KFC To Put Employees Through Crazy VR Training

Whoever is in charge of marketing at KFC this week has earned their keep. The fast-food chain revealed its gamified take on employee training — a VR chicken inspection and preparation experience — which is generating headlines across the technosphere.

Touted as an employee training tool, KFC’s take on the virtual reality training shtick is rather… weird.

The game (calling it a training program feels wrong) places you on the spot in a KFC-themed drawing room. With commands growled you via intercom by an ominously absent Colonel Sanders, you go through the basic motions of preparing the company’s famed crispy chicken.

Reportedly the company will detail the program’s usage in employee certification in the coming days. Made for the Oculus platform, there’s no sign of it being publicly available (yet… we suspect this will change).

Finger Lickin’ Weird: KFC’s VR Trainer Isn’t The Beginning

Virtual reality is becoming a choice tool for jazzing up dry corporate topics. And in this case what could have been a dull one-sheet explanation is instead a quirky, interactive experience. One worthy of a place alongside many “real” VR games, too. From comedic narration to a String bowtie-wearing robot, this is next-level corporate material.

And it’s not even the beginning. The chicken-based fast food chain has been on something of an oddness blitz in recent months.

Back in July the company launched a limited-edition apparel store, selling (admittedly pretty cool) chicken-themed merch including a $20,000 meteorite shaped like a Zinger burger, socks, jumpers and a Colonel-adorned pillowcase. Not to mention a KFC-themed Android smartphone, exclusive to the Chinese market.

But the weird doesn’t stop there. Months before, KFC India went so far as to offer 3D printed models of customers with their 5-in-1 box meal.

Add to this the company’s “resurrection” of the late Colonel Sanders in its television adverts — mixing old footage of the white-haired mogul with new — and you have a big ole value bucket of entertainment.

KFC could have made this a sterile tool with simple graphics and utilitarian objectives, but where’s the fun in prepping dead chickens without a grizzled robot Colonel Sanders shooting laser beams and yelling at you.