High-volume recruitment case studies show what's possible when companies get hiring right. But most case studies either offer generic advice ("streamline your process, adopt technology") or profile enterprises like Amazon and Walmart with near-limitless budgets, months-long implementations, and armies of recruiters.
After helping 5,000+ teams adopt asynchronous hiring, here's what we've learned: real success in scaling recruitment comes from rethinking your process and challenging long-held assumptions, not from having bigger budgets or buying the most expensive tools.
If you're overwhelmed by hundreds or thousands of applicants per role, and looking for a fast, fair, and cost-effective way to scale bulk recruitment, this article is for you.
We'll show you four companies that scaled high-volume recruitment by rethinking their approach first, then finding the tools to execute it. You'll learn from recruiters who succeeded without enterprise resources, without massive headcount, and without sacrificing quality or candidate experience.
Here are the key takeaways:
- Technology doesn't solve the problem—it enables the solution you choose. The companies that succeeded didn't just "adopt video interviewing." They first identified what actually predicts success in their roles, then found tools that let them test for it at scale.
- Volume creates opportunity, not burden. When you process every application fairly (not just the first 10%), you find candidates that competitors miss. The best hire is statistically unlikely to be in the first small slice of applications.
- Your biggest competitor for talent isn't other companies—it's candidate friction. The moment you require account creation, force rigid scheduling, or add unnecessary hoops, you lose exactly who you want: confident, employed people with options.
- Efficiency and inclusivity aren't trade-offs—they're the same thing. When you give candidates flexibility (audio vs. video, complete on their schedule), you simultaneously speed up your process and expand your accessible talent pool.
Let's dive in.
1. EDF Managed 17,000 Applications Per Season While Maintaining Inclusive Hiring
EDF Energy, one of the UK's largest energy suppliers, runs extensive graduate and early careers programs that attract thousands of applications annually. During peak recruiting season, EDF processes over 17,000 applications. Their recruitment team faced a key challenge.
They needed to move quickly to secure top talent without compromising their commitment to inclusive hiring practices. Phone screens were taking 30-40 minutes per candidate, plus note-taking time. Recruiters were drowning in administrative work rather than actually evaluating talent.
“Getting over 17,000 applications is absolutely fantastic for us. But equally from a resource perspective, it can be really challenging.”
EDF’s Hiring Strategy
After trying a major video interview platform but found it difficult to use, cost-prohibitive, and overly complicated for candidates, EDF changed its approach. It recognized that inclusive hiring and efficient hiring aren't mutually exclusive—they're actually complementary. Instead of viewing high volume as a burden, they redesigned their process to give every candidate a fair shot while dramatically reducing time-to-hire. Structured assessments create consistency, and consistency creates fairness.
The Solution in Action:
- Implemented one-way video interviews that allowed candidates to complete initial screenings on their own schedule
- Offered candidates the choice between video or audio-only responses to accommodate different comfort levels and accessibility needs
- Maintained a consistent evaluation framework across all 17,000+ applications, eliminating the statistical bias of only reviewing early applicants
Results
EDF now processes more than 17,000 applications per recruiting season while cutting recruiter admin time by 50% in half. More importantly, they've built a system where the best candidate statistically has an equal chance of being discovered, regardless of when they applied or how polished their resume looks.
The Lesson: High-volume hiring done right actually improves candidate experience and fairness. When you remove administrative friction, recruiters can focus on what matters: understanding whether someone can do the job.
Read the full EDF case study here.
2. Packaly Scaled Gig Economy Hiring From 7 Days to 8 Hours
Packaly is a parcel shipping company connecting businesses with courier drivers for on-demand deliveries across the UK. When Packaly needed to scale its network of riders to over 3,500 people, it hit a stark reality. Managing the interview volume at scale would require hiring four additional full-time recruiters.
At that point, the cost of hiring begins to eat directly into growth budgets. They had seven days from application to onboarding, which created a bottleneck that prevented them from scaling quickly enough to meet customer demand.
Packaly’s strategy: Treat hiring like customer onboarding.
Packaly realized they were treating courier hiring like corporate hiring, when it needed to be treated like customer onboarding. Speed and simplicity mattered more than lengthy assessments. They asked: "What's the minimum viable information we need to make a good hiring decision, and how can we get it without burning time?"
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The Solution in Action:
- Redesigned their screening process around the actual competencies required for courier work: communication, reliability, and basic logistics understanding
- Automated repetitive screening tasks without removing human judgment from final decisions
- Created a candidate experience that respected drivers' time and eliminated unnecessary hoops
Results
Packaly reduced candidate onboarding from seven days to just eight hours. Their team effectively does the work of four full-time recruiters without actually hiring them, saving hundreds of thousands in annual recruiting costs. More importantly, they can now scale their courier network at the speed their business demands.
Key lesson: The right process design is worth more than additional headcount. When you eliminate administrative waste, small teams can accomplish what previously required an army.
Read the full Packaly case study here.
3. Lunio Replaced Agencies with an Employer Brand Strategy (and Saved $50k)
Lunio is a marketing optimization SaaS company that protects ad campaigns from invalid traffic like bots and click fraud. Following their Series A funding of £15 million, they planned to double their 78-person team within 12 months.
