7-Eleven transformed its high-volume hiring following its acquisition of a major competitor with a very different approach to recruiting. They had different brands, tech stacks, and conflicting hiring and operating models. Hiring was slow, causing the loss of candidates to competitors, which also led to candidate ghosting.

Store leaders became accountable for labor optimization, including hiring. 7-Eleven created "Rita", an AI-driven, conversational recruiting assistant chatbot powered by Paradox, and transformed a LOT of its recruitment-related process.

95% of the process was automated. Time-to-hire went from weeks to 3 days. Store leaders save 40,000 hours per week, which allowed more time for effective onboarding and training.

And, after they've applied but not been hired, are we wasting a valuable asset by ignoring them or failing to stay in touch with them in a way they want? Wouldn't it be better to hire them when we do have a need that fits their competencies, interests, and values?

Today's guest on the High Volume Hiring Podcast is Ryan Kohler, founder of the isolved Talent Acquisition (formerly ApplicantPro) ATS, Refer.IO, and AI4Teams.io. Cohost Jeanette Leeds was on vacation and so left cohost Steven Rothberg in charge. We'll have to see how well he managed.

Until very recently, the conventional wisdom amongst employers was that they did not want candidates using AI because the employers wanted to be sure the candidates could think critically. If they assessed AI skills at all, they tended to measure how well the candidate could prompt the AI to generate the results wanted. And, if you're still doing so, you're going to want to make some changes.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site talk with Chelsea about how large employers can better assess the skills of new hires, and even what skills they should be assessing.

More employers are posting more jobs, which is great. Manufacturing is surprisingly strong, healthcare remains strong, but retail is weaker than we expected. Yet applications and hiring is also down. Are employers posting, interviewing, but deciding not to hire? Is that due to well-qualified candidates job hugging as they know their chances of being laid off are greater if they have the least tenure? Are candidates shifting to gig work?

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site dig into some of the details with Trent, and look forward to more reports like those at www.icims.com/resources.

Today on the High Volume Hiring Podcast our cohosts, Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site, talk with career expert Keith Spencer of Resume Now, which is part of BOLD and a sister company to CareerBuilder, Monster, FlexJobs, and other brands.

Keith acknowledges that recruiters, HR, and others have some but not total control over the factors that lead to turnover, and that it can be difficult to make the changes necessary to reduce it, but there are ways to reduce unwanted turnover in almost every organization.

On today's episode of the High Volume Hiring Podcast, cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site interview Dillon Hill, co-founder of marketing agency Cosmoforge. We talk about about he helped to save his 19 year old friend's life, how that led him into a career in marketing, and what that's taught him about marketing.

We focus on how he breaks down the various components of marketing campaigns to identify what's broken and, therefore, how to prioritize limited resources.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site talk with Dan about how some small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) engage in high-volume hiring, such as chains of restaurants, and how the needs of an employer like that differ massively from the needs of Fortune 1000 or other enterprise-level employer. Both kinds have needs and wants, and what makes for a great ATS for one will likely be awful for the other.

What questions do you ask your potential ATS vendors, including about how they're using AI?

The signals were mixed, with some far stronger than many expected, and others weaker. Candidates might move from job hugging to job chaining given how risky most feel it is to change jobs right now. But, if hiring picks up, and there are signals that it is, employers might again be faced with massive quits and recruitment challenges.

Oh, and if you like Bryan Adams and his song The Summer of '69, then this is an episode that you'll appreciate even more.

Today's guests on the High Volume Hiring Podcast is Martyn Redstone of Eunomia HR. He founded perhaps the first AI-hiring consultancy years before ChatGPT existed, and today helps employers assess and manage the risk and governance issues related to these systems.

Martyn's thoughtful, step-by-step, plain spoken approach to these matters is a breath of fresh air, and are sure to help our audience better understand not just the rewards and risks, but how to maximize those rewards while minimizing the risks.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site learn a little about the boom-and-bust cycles that the mortgage industry goes through, why NewDay believes they're entering a period of rapid growth, and why its paid internships should run for one-week instead of three-months.

