Episodes

  • How 7-Eleven uses tech, automation to convert applicants to hires

    How 7-Eleven uses tech, automation to convert applicants to hires
    Apr 22 2026
    Today's special episode of the High Volume Hiring Podcast was part of Michael Glenn's Employer Branding EXP and featured guest Rachel Allen, 7-Eleven's head of TA, and cohosts Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site. 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.
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    48 mins
  • Rethinking the funnel: High volume without high noise

    Rethinking the funnel: High volume without high noise
    Apr 16 2026
    Today's employers receive far more applications than they did for similar roles a few years ago, and exponentially more than a few decades ago. But are the applicants worse fits than they used to be, or are we just having a harder time determining their fit? 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.
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    20 mins
  • Hiring for AI fluency by measuring prompting skills? You're screening for an outdated skill.

    Hiring for AI fluency by measuring prompting skills? You're screening for an outdated skill.
    Apr 2 2026
    Chelsea Schein, PhD of Veris Insights and The Wharton School of Business is our guest on today's High Volume Hiring Podcast to discuss not another new AI product but, instead, the people who will use those products and how to best to hire them. 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.
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    17 mins
  • Breaking News: What ICIMS March Workforce Report reveals that BLS doesn't

    Breaking News: What ICIMS March Workforce Report reveals that BLS doesn't
    Mar 19 2026
    Trent Cotton of ICIMS joins us for the third time to discuss their just published Workforce Report. Trent breaks down the key findings, and also points out the mysteries of what we're seeing in the labor market. 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.
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    19 mins
  • Turnover is high in some industries. What can you do about it?

    Turnover is high in some industries. What can you do about it?
    Mar 19 2026
    A key reason some employers hire at scale is because of high turnover. Some turnover is to be expected, and often beneficial, but some should be avoided, and is detrimental. 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.
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    17 mins
  • How to prioritize your recruitment marketing budget

    How to prioritize your recruitment marketing budget
    Mar 5 2026
    It is often said that recruitment marketing lags consumer marketing by five to 10 years. One reason for that is that consumer marketing budgets far exceed ours. That makes it far harder for us to pilot or A/B test and that holds back innovation. 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.
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    16 mins
  • How to select an ATS

    How to select an ATS
    Feb 19 2026
    Dan Arkind, who likes to refer to himself as a recovering recruiter, but who is also the CEO of JobScore, is today's guest on the High Volume Hiring Podcast to talk applicant tracking systems. 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?
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    18 mins
  • Workforce Report: Increased hiring yet job searching is risky

    Workforce Report: Increased hiring yet job searching is risky
    Feb 5 2026
    We first interviewed Trent Cotton of iCIMS in October 2025 to discuss data it was reporting in its superb (and free!) monthly Workforce Report. Well, he's back to discuss the January report, and those surprised him as well as our cohosts, Jeanette Leeds and Steven Rothberg of College Recruiter job search site. 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.
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    17 mins