Maybe it’s a reflection of our increasingly digital lifestyles. Maybe it’s a sign of desperation from companies trying to streamline recruitment and get an edge over the competition. Or maybe the robots really are taking over, like all those old sci-fi films always warned us.

Whatever the reason, there’s been a trend of tech taking over the hiring process – whether it’s recruitment in the metaverse, job interviews fueled by artificial intelligence or gamifying skills testing. And then, of course, there are those aforementioned robots, replacing humans in restaurants (good news for bad tippers, I guess), supermarkets and elsewhere.

With the Great Resignation showing little sign of waning, don’t expect these tech-fueled HR experiments to abate anytime soon. In October, 4.2 million Americans quit their jobs, which is a slight drop from the previous month, but still fairly high. Job openings rose to 11 million. And some economists are saying they don’t expect 2022 to make significant inroads in the ongoing labor shortage.

In the spirit of welcoming our robot overlords, let’s take a look at some of the more notable ways tech is being used by companies looking to fill open positions.

1. Asynchronous Video Interviews

The pandemic normalized Zoom interviews and the prospect of getting hired without ever meeting your boss face to face, but asynchronous video interviews take that concept to another level. In these one-way interviews, candidates answer a list of preset questions on video, but there’s no one at the other end to respond. The recordings are subsequently assessed, either by a real, live human hiring manager or by AI and facial analysis software. Job interviews are nerve-wracking enough, but the prospect of talking to air, then being judged by a computer seems pretty chilling to me.

Still, there are some benefits, particularly for companies looking to save time and process more candidates. HireVue, one of the big names in the asynchronous game, said its clients conducted more than 1 million on-demand video interviews in the month of September. The company has seen a 40% increase in interview volume this year.

An asynchronous system also allows job seekers to self-schedule their interview at night or on weekends, when they might have more availability. Proponents also say removing the human factor from interviewing makes it fairer and more objective, since candidates all get the same questions asked in the same way.

Verdict: I like the idea of job applicants not having to rearrange their schedule to fit in a job interview, but I’m skeptical of companies’ claims that asynchronous videos really even the playing field for job candidates, especially if they’re being screened by artificial intelligence. How often does AI reject perfectly qualified candidates’ resumes because they don’t have the magic combination of keywords? Why would a video be a different story?

2. Playing Games to Get a Job

Scoutible uses an award-winning adventure game to measure a player’s personality and cognitive strengths to help match them with the right job. (photo courtesy of Scoutible)

Last year, in the early days of the pandemic, a good friend of mine found herself – like so many others – unceremoniously dumped into the job market. As part of her job search, she downloaded JobFlare, a mobile app that incorporates video games into the recruitment process. My friend – a super-smart CFO – was suddenly playing something called “Robot Inspector,” a spot-the-difference game meant to measure your attention to detail and other 90-second brain games to show off her mental worthiness to potential employers. (She must have been an A+ inspector because she landed another sweet gig in finance not too long after.)

According to the company, JobFlare’s six games “track performance in key predictors of job success: math ability, verbal ability, attention to detail and memory,” and playing them more often “paints a clearer picture of your cognitive ability.”

Turns out, it’s not the only company gamifying job hunting. Another startup, Scoutible, created a 15-minute adventure game, playable via app, that hiring managers can use to screen candidates. Tracking in-game decision-making, Scoutible evaluates a player’s learning style, creativity, grit, leadership, memory and other traits.

“The data that we collect around personality and cognitive strengths are the single most predictive hiring selection criteria that exist,” Angela Antony, CEO of Scoutible, told Inc. “But they’re not in today’s hiring process at all.”

Antony also hopes her Scoutible platform will democratize hiring, eliminating bias, discrimination and other flaws found in the traditional resume and interview process.

Verdict: I’m intrigued by the idea of playing video games to get a job. It certainly beats taking one of those multiple-choice personality assessment tests. Make it a round of Tetris or Dr. Mario, and I bet I could snag a spot in the C-suite. 

3. Getting Hired in the Metaverse

Hyundai Mobis, part of Hyundai Motor Group, has carried out new employee training in the metaverse. (photo courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group)

These days, you can’t throw a virtual stick without hitting someone waxing rhapsodic about the metaverse and how it will change the way we play, socialize and work. Earlier this year, Meta (the artist formerly known as Facebook) released Horizon Workrooms, a remote work app where people can hold meetings wearing VR headsets and interacting as legless avatars in virtual boardrooms.

Other companies are turning to the virtual world to assist with recruitment. Hyundai Motor Group has used Zepeto, a virtual world app, to welcome new employees, and Samsung staged a virtual recruitment fair on a metaverse platform called Gather Town in September. Applicants could log on with their avatars and talk to other avatars representing the company’s human resource team – perhaps feeling freer to ask tough questions than they would in a real-world setting.

MGM Resorts is letting applicants test drive positions using VR headsets in an attempt to stop worker attrition. “It can be very difficult just to verbally explain the types of positions or show a video,” Laura Lee, MGM Resorts’ chief HR officer, told Insider. Instead, virtual reality lets them “throw a headset on and really experience the job.”

Verdict: Virtual reality and the metaverse have the potential to dramatically shift the way people do business, but I have a hard time taking the cutesy, cartoonish avatars found in the virtual world seriously.