Japanese employer uses STEPN in job interviews

A Japanese virtual content developer, Aww, is using the popular move-to-earn app STEPN to conduct recruitment interviews. The company said this was the first case of an employer in the world using the technology in job interviews.

Job applicants would be asked to open the STEPN app and have a walk outside Aww’s office. At the same time, an Aww staff member would ask them to answer career-related questions.

Interviewees have to use the Jogger sneaker, one of the three sneaker NFT which governs the optimum walking speed for earning rewards on STEPN. Jogger means that their speed should be kept at a range of 4 to 10 kilometres per hour. 

The use of STEPN was based on the belief that movements in an open and outdoor environment would allow the company to have a deeper understanding of applicants’ personalities, Aww said in a June 6 statement.

Applicants could inform the company whether they wish their interviews to be conducted with STEPN when they arrived, Aww added.

STEPN is a fitness mobile app that offers cryptocurrency rewards to users for walking, jogging or running. It is developed on the Solana blockchain. Since its launch in December 2021, STEPN has become increasingly popular in Japan. On March 2, it was launched on Binance, the world’s largest crypto asset exchange.

Aww focuses on NFT, virtual humans and metaverse-related businesses. In April, it conducted recruitment interviews in the metaverse space using the Decentraland VR platform. The company is also looking to actively incorporate the latest services in future recruitment.