Caitlin Ingham, Lunio's talent acquisition lead, faced a classic scaling dilemma: they needed to rapidly build out their SDR team, and conventional wisdom said the only way to handle volume hiring was through recruitment agencies. But agencies couldn't sell Lunio's culture the way someone living it every day could. The question wasn't whether to scale—it was how to scale without losing what made Lunio special.
Lunio’s strategy
Lunio challenged the assumption that "you can't function without an agency for volume hires." Instead of outsourcing their employer brand, they replaced the initial phone screen with Willo video interviews to own the candidate experience in-house.
- Implemented a Willo’s virtual interview platform to screen high volumes of SDR candidates efficiently
- Designed interview questions that surfaced personality and culture fit, not just rehearsed responses
- Created a process where every candidate who received an offer came through the same screening system
Results
Lunio successfully built its SDR team without using an agency, maintaining control over its employer brand while scaling efficiently. Caitlin can screen volume candidates while doing her job in a more leisurely way and really personalizing the process. Every person offered a role came through their Willo screening process.
“I can’t assess if a candidate is going to be memorable or not based on an agency recruiter telling me,” said Caitlin. “But I can, using Willo.”
Key lesson: Volume hiring doesn't mean impersonal hiring. The right tools enable you to maintain an authentic connection while scaling. That authenticity is exactly what differentiates great hires from adequate ones.
Read the full Lunio case study here.
4. Madison Reed Cut Time-to-Hire in Half for Nationwide Recruitment
Madison Reed is a beauty brand founded by Amy Errett that's reshaping the hair color industry with salon-quality, cruelty-free formulas available both at-home and in over 95 Hair Color Bars nationwide. Innovation, inclusivity, and empowerment are core to their brand.
With rapid national expansion underway, Madison Reed needed to evolve how they attracted and assessed talent for in-store stylist roles. Stylist candidates typically juggle multiple jobs or non-traditional schedules, making traditional interview scheduling nearly impossible. The team wanted to hire in a way that honored their core values—love, joy, courage, responsibility, and trust—without sacrificing speed or scale.
Madison Reed’s strategy
Madison Reed asked a powerful question: "What if we treated candidates the same way we treat customers?" Stylists needed to show up on their own terms—after shifts, between jobs, when they felt most comfortable. The team realized that a resume doesn't tell a story, but a person does. They needed to hear candidates' voices, their energy, their authentic stories—things that would be overlooked on paper or lost in a phone screen scheduled during a lunch break.
To do that, they adopted the following solution:
- Implemented Willo's async hiring with flexible response formats (audio or video) so busy stylists could participate authentically on their schedules
- Used custom intro videos and values-based questions to give candidates space to share stories that a resume never could
- Set up smart automation with email and SMS reminders to ensure high completion rates without manual follow-up.
Result
Madison Reed doubled their candidate response rates and cut time-to-hire for stylists in half—from 30+ days to under 15 days. They're saving 66% on screening time by replacing 30-minute phone calls with 10-minute video reviews. More importantly, they've discovered incredible talent that would have been overlooked on paper.
“A resume doesn’t tell a story, a person does. With Willo, we’ve uncovered incredible talent that would’ve been overlooked on paper. Hearing someone’s voice, their energy, their story - it changes everything. It’s helped us not only find the right fit faster, but also guide candidates toward roles where they truly thrive.” Arianna Watters, Regional Talent Acquisition Partner, West Coast, Madison Reed
Key Lesson: Hiring can be transformational, not transactional. When you give candidates the flexibility to show up authentically—on their schedule, in their environment, telling their story their way—you discover talent that traditional processes miss entirely. The best hiring experiences honor the reality of candidates' lives instead of forcing them into rigid, inconvenient processes.
Read the full Madison Reed case study here
What This Means for Your High-Volume Hiring
These five companies come from different industries—energy, logistics, SaaS, digital services, and aviation. They hired for different roles: graduates, gig workers, sales teams, product builders, and operational staff.
But they all followed the same playbook: Strategy first, tools second. Similarly, they stopped viewing high-volume hiring as a challenge to survive and started treating it as an opportunity to build a competitive advantage.
- EDF managed 17,000 applications while maintaining inclusive hiring by building a talent pipeline that competitors can't match.
- When Packaly reduced onboarding from 7 days to 8 hours, they didn’t just save time; they achieved the agility that lets them outmaneuver larger competitors.
- Lunio didn’t replace agencies with employer-brand hiring; they ensured every new hire understands and embraces their culture from day one.
High-volume hiring, done well, becomes a strategic capability that drives business outcomes. It's a shorter time-to-hire. It's a better quality of hire. It's a stronger employer brand. It's a competitive advantage.
If you're facing the challenges these companies solved, we’d love to talk about your specific situation. Willo helps recruitment teams process high-volume applications faster while maintaining the human judgment that makes great hires possible.
Book a demo to discuss your hiring plans and explore how Willo can help you build the strategic capability that drives growth.
