Retail and Hospitality & Travel Leading in Automation, Healthcare and Transportation Falling Behind According to State of High-Volume Hiring: 2025 Benchmarks Report

Phenom today released its State of High-Volume Hiring: 2025 Benchmarks Report, which analyzed 101 companies on their maturity and use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology to hire frontline, hourly, seasonal and high-turnover roles across Retail, Hospitality & Travel, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing, and Transportation & Distribution. While many have started adopting and implementing AI and automation to attract and hire best-fit candidates efficiently, the audit revealed only 32% demonstrated widespread adoption — indicating challenges in managing fluctuating workforce demands amid competitive labor markets.

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Sixty-eight percent (68%) of companies rely on manual hiring processes and struggle to scale efficiently, according to the Phenom State of High-Volume Hiring: 2025 Benchmarks Report, which analyzed 101 companies on their maturity and use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology to hire frontline, hourly, seasonal and high-turnover roles across Retail, Hospitality & Travel, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing, and Transportation & Distribution. (Photo: Business Wire)

Failing to optimize high-volume hiring processes can lead to missed talent goals, increased operational costs, and reduced employee engagement and market responsiveness. Enterprises that automate critical hiring tasks — such as job discovery, interview scheduling and screening – are significantly reducing the time and cost of onboarding new employees while enhancing candidate experiences and productivity for hiring teams.

Where Organizations are Failing to Optimize Hiring Processes at Scale

• 99% of companies did not offer the opportunity for a candidate to record answers to interview questions with video one-way interviews

• 95% of Manufacturing companies did not give qualified candidates the option to schedule an interview right away or within minutes of completing an application

• 83% of Healthcare companies did not allow candidates to upload a resume in the chatbot to help find the best job opportunities

• 82% of companies did not allow a candidate to complete the application in a chatbot or SMS conversation

• 79% of Transportation & Distribution companies did not use assessments to screen frontline candidates

How Organizations are Adopting Technology for High-Volume Hiring

• 65% of Hospitality & Travel companies allowed a candidate to complete the application without creating a username and password — twice as many companies as in other industries that offer this feature, and nearly four times more than Retail companies

• 54% of Retail and Hospitality & Travel companies ranked Advanced or Transformational on the Maturity Matrix, leading the way in overall scores and maturity

• 40% of companies had a chatbot on their career site

• 20% of Retail and Hospitality & Travel companies allowed qualified candidates to automatically schedule an interview

Recommendations to Improve Hiring at Scale

The High-Volume Hiring report provides actionable insights, industry benchmarks and recommendations for all organizations to improve. It also explores the impact of AI and automation in modernizing recruitment efforts, reducing friction in the hiring process, attracting higher-quality talent and ultimately achieving greater operational efficiency.

Recommendations for organizations just getting started include implementing:

• AI-Powered Resume Screening: Drastically reduce the time spent manually reviewing resumes by implementing AI-powered screening tools that automatically assess applications against pre-set criteria and prioritize qualified candidates in the hiring process.

• Automated Interview Scheduling: Automated scheduling tools enable candidates to self-select interview times that fit their availability, speeding up the hiring process and reducing scheduling conflicts — allowing companies to fill frontline roles faster, especially during busy seasons.

• Chatbots for Candidate Engagement: Deploy AI-powered chatbots to handle initial candidate inquiries, determine the best fit based on location and experience, answer frequently asked questions, and guide candidates through the application process to improve engagement and reduce drop-off rates without human intervention.

• Mobile-Friendly Applications: With many frontline applicants applying to jobs on the go, implementing mobile-optimized, easy-to-navigate applications that do not require a username and password and include AI-driven form suggestions enhances the candidate experience and increases completion rates.

“Not enough organizations across sectors including transportation, manufacturing and healthcare are rapidly adopting AI and automation — this must change if they want to gain a competitive edge during next year’s hiring rush, or risk their bottom line,” said Bill Venteicher, Sr. Director, Product Marketing at Phenom. “Fortunately, the tools they need to get there exist, and our High-Volume Hiring report provides insights companies can immediately act on to meet their goals for hiring at scale.”

To read the State of High-Volume Hiring: 2025 Benchmarks report, download here. Organizations can request their own complimentary high-volume hiring audit here.

With Phenom, candidates find and choose the right job faster, employees develop their skills and evolve, recruiters become wildly productive, talent marketers engage with extreme efficiency, talent leaders optimize hiring processes, managers build stronger-performing teams, HR aligns employee development with company goals, and HRIT easily integrates existing HR tech to create a holistic infrastructure.

About Phenom

Phenom has a purpose of helping a billion people find the right work. Through AI-powered talent experiences, employers use Phenom to hire and onboard employees faster, develop them to their full potential, and retain them longer. The Phenom Intelligent Talent Experience platform seamlessly connects candidates, employees, recruiters, talent marketers, talent leaders, hiring managers, HR and HRIT — empowering diverse and global enterprises with innovative products including Phenom X+ Generative AI, Career Site, Chatbot, CMS, Talent CRM, X+ Screening, Automated Interview Scheduling, Interview Intelligence, Talent Experience Engine, Campaigns, University Recruiting, Contingent Talent Hiring, Onboarding, Talent Marketplace, Workforce Intelligence, Career Pathing, Gigs, Mentoring, and Referrals.

Phenom has earned accolades including: Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing companies (5 consecutive years), Deloitte Technology's Fast 500 (4 consecutive years), five Brandon Hall ‘Excellence in Technology’ awards including Gold for ‘Best Advance in AI for Business Impact,’ Business Intelligence Group's Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards (3 consecutive years), and a regional Timmy Award for launching and optimizing HelpOneBillion.com (2020).

Headquartered in Greater Philadelphia, Phenom also has offices in India, Israel, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom.

For more information, please visit www.phenom.com. Connect with Phenom on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

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“Not enough organizations across sectors are rapidly adopting AI and automation — this must change if they want to gain a competitive edge during next year’s hiring rush,” said Bill Venteicher, Sr. Director, Product Marketing at Phenom.