I recently gave myself an early Christmas present…a Sidardoe 3D VR goggles/headset. I would not necessarily recommend them beyond just a really cheap viewer ($22) to try virtual reality video out. I just put my iPhone into the headset’s case and pull up videos…many on YouTube.

What amazed me most was watching an online video series called Invisible on Jaunt. It is kind of a sci-fi/horror series. In the first episode there is a hospital scene and during watching the characters have an argument, you could also turn around and look at the nurses working behind the desk. You could turn your head and look down the hall. It was like being in the room itself (virtual reality)…360 degrees and in 3D.

There are numerous 360 degree experiences you can tag alone with or watch on YouTube. You don’t need a viewer/goggles, because you could always play it on your phone or tablet and use your finger to move the view around in 360 degrees.

The goggles in particular though provide such a cool virtual reality experience, because as you turn your head you see everything around you. There are 360 degree videos (flat 2D), but it is much cooler when it is stereoscopic (3D) 360 degree video.

Later, I had a memory of giving company tours to college students while I worked at Christopher & Banks. We kept them out of areas where they would see propriety things or things they should not see. I gave several tours while I worked there and the students loved it.

I have interviewed at companies that gave me a tour of the place as part of their efforts to recruit me for the position.

We are now getting to the point where we could easily film such a tour with a 360 video camera (bought, rented, or bring in a vendor to record it). Then we could post it on YouTube and our website. Then people watching the video on devices with touch screens could pan the view and look around. If they are watching it with VR goggles, then it would look and potentially feel like they are on the tour.

You can already take short tours of places around the world like a gondola ride in Venice on Discovery VR. Why not tours of our companies? That is the advantage and beauty of video versus live, you only need to do it once and make the recording available.

Potential applicants and candidates always want to see what the place looks like and get a feel for the environment. Now they could do it immersively. I don’t know about you, but that would really impress me.

You could also just have “typical day” short videos (5 minutes or so) of video taken from the standpoint of someone in each environment. So if you are a recruiter in a cubical, perhaps take a short 360 video (with sound, of course) from the center of a cube. This lets you see what a typical cube has, what the environment sounds like, etc. If you are a call center person, a short 360 video from the chair in the center of the call center could be enlightening. If you are a warehouse worker, you could be on the line and see typical activities going on for that warehouse. Think of the possibilities.

There are VR games with video footage like VR Noir that show other possibilities. Not only is it 360 video, but interactive in that you are given choices of questions or responses and whether you gaze right or left (could do 4 corners or short lists to one side easily) you can choose between options.

Imagine having someone in a 360 degree space ask the person a question, giving them multiple options, and waiting for a response. Then depending on what is selected, you can move them to different video outcomes. Kind of like the old choose your own adventure books.

360 video is kind of a craze right now, 360 video cameras continue to drop in price, and with how inexpensive it is now to get VR headsets that use your smart phone, I wonder which companies will be among the first to show off with this new possibility.

Check out the 360 degree video tour for Happy Horizon.

Although not made for VR goggles, it was made to watch on desktops and drag the view around with a mouse. On my iPhone it shows the full 360 degrees as a single view with no point of view to change. Not exactly what I had in mind, but a great first step to check out.

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Eric Putkonen is a public speaker / presenter and he is passionate about recruiting / talent acquisition & retention, culture & employment brand, engagement, and leadership (which affects all of the prior).