Projecting a surge in hiring months or even a year from now? You'll learn how this strategy still allows you to vet great new talent while keeping your costs and risks to a minimum.

These systems have gone from unknown to nice-to-have to must-have within the past decade. And it is no wonder why. Without them, it simply takes too much staff time and too many days for employers to get from application to start dates. On average, that's 44 days. Humanly's goal is five. But can that be done, well, humanely?

Our cohosts, Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site dig into that with Prem, and we think you'll find his answers to be illuminating.

On today's episode of the High Volume Hiring Podcast, Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site discuss the likelihood of a growing divide between the have's and have not's, a potential rebellion, and how embracing radical transparency might save you from that rebellion.

Oh, and if you're feeling a little courageous, check out Recruiting Hell on Reddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/ that Steven references.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site interview Article's head of global TA, Bradley Clark, for today's episode of the High Volume Hiring Podcast. Listen in to learn how the messaging varies depending on the location of the job, location of the candidate, type of role, stage in the hiring process, and more. Oh, and how that segmentation pays off massively for Article.

We recorded this in the Happydance stand at RecFest USA 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. Happydance, which creates award winning employer career sites, has great visibility into what works in different markets and industries, and Hung has great visibility into what works for employers of all types globally.

Some of what we discussed is consistent with what most of our audience might expect, but not everything.

Our guest today is Alexander Shabanov, a technical recruiter with two decades of experience. He's worked in several countries for organizations that differ significantly in terms of size, industry, products, and more. Our cohosts, Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site, dig into the problem that often faces talent acquisition, the solutions that are commonly used, and how using this formula improves on those.

The Medium article we discussed is at https://medium.com/@alshabanov/tackling-high-volume-recruitment-challenges-in-tech-with-optimal-stopping-theory-3e5852830a93 .

iCIMS has incredible visibility into the hiring by thousands of employers for millions of roles and hundreds of millions of applicants. We discuss fascinating trends related to application drop-offs, interview ghosting, time-to-hire, and the massive differences that exist between occupational fields.

Join cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site as they interview Trent Cotton of iCIMS. And download the report today at https://www.icims.com/resources/2025-state-of-frontline-hiring-report/ .

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site talk with Prakhar about what makes AI agentic, where in the recruiting process it best sits, and the need for humans to be in the loop.

We also learn, perhaps unsurprisingly, that Jeanette is far more likely to be regarded as the successful hire, while Steven is deemed to be more like an intern.

Dwane is the Chief Innovation Officer at GBS Worldwide and author of Lean HR. He discussed the key differences between hiring at scale and recruiting for one-off, specialized roles, offering practical insights for employers managing both.

Dwane explained why most organizations don’t need more applicants - they need the right ones - and how to use data, incentives, and authentic employer branding to make that happen. He also shared how GBS applies IO psychology and AI-driven tools to help employers attract, engage, and retain talent at scale.

Employers looking to improve efficiency and create stronger candidate alignment will find Dwane’s perspective both actionable and refreshingly direct.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site talk with Dustin about how Burlington Stores balances its needs related to the scale at  which it hires with its desire to hire the best candidates. That means providing a candidate-friendly process, even when it seems like the whole world is changing every day. For just about any organization hiring at scale, the challenges of rapidly changing technology, economic conditions, political considerations, and more are immense. 

You'll hear from Dustin how Burlington Stores is not just aware of the uncertain times, but is thoughtfully approaching them. Whether you're a candidate searching for a great new career, or an employer looking for best practices from a leading organization, you're going to want to look at Burlington Stores.

Join us for a super fun, upbeat, informative episode. Together with cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site, our guest, Javeed Khan ️ (جافيد خان) Khan, talks about his background in high volume recruitment with IBM, Mastercard, and KPMG and how those experiences led him to starting up agentic AI provider, tidyhire.

We talk about how high volume hiring is evolving, personalization at scale as Matt Alder talks about it, and the three focus areas for every TA professional.

Our other cohost, Jeanette Leeds, learns from Justin that Upwage's assessments are used by some of the world's largest organizations to help them better identify competencies, which are more predictive of workplace performance than job titles that you had with past employers, particularly for those who are early in their careers, applying for high-volume roles, or both.

