How the City of Long Beach Streamlined Hiring at Scale with Willo
The Challenge: Recruiting for an Entire City, Simultaneously, at Scale, and Under Transformation
The City of Long Beach doesn't fill roles one at a time. At any given moment, teams are managing dozens of simultaneous positions, from entry-level administrators to bureau managers and specialised technical professionals, with some roles attracting over 1,000 applicants. Narrowing each pool to a shortlist of five or six candidates had become a multi-day exercise in phone scheduling and manual coordination.
A structural change made urgency unavoidable. Under Measure JB, a City Charter reform, HR and Civil Service were unified into a single department. Overnight, the talent acquisition team went from 9 staff to over 20. Their existing enterprise platform needed to keep pace: support was impersonal and slow, the user experience was rigid, and the cost was disproportionate. The team needed a scalable, candidate-friendly solution that could also meet the equity and compliance standards demanded by public sector hiring.
The department was growing at the same time. Under Measure JB, a City Charter reform, HR and Civil Service were unified into a single department, taking the talent acquisition team from 9 staff to more than 20.
Why Willo: Responsive Support, a Better Candidate Experience, and a Price Point That Made Sense
Omar Ramos, Manager of Administration, from the City of Long Beach met Euan from Willo at HR Tech 2024. He already knew what he was looking for — and one week later, a demo confirmed the fit. Compared to their existing enterprise platform, Willo offered a significantly more intuitive experience, flexible candidate options (including audio-only responses), and support from real people who responded within hours, not days. The decision was clear.
The Solution: One Way Screening Across Every Department, with a Human Touch at Every Step
Willo was piloted on the unclassified side of the City's hiring (roughly 40% of roles), providing an option to phone-based screening for positions ranging from administrative support to bureau manager level. Hiring managers across departments, many of whom had never used a structured screening tool, were able to create role-specific assessments and begin reviewing candidates with minimal onboarding. Adoption spread organically as new recruitment needs arose.
For candidates, the experience was a significant step forward. Rather than a single-chance phone screen, applicants could respond via video or audio, pause and resume at their own pace, take preparation time before recording, and re-record individual answers. For a city serving a broad and diverse population, that flexibility directly supported equity goals, giving every candidate a genuine opportunity to represent themselves, regardless of schedule, ability, or comfort with technology.
Throughout rollout and beyond, the Willo team provided hands-on support, including a dedicated Enterprise Customer Success Manager and 24/7 technical assistance, ensuring that when issues arose during live candidate sessions, the team was never left waiting.
The Results: Faster Hiring, Greater Equity, and a Partnership Built for the Long Term
Willo was first deployed on the unclassified side of the City's workforce: roles that sit outside the classified civil service system, spanning temporary, seasonal and part-time positions as well as at-will and management appointments. There, as part of a broader modernisation of the City's recruitment process, time-to-hire has fallen from 6 to 8 months to an average of 90 business days, with Willo's one-way video assessments helping teams surface the strongest candidates