The progressive insurance giant hires 12,000 workers this year – and it uses AI to analyze hundreds of thousands of requests
It is a difficult hiring environment these days. Many companies have slowed down or interrupted hiring in the middle of economic uncertainty. Thus, any employer increasing their hiring volume is like a magnet for job seekers.
This is the case for progressive. The insurance giant recently announced its intention to hire more than 12,000 employees for 2025, against 10,000 new hires last year. In addition, the company’s talent acquisition team plans to receive hundreds of thousands of requests this year, Progressive Hr Brew told HR Brew. Lenane explained how the company plans to manage this volume of curriculum vitae while supporting the growth of the company.
Spree hiring.Much of the growth of progressive stems from booming affairs. Last year, Progressive added more than 5 million fonts while the net bonuses collected increased by 21% to 74.4 billion dollars. In addition to this, the company has already added 1.3 million policies in the first quarter of 2025.
The biggest bucket of new hires this year, around 5,000 years, will explain this growth, said Lenane. The rest will be to fill the vacancies created by internal promotions for which progressive must hire outside and, finally, to fill the attrition.
Most progressive roles will hire for complaints and contact center roles – 50% of the company’s workforce is in complaint.
“”[We’re] Always make sure we have people to be able to manage claims and or replace people who moved into trainers and leadership and all these things, “said Lenane.
They also inflate their legal team. “Lawyers are again a big goal this year because we get more policy holders, more complaints, you need more lawyers to be able to represent our insurance when they are in accidents,” said Lenane.
Your ad “. At a time when many hiring teams are flooded with curriculum vitae increased volumes, any employer cultivating their ranks can expect a tsunami. Progressive receives an average of 800,000 requests per year, and Lenane said that the volume for roles that generally do not attract much interest has increased. For example, a recent opening for a digital and communication official marked 178 applications when, historically, he would not have received more than 30, according to Lenane.
“I have no trouble finding people. Where you are always challenged, it’s finding the right people based on skills and people who will thrive in a very inclusive culture,” he said.
But it is not only hiring actively during a slowdown in recruitment that attracts progressive talents. The insurance company has an advantage over some of its competitors, because it has established a distant or hybrid policy for most roles, in particular in complaints, customer service, IT, analyst, legal and business functions, while competitors like Geico and farmers have implemented returns to the office. And, as a business of other professions that progressive use, such as technology, implement strict RTO mandates, this will also stimulate talent.
“The more companies that reproduce distant and hybrid work, the more these people tend to be in my job swimming pools,” said Lenane.
Turning to AI.To adapt to the growing number of employment candidates, the Lenane team takes advantage of AI.
With recruitment, AI is used to predict growth expectations and shape the hiring strategy, the original candidates and the reduction in the workloads of recruiters.
“I receive 800,000 candidates. I cannot speak to each of them,” said Lenane. Consequently, Progressive has adopted asynchronous interviews, allowing candidates to answer the questions sent to them on the video at their own convenience. AI is used to help hire teams to understand how this individual would succeed in this role, although a recruiter finally makes the decision to move forward.
“AI improves our ability to make decisions and solve problems,” said Lenane. “But at the end of the day, humans drive the bus.”
Eye on the experience of candidates.While AI accelerates the hiring process, the Lenana team must be aware of the experience of candidates. About one in four candidate are current or potential progressive customers, he notes, and bad experiences can divert future affairs, especially if people express their frustrations online.
“We are going much faster in the process because we take advantage of technology. It therefore changes people’s expectations,” said Lenane.
The Lenane team has focused on the supply of candidates candidates, such as suggesting how they can improve their interview or recommend other roles for which they are better suited.
“We can have a little more of these types of interactions … because some systems help them do part of the rear administration work,” said Lenane.
This report was initially published by HR BREW.
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