As we close, we talk with Justin about where assessments should live in the hiring process. Should we just assess finalists? All applicants? Before allowing candidates to apply? He says none of the above, and where he says it should live might surprise you.

Instead of either being all for it or all against it, Steve made it clear that he favors its use if done properly for the employer and candidate. Unfortunately, it often isn't. Sometimes, the errors will prove hard to fix. Other times, they'll be easy.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site also talked with Steve about his concerns about how some employers are choosing to use AI today such as focusing on cutting costs instead of the bigger opportunity of making current employees more productive.

Today's guest, Mike Wolford of Lex Duo, joins us to talk about an aspect that we've barely covered: agentic AI. We can't think of a better person to talk about what it is, what it can do today, what it will be able to do tomorrow, and what TA should do to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks. After all, Mike's the guy who literally wrote the books on AI's use in recruiting and AI-driven workforce analytics, talent intelligence, and predictive hiring strategies.

In addition to talking in plain English about what TA can and should use agentic AI for, we also dig into the business aspects, such as how to communicate its use to candidates. Too many organizations are using AI and yet afraid or ashamed to admit it. Instead, we should be proud of embracing technology and transparency sharing how we do so.

Software development and other engineering work almost all went fully remote in early 2000 but, since then, employer after employer have encouraged or even forced many of those workers back to in-person work in the offices of the employers. Some workers need to come into the office a few times a month, others a few times a week, and others every day. Interestingly, that hasn't seemed to impact how those same organizations view their international contractors.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site also talked with Gino about some of the biggest failures and successes by these organizations. We didn't expect it, but Gino essentially said that they're both related to the same part of the hiring process.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site talk with Sam about the markedly different conversion rates employers see from candidates who come from organic (free) sources such as Google, Bing, and ChatGPT versus from sponsored (paid) sources such as job boards like Indeed, LinkedIn, and College Recruiter. 

We also talk about how it is important to treat those candidates differently. For example, Dalia's data showed that it didn't help better candidates from sponsored sources into applicants or hires, but it had a massive, beneficial impact on those from organic sources. So, for most clients, Dalia will recommend jobs and request emails and mobile numbers from candidates who are about to exit without applying if those candidates came from organic, but not sponsored, sources.

Today's employers, particularly those hiring at scale, need an "all of the above" strategy, where they don't rely just on job boards, or just on SEO, or just on a better ATS experience. And products like Dalia fit very nicely into creating a better ATS experience for candidates without taking anything away from the recruiter experience.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site welcome to the High Volume Hiring Podcast our guest, Andrew Gadomski of Aspen Analytics. He discussed how these competing tools interact, why candidates are using tech to apply to jobs, and how employers should respond.

Oh, and you won't want to miss Andrew's brilliant idea for how Hilton and Marriott Hotels might, in a way that surprised us, be a big part of the solution.

The focus of the previous conversation with cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site was on how everyone within an organization needs to be recruiting, not just the recruiters. Today, we learn that those efforts and many others are succeeding beyond goal. Oh, and that's true even though the goals were expanded.

Social media, authentic videos by Airmen and Guardsmen, and other strategies are all part of the picture. If you're looking for inspiration, you've found it.

Cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site talk with Mark about why video matters in recruitment. Would you rather read some text or get the same info from a short video? Are you more or less likely to feel engaged, to feel seen, and to feel heard when a hiring manager sends you a video or a text email?

And, for employers, what if you could easily and inexpensively bring personalized videos to your hiring process at scale?Want to learn more about the tools mentioned in the episode, as well as some others?

‘Avatar’ Tools to synthesize yourself:

• Synthesia which is currently a clear leader when it comes to quality
• HeyGen, another big name in avatar creation
• Anam, up and coming. Built by ex-Synthesia employees and ridiculously ‘real'
• Collosyan

These tools can be used to create a digital version of yourself. After creation, you can create life-like videos by just using text.

To automate and scale it even further for outreach, you can connect these tools with no-code automation tools to any LLM (ChatGPT, Claude by Anthropic, Gemini by Google) in which you create your outreach.

