This is tangential to the AI issue, but wow - absolutely horrible. How disillusioned are the execs who come up with these ideas? Do they really believe anyone _wants_ to work for them? I really feel for people who have no option other than to go through this garbage just to land a minimum wage job.
They love hearing themselves talk, they probably assume that everyone thinks the same way.
I would assume that the employee acquisition middleware provider added "video cover letter" as a feature to distinguish their software suite, the procurement guy fell for it, and the hiring director said "hey, we paid for this feature, we should probably use it."
Asked about legality, the middleware provider would claim that "you see people in an interview, many jobs are remote now and a video cover letter is an extension of that."
That's not true, of course. Having images of the candidates ahead of interviewing allows you to discriminate without the candidate noticing your reaction to their appearance.
Law suits incoming.
Frontline fast food employees are disobedient money making robots to them.
If the Stanford Prison Experiment could be reproduced ethically, I think using fast food executives as the guards and frontline as the prisoners, it would be very enlightening.
As technology facilitates pushing this practice further up in the hiring pipeline, even to the point of initial contact, this presents a grim prospect for anyone who is already facing career headwinds due to ageism, let alone any of the other -isms. Ageism is a threat to to everyone regardless of gender, race, national origin etc. The makeup industry is going to be thrilled.
If there's a vast under-employed pool of people of the "wrong" age, race, sex, etc. because "bad" companies refuse to employ them, why don't their "good" competitors seize the opportunity and hire all that untapped talent being left on the table?
Many people, even those making hiring decisions, aren't in the entreprenuerial min/max hustle culture. Those employers will consider factors other than skills and the lowest agreeable wage. People tend to like other people similar to themselves so that leaves various undesirables unemployed longer.
The set of potential employers is sometimes limited, especially in the before times when people would only look for work for up to about an hour commute from where they live. Also filter employers down to an industry/skillset. Then filter by employers with openings that coincide when an applicant is looking for a job. Consider two dental technicians in a rural area that start looking for a job on the same day. If one of the three dentists in the region has a preference for some protected class, then the "wrong" applicant may be job hunting for a while longer.
There are also some jobs with tangible incentives for discrimination. Any role that benefits from sex appeal can favor young, attractive females. Jobs that are physically demanding can favor young and fit men.
Most markets that are important to you do not adhere to these constraints.
Maybe in a very rural area, but I'd be surprised to see a McD there to begin with. Do you have a source? I'm genuinely interested in looking at this more for unrelated reasons.