OpenUp IT Engineer rolls out AI interviews to about 500 support staff

OpenUp IT Engineer, which provides IT and design engineering staffing, describes "improving engineer satisfaction" as one of its business goals. Its reasoning is that the support staff who accompany engineers day to day and support their career growth will provide better support if their own work engagement and growth improve — which is why the roughly 500 support staff were chosen as the first group for AI interviews.

The move is presented alongside a broader backdrop the company cites: a shrinking workforce and a shortage of talent, which make it an important task for companies to create environments where each person can feel engagement and growth and realize their potential. OpenUp Group frames this under its purpose of opening up each person's possibilities through happy work.

The AI interviews are not a replacement for measurement. OPE says it will keep using the EX survey as an important indicator and verify how engagement changes after measures are carried out. The AI interview service itself comes from PeopleX, with which OPE says it has begun a capital and business alliance. That relationship runs in both directions, with OPE feeding back improvements and feature requests from its own use, and the two sides jointly testing and measuring adoption effects. Whether the effort pays off is likely to hinge on whether the specific issues the interviews surface are actually converted into measures — and on whether the follow-up engagement scores move.