• Zapier is the market leader, but is getting strong competition:
• Make (up and coming)
• n8n (Which is growing fast)

Cohosts Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site and Jeanette Leeds discuss with Tom how employers can best convert into applicants those candidates who visit the employer's ATS but don't immediately apply.

Across all industries, occupational fields, employers, and job boards, the typical click-to-apply percentage hovers around five percent, meaning that employers are failing to convert into applicants about 19 out of every 20 candidates who are interested enough in a job to go to the employer's career site.

One solution to the problem was recently introduced by Appcast Labs: its Xtend product. Intrigued? Listen in to learn how Appcast is bringing an Amazon-like shopping experience to corporate career sites.

Since the start of Donald Trump's second term as U.S. President on January 20th, there's been massive, economic upheaval both within the United States and internationally. Regardless of whether one feels that's all good, all bad, or somewhere in between, hundreds of thousands of federal government employees have lost their jobs and perhaps millions will over the next year.

Should employers struggling to hire at scale the employees they need look to these newly unemployed, former government workers as part of the solution? Jeanette brings some great data to the discussion, some of which surprised Steven and may surprise you as well.

Cohosts Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site and Jeanette Leeds talk with Dave about organizations large and small have a lot more in common with each other than it might at first appear. Even the U.S. Navy, in which Dave served as a Naval Flight Officer, is really just a collection of eight to 10 person teams. Yes, there are thousands and thousands of those teams, but there are massive similarities between leading and managing employees (two different things) in a massive organization like the Navy and even very small employers with just a handful of employees. 

Learn from Dave as he walks through integrity, accountability, culture, and leadership for organizations of all types and all sizes. Oh, and if you're a history buff, you're going to want to sign up for information about his Battle of Britain tour. 

The executive search firm that Kyle founded, Creative Talent Endeavors, uses an AI algorithm to calculate placement fees based on actual, data-driven criteria, so he does not reflexively preach against the use of AI, nor does he believe that AI is the best thing since sliced bread...for others. Instead, he believes that it best helps in the hiring process when it augments instead of displaces HR professionals.

In today's episode, our cohosts, Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site and Jeanette Leeds explore with Kyle how AI is impacting the quantity and quality of applications employers are receiving, how some are responding, and how all should respond.

In today's episode, our cohosts, Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site and Jeanette Leeds discuss with Harry how automation need not replace people and need not even stop at augmenting their efforts but can, when done right, actually improve the human experience both for the candidate and the employer.

If you're looking for some specific examples of quick wins, you're in luck. We discuss several that your team can put in place almost immediately to free up more of their time to spend more time with the candidates you most want to hire.

JobElephant is a recruitment advertising agency that focuses on higher education and government employers with hiring needs in North America. Michael founded it way back in 2000, so just as the world of recruitment advertising was transitioning from print to digital.

One of our cohosts, Jeanette Leeds, was unavailable to be with us and so our other, Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site, explored with Michael how his clients differ from corporate employers who hire at scale and, as a result, so do the tools that his team recommends.

In today's episode of the High Volume Hiring Podcast, cohosts Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site and Jeanette Leeds discuss the spectrum that employers are seeing. Some applications aren't generated or even assisted by any AI, probably most are assisted in some way even if it's just spelling or grammatical tools, and some are generated by bad actors who want to steal trade secrets, empty company bank accounts, or even worse.

Together, Steven and Jeanette talk about how employers are detecting applications assisted or even generated by AI, what they can and should do with those, and some solutions to the problem for employers who are hiring at scale.

Raymond James was founded in 1962 and became a public company in 1983. It is a Florida-based, diversified holding company providing financial services to individuals, corporations, and municipalities through its subsidiary companies engaged primarily in investment and financial planning. It has tens of thousands of employees.

In today's episode, our cohosts, Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site and Jeanette Leeds discuss with Simon how the hiring of students and recent graduates is, in some ways, quite similar to the hiring of warehouse, retail, hospitality, call center, and other such roles but, in other ways, is massively different.

Our cohosts, Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site and Jeanette Leeds, learn from Ryan how he grew up seeing the struggle that employers experienced in recruiting and then retaining frontline workers. His father worked minimum 12-hour shifts and weekends as the owner/operator of a manufacturing business and continually struggled with these issues.

