It’s a tricky hiring surroundings lately. Many companies have slowed or paused hiring amid financial uncertainty. So, any employer rising its hiring quantity is sort of a magnet for job-seekers.
That’s the case for Progressive. The insurance coverage big just lately introduced plans to rent greater than 12,000 staff for 2025, up from 10,000 new hires final 12 months. Moreover, the corporate’s expertise acquisition group expects to obtain a whole bunch of hundreds of functions this 12 months, Progressive’s enterprise chief of expertise acquisition, Neil Lenane, tells HR Brew. Lenane shared how the corporate plans to handle that quantity of résumés whereas supporting the enterprise’s progress.
Hiring spree. A lot of Progressive’s progress stems from booming enterprise. Final 12 months, Progressive added greater than 5 million insurance policies whereas web premiums collected grew by 21% to $74.4 billion. On high of that, the corporate has already added 1.3 million insurance policies within the first quarter of 2025.
The biggest bucket of recent hires this 12 months, round 5,000, will account for this progress, Lenane stated. The rest shall be to fill vacancies created by inside promotions which Progressive should rent externally for, and lastly, to fill attrition.
A lot of the roles Progressive will rent for contain claims and phone middle roles—50% of the corporate’s workforce is in claims.
“[We’re] all the time ensuring that we’ve got people to have the ability to deal with claims and or to exchange the parents who’ve moved into trainers and management and all these issues,” Lenane stated.
They’re bulking up their authorized group as properly. “Attorneys is an enormous focus this 12 months once more as we get extra coverage holders, extra claims, you want extra legal professionals to have the ability to symbolize our insurance coverage after they’re in accidents,” Lenane stated.
TA benefit. At a time when many hiring groups are getting flooded with elevated résumé volumes, any employer rising its ranks can count on a tsunami. Progressive receives a mean of 800,000 functions yearly, and Lenane stated quantity for roles that sometimes don’t appeal to a lot curiosity has spiked. For instance, a current opening for a digital and communication supervisor function netted 178 functions when traditionally it will not have acquired greater than 30, in response to Lenane.
“I’m not struggling to seek out folks. The place you’re all the time challenged is to seek out the proper people primarily based on the skillset and people who find themselves going to thrive in a really inclusive tradition,” he stated.
Nevertheless it’s not simply actively hiring throughout a recruitment slowdown that’s attracting expertise to Progressive. The insurance coverage firm has a bonus over a few of its opponents, because it has established a distant or hybrid-friendly coverage for many roles together with in claims, buyer care, IT, analyst, authorized, and company features, whereas opponents like Geico and Farmers have applied return-to-office mandates. And, as companies in different professions that Progressive employs, reminiscent of tech, implement strict RTO mandates, that can drive expertise its method as properly.
“The extra corporations which might be dialing again distant, hybrid work, the extra these folks are typically in my hiring swimming pools,” Lenane stated.
Turning to AI. To accommodate the quickly rising variety of job candidates, Lenane’s group is leveraging AI.
With recruitment, AI is used to forecast progress expectations and form hiring technique, supply candidates, and lower down recruiters’ workloads.
“I get 800,000 candidates. I can’t discuss to each single one in every of them,” Lenane stated. In consequence, Progressive has adopted asynchronous interviews, permitting candidates to reply questions despatched to them over video at their very own comfort. AI is used to assist hiring groups perceive how that particular person would achieve that function, although a recruiter in the end makes the choice on who to maneuver ahead with.
“AI is enhancing our capacity to make selections and remedy issues,” Lenane stated. “However on the finish of the day, the people are driving the bus.”
Eye on candidate expertise. As AI hastens the hiring course of, Lenane’s group should be conscious about candidate expertise. Round one in each 4 candidates are present or potential Progressive prospects, he notes, and poor experiences can flip away future enterprise—particularly if folks air out their frustrations on-line.
“We’re transferring lots sooner by way of the method as a result of we’re leveraging know-how. In order that modifications folks’s expectations,” Lenane stated.
Lenane’s group has elevated deal with offering candidates with suggestions, reminiscent of suggesting how they’ll enhance their interview conduct, or recommending different roles they’re higher fitted to.
“We’re in a position to have just a little bit extra of these varieties of interactions…as a result of a few of the techniques are serving to them do a few of the again finish admin work,” Lenane stated.
This report was initially revealed by HR Brew.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
