It may seem odd, but the people that run Asurion say there's a good reason they use an escape room to train their new employees.
Asurion is a global tech company with offices in the northwest part of the Las Vegas valley. The customer service wing specializes in helping people hook up their new electronics at home.
The escape room is a custom-built space inside the company's "Innovation Lab," and looks a lot like a modern apartment. The game starts once the lights turn red, and groups of 4-6 people have 30-45 minutes to solve seven tech problems in a specific order so they can get out of the room.
Training Manager Adam Pacheco says that the escape room helps teach their new hires about the products they'll be assisting customers with over the phone.
"The best learning is a hands-on type of learning," said Pacheco. "It gives you the opportunity to pick things up, touch it, feel it, and get things to work with each other."
Pacheco also says that the game lets those with different skillsets learn how to work with each other.
"If I'm really strong in tech, but I don't know the other pieces of customer service that may be required of me, I can go to my peers and get help," he explained.
According to Site Director Tim Hawco, Asurion uses an escape room to train employees at all of their global offices, and they update the game at least once per year as new technology becomes available.
Hawco also said that part of the reason they developed the escape room in the first place is to appeal to the gaming culture within the company.
"80 percent of our [company] population, we discovered, are very much into gaming," he said. "About half of them play games every day."
Company officials say that about 800 of their employees in Las Vegas have gone through training using the escape room.