Join us if you're interested in creating a proven and automated process for attracting, hiring, and retaining rock stars who love what they do, are committed to your organization, and stay. 

Our cohosts, Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter and Jeanette Leeds, talk with James about how AI can empower talent acquisition and recruiting teams. Some TA tech vendors and recruiting teams measure the effectiveness of AI and other systems based on process-related metrics such as reducing the amount of time recruiters spend viewing resumes. James instead advocates for the use of outcomes-based metrics such as reducing the cost of sourcing the desired number of qualified applicants or reducing the time to hire.

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) like Cadient, however, have a massive amount of data, including the likelihood of a candidate from one source being far more likely to stay for years than a similar candidate from another source.

In today's episode, guest Jon Puckett of Cadient and cohosts Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site and Jeanette Leeds make the case that unattractive workplace policies negatively impact retention for all employees, but not equally. Improving those policies will help across the board but looking at retention data by source can also massively help not just with retention, but also with your recruitment strategies.

Jeanette delivered some well-deserved praise for her panelists, Amanda Robbins of Robbins Recruiting Solutions and Sarah Kummer of T-Mobile, and then broke down their one-hour conversation into four best practices. Also receiving some podcast love was friend of the show, Matt Alder of the Recruiting Future Podcast.

Join Jeanette and Steven as they talk through each of the best practices when you're hiring at scale.

Today, however, we're joined by Max Armbruster from Talkpush for a live demo of Sam, a new, generative artificial intelligence, voicebot recruiter. Our cohost, Jeanette Leeds, plays the candidate receiving a call from Sam, answering questions, asking some of her own, and then being scored against the truck driver role to which she applied.

Will Jeanette be hired away from the High Volume Hiring Podcast and, if so, will her cohost Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site soon be replacing her with the assistance of Sam?

One of the many pieces of wisdom she shared was that it is already more important for employers to be authenticated than authentic. Wow. What an amazing revelation. Simple yet brilliant and profound.

On today's episode, JT and Steven are joined by our other cohost, Jeanette Leeds, to discuss why and how employers need to be authenticated even if they're already being authentic.

Moments before guest Thad Price, CEO of Talroo, was to join cohosts Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter and Jeanette Leeds to talk about ghosting, the Internet gods decided to cut power to the neighborhood into which Steven moved yesterday. But fear not, you tricksters. Thad, Steven, and Jeanette regrouped via hotspot and Zoom.

In today's episode, Thad defines what candidate ghosting is, why it happens, and how Talroo and other recruitment marketing leaders are helping employers of all sizes avoid it.

Today cohosts Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter and Jeanette Leeds are joined by a practitioner who is also a veteran and great at providing advice. Dennis Tupper of Wells Fargo joins the podcast to talk about some of the more unusual high-volume hiring challenges he's faced (phlebotomists, anyone?) and how he -- and therefore you -- can overcome those challenges.

The conversation flies by (pun intended) as Gen. Amrhein shares data regarding the numbers engaged, interviewed, and "hired"; improvements to the process; and examples of how everyone plays an important part.

This episode was even more meaningful to cohost Jeanette Leeds as her grandfather, Dr. Leonard Leeds, was a major in the Air Force, served in England during WWII, and flew missions over Germany. Our other cohost, Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter, grew up in Canada and immigrated as an adult to the U.S., so the discussion of accelerating naturalized citizenship particularly resonated with him.

Today's guest, Kenny Wright of Advantage.ai, walks us through the accidental creation of the company and explains the benefits of programmatic advertising for employers who are hiring at scale. Spoiler alert: the benefits vary, just as the needs and wants of the employers vary. 

Our cohosts, Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter and Jeanette Leeds are big fans of programmatic job ad buying, especially when used by employers with high-volume hiring needs.

We're moving to a video, live-stream format even though the people who know us best repeatedly tell us that we have faces for radio.

