity outcomes. That is why PTR builds experiential, embodied training. The Google case study reports satisfaction and a same-day comparison with Google’s standard training; wider VR research finds some bias reductions fade within days.

A man with low vision sits with an earpiece in a quiet meeting room; a manager wearing the headset sits beside him, both facing the room, discussing an accessibility request. — Your managers practise the adjustment conversation an employee has been putting off asking for.

Online: no effect

Online perspective-taking did not shift gender bias in a simulated hiring exercise. PLOS ONE, 2022

VR: significant change

The same study found embodied VR perspective-taking produced a significant change in participants' hiring choices. PLOS ONE, 2022

"In a world where much of our learning has moved online, the human element is often lost. VR can help bridge this gap, allowing people to practice real-world interactions in a controlled, immersive environment."

Simon Lowe, CEO of People Tech Revolution, speaking at a podium. Simon Lowe
CEO, People Tech Revolution. The Cusp of a Revolution, Global Best Practice Group, October 2024

The library

Practice scenarios from the library

The feedback conversation, the upset customer, the concern raised for the practice run, the deadline that does not fit, being talked over, the exit interview and the return to an open-plan office. Each runs in a headset, or as a written or spoken practice partner at the desk.

An adult wearing a headset stands in the middle of an open-plan office, looking around, rehearsing a return-to-work moment while simulated colleagues work nearby. — Your returning employee rehearses the walk back into an open-plan office before the day itself.

A young retail worker wearing the headset stands in the aisle of a simulated shop floor as a man in his fifties stands close, complaining, arms loose rather than raised. — Your floor staff hear the complaint in the aisle, with the shelf still between them and the customer.

A man sits with his jacket over the back of his chair in a simulated HR room; an HR partner wearing the headset sits opposite him with a closed folder. — Your HR team sits through the exit interview that tells them what the engagement survey did not.

The regulation

The hazard that lives in a conversation

In Queensland, where PTR is based, a business has a duty to manage psychosocial risks. Section 55D does not instruct anyone to run a course; it asks what you had regard to, and lists workplace interactions and the training and supervision provided to workers. Redesigning the work comes ahead of training. When the risk lives in a conversation between two people, a control has to reach the conversation.

A team leader checks in with a colleague. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — Your team leaders practise the check-in with a colleague who says they are fine and is not.

An HR adviser discusses return-to-work with a colleague. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — Your HR advisers rehearse the return-to-work conversation with the record showing who practised it.

A senior leader listens to a younger colleague across a small office table, one wearing a headset. — Your senior leaders practise listening to a younger colleague without finishing the sentence for them.

Your questions

Questions a people or safety lead asks early

The questions that come up early, answered in the words they get asked in.

A team leader runs a short huddle. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — Your team leaders run the huddle where the concern gets raised, and hear how it lands.

Is training the weakest control we could choose?

On its own, yes, and we will say so in the room. Design the work ahead of it. This is for what is left once you have: the manager who still has to raise the concern, and the person who still has to hear it. That conversation is the control, and nobody has practised it.

A stock supervisor discusses delivery with a colleague. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — Your supervisors keep a record of what was rehearsed, by whom, and how often they came back to it.

What do we hold afterwards that shows we did something?

Where you set it up that way, a record of what was rehearsed, by whom, and how often they came back to it, rather than an attendance sheet for a module. If anyone asks what you had regard to, that is a stronger answer than a completion rate.

A supervisor talks a colleague through the till. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — Your whole workforce practises on the laptop the work is already on; headsets are for the deepest version.

Do we need headsets for a workforce this size?

Not for the rollout. The same conversation runs typed at the desk, or spoken out loud before the one to one, on the laptop the work is already on. The headset is the deepest version of the practice, for the teams and the moments that need it.

A duty manager listens to a retail customer. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — Your duty managers rehearse late, at their own desk, on the floor they will have the conversation on.

How do we get managers to do this without taking them off the floor?

They stay on it. The conversation a manager is dreading tends to get rehearsed late, at their own desk, on the floor they will have to have it on. That is the moment this is built for.

A cafe manager wearing a headset briefs a young barista at the counter, a VR workplace scenario. — Your inclusion lead and your safety lead buy the same rehearsal and arrive at it from opposite directions.

Is this an inclusion program or a safety one?

The same rehearsal serves both, which is why this work has been bought under both headings. Google, Metro Trains, Etihad and Optus came to it through inclusion. A people or safety lead arrives at the same scenarios from the other direction, and practises the same conversations.

The desk

The conversation nobody books a room for

Most workplace conversations happen at a desk, not in a training suite. A written run takes ten minutes and no booking, on the laptop already open. Then it is said out loud to an empty floor, which is where a manager finds out which sentence they cannot say yet. Feedback read on a screen and feedback said to a face are different skills.

A man perches on the edge of a desk on an empty open-plan floor at night, a stack of glowing message panels lit beside him. — Your manager drafts the difficult message and tries the direct version and the softer one.

A woman stands small at the far end of an empty open-plan floor, a ribbon of light spanning the desks toward her. — Your manager hears the feedback in their own voice before anyone else does.

A woman stands on an empty open-plan office floor, a band of sound curving around her as she speaks. — Your spoken run rehearses the second skill: saying it to a face, not a screen.

More moments

Counters, stockrooms, service bars and the kitchen pass

The rest of a working day has its own hard conversations: the click-and-collect counter, the pass on a Friday night, the induction of two new starters. Each is a scenario your staff can run before the shift.

A store manager serves a customer from behind a click-and-collect counter. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — Your store managers serve the customer whose order is not there, from behind the counter.

A head chef talks with a line cook. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — Your head chefs correct a line cook at the pass without the whole kitchen hearing it.

A safety officer briefs two new starters. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — Your safety officers brief two new starters who are pretending they understood.

Through the headset

An open-plan office, a retail aisle, a staff kitchen

Inside the headset the other person is in front of you, waiting for a reply. The retail customer, the team member up for review, the new starter alone in the staff kitchen: each one answers what your staff say, not what they meant to say.

A retail customer waits for a reply. A first person VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise, seen through the headset. — Your retail staff face the customer who is waiting for a reply, and give one.

A team member waits for a review conversation. A first person VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise, seen through the headset. — Your managers open the review conversation with the person who is waiting for it.

A new starter waits in the staff kitchen. A first person VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise, seen through the headset. — Your team welcomes the new starter waiting alone in the staff kitchen.

Co-designed

Scenarios shaped with the people who will run them

A team leader rehearses a briefing in the office. A leader practises a reply at the table. A manager rehearses feedback in the meeting room. Each scenario was co-designed with the people who run it, in the room they run it in.