We're happy to notify you when we're up-and-running in April 2023. For our High Volume Hiring Podcast, go to https://www2.collegerecruiter.com/highvolumehiringlivestream and click the Follow button. For our Inside Job Boards and Recruitment Marketplaces Podcast, go to  https://www2.collegerecruiter.com/insidejobboardslivestream and click the Follow button. Better yet, go to both and click Follow for each because, well, the more the merrier.

New boost

Candidate.ID, recently re-named to iCIMS Marketing Automation, allows talent acquisition teams to become far more efficient and effective in getting their employment brands and opportunities in front of candidates. Instead of blasting the same email to all candidates, marketing automation systems like Marketo, Pardot, and iCIMS Marketing Automation automatically send different emails to different candidates depending on factors such as which emails they open and when, which links within those emails they click, and what content on the career site they engage with. Recruiters are notified when a candidate of interest then engages with enough of the right contact so recruiters get to spend far more of their time with candidates who are already interested, instead of having to first determine which candidates might be interested.

Lou is the author of the Amazon top-10 best-seller, Hire With Your Head and The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired. He has been featured on Fox News and his articles and posts can be found on Inc. Magazine, BusinessInsider, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.

Prior to his executive search experience, Lou held executive level operations and financial management positions at the Allen Group and at Rockwell International's automotive and consumer electronics groups. He holds an MBA from UCLA and a BS Engineering from Clarkson University.

In today's podcast, Lou will share his methodical and, for some, out-of-the-box approach to hiring the world's best candidates for the world's best opportunities, whether those roles are with b-to-b companies with no consumer brand or with employers with incredibly strong consumer brands. In short, instead of focusing on the education or experience that the candidate has achieved, Lou favors a performance-based approach where candidates are selected based on their proven ability to do the work.

best vendors, questions to ask on demos, how to think about ROI, implementation best practices, and more.

If you're looking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your high-volume hiring efforts through the addition of new software or other automation, this is an episode that you won't want to miss as you'll learn from Phil how they identify potential vendors to review, the process they follow when reviewing those, and how you as a potential customer of those vendors can make the best use of those reviews.

Employers may be surprised at some of what Bill has to say, including that the process of hiring people -- high volume or not -- is remarkably similar around the world but with some local nuances. Even more surprising, however, is the discussion on how unimportant an employer's brand is to a candidate deciding what jobs to apply to, yet that doesn't mean that the brand is unimportant. It is important, but not until much later in the hiring process than many employers have been led to believe.

In today's episode, we talk about the state of recruiting post-pandemic, some of the differences between high and more normal volumes of hiring, and the technology that makes sense for high volume employers.

Dr. Gibson addresses some of the biggest myths and fallacies about pre-hire assessments. This is a can't miss episode if you're frustrated with the assessments you're using, interested in the massive changes to how assessments are now designed and being used, or concerned that adding one will make it harder for you to hire the people you need as quickly as you need them.

Today's guest, Kevin Grossman, is the President of the Talent Board, a non-profit that has used a carrot instead of stick approach to encouraging employers to deliver a better candidate experience. In this episode, Kevin discusses what today's hourly candidates are experiencing including their communications with employers, how many minutes it takes to apply to an average role, and why some employers are having an easier time than others attracting the candidates they need both in terms of quality and quantity. The answers may surprise you.

John makes it clear that he is a fan of technology, yet he also doesn't pull any punches when it comes to identifying how some employers use software in a way that creates great legal, financial, and ethical risks. This episode is a don't miss for those who are currently or considering the use of tools that leverage artificial intelligence as John lays out not just the problems with using AI to screen and select candidates, but also how it can be well used to assist in that process.

Kevin is the Founder of The Future of Talent Institute, a consortium of organizations and individuals who explore emerging issues in talent management, staffing, recruiting, employee development, retention, and leadership development. Its members comprise a wide range of sizes, industries, and locations.

In today's episode, host Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter and Kevin discuss how the tools and tactics used by high volume hiring organizations in a country like the U.S. at times are remarkably similar and at other times remarkably different from those used by somewhat similar organizations in another country like Australia. They also talk about how high volume hiring has been impacted by concerns over a recession, whether that's coming at some point in the distant future, right around the corner, or already here.

A year ago, CareerXroads formed a similar community for talent solutions vendors and College Recruiter was one of the founding members. What started as a community of 15 members has grown to 21 and is on the way to thirty.

Gerry shares some formative moments from his career, including what led to the founding of CareerXroads in 1996 (hint, it had something to do with the Internet) and how that organization has evolved as the needs of its members have evolved. Yet, from Gerry's perspective, little has changed since 1996 when it comes to recruiting at scale. The software and other tools may be different. The recruiting leaders may have different names. But, at the end of the day, organizations can better solve their high volume hiring needs by focusing more on expanding the available labor pool than by continually looking for ways to reduce their recruitment costs.

Yet can Amazon continue to hire the people that it needs? The uncomfortable truth is that it cannot -- and internally admits so -- without fundamentally changing its approach to how it recruits and retains its largely part-time, hourly workforce. Internal documents reveal that Amazon is already running out of potential employees in multiple key markets and will run out in most within several years. Instead of reacting to the problem when it is too late, leaders at Amazon have identified the threat and are working feverishly to solve the problem. What is apparent is that the problem cannot be solved easily nor will one change -- large or small -- solve the problem. Instead, Amazon is actively working along multiple paths to ensure that it can continue not just to survive, but also to thrive, in a world where its current high volume hiring practices will no longer be feasible.

In today's episode of the High Volume Hiring Podcast, host Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter talks with Jon Beck, the Founder and CEO of Ursus, Inc. and host of the Hiring University podcast. Ursus is a technical and creative staffing provider headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area with employees and clients located almost everywhere in the United States.

Jon and Steven talk about the experiences they and their organizations have had over the years running what some would call virtual companies but which can better be described as fully remote workforces. Unlike the organizations who adopted a remote workforce model because of Covid, both Ursus and College Recruiter chose to be fully remote years before Covid. That's led to some interesting parallels between their organizations, including the need for managers who are able and willing to manage by outcomes instead of process. The question of whether you completed the assignment as directed becomes far more important to a well-qualified manager than whether you came in early, stayed late, worked hard, or were dressed in a manner that others might deem to be appropriate.

The conversation concludes with Jon picturing himself as the head of talent acquisition for a large organization that hires at scale and the three things that he would want to make sure it does.

Host Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter and Elena discuss the reality that one of the primary reasons that some organizations need to hire at scale is because their retention of existing employees is so low. If those employers can reduce their turnover, they can reduce their hiring needs. Steven and Elena agree that one of the best ways to improve retention is to invest in learning and development. By spending more on current employees, employers can spend less recruiting new employees.

We also learn about Elena's background including growing up in Russia, moving to the United States when she was 13 years old, why she wasn't accepted into any four-year college or university when she applied during high school, and the choices -- some deliberate and some not -- that she then made to continue her education and build her career. In short, we learn how Elena is the epitome of why more organizations should embrace the hiring of non-traditional candidates and how that inevitably leads to a more diverse and therefore productive workforce.

In today's episode, host Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter and Max agree that the use of good recruitment automation systems enable employers to expand their talent pools, increase their click-to-apply and apply-to-hire conversion rates, shorten their time-to-hire and other response times, and massively lower their costs-per-hire. Yet as promising as these systems are for some employers and beneficial for many who are already using them, they exist in the middle-of-the-funnel, meaning that the employer first has to get candidates into the hiring funnel, perhaps through sourcing efforts or advertising their job openings on niche or general job boards.

In the July 1, 2022 UWM Report, Dr. Chesley wrote about the pros and cons of automated hiring systems, which include applicant tracking systems (ATS), job boards, assessment sites, and video interviewing platforms. She identified four primary problems: (1) algorithms may not use the best criteria for matching; (2) using automated hiring systems can create problems at scale; (3) more recruiters want "purple squirrels"; and (4) automated hiring systems can lead to alientation. In today's podcast, Dr. Chesley describes and discussed each of these in a balanced, nonjudgmental manner. That a hiring system is automated is neither good nor bad, but how they're designed and used can lead to positive or negative outcomes for candidates, employers, and others.

Subscribe now to join Steven Rothberg for his new podcast, available August 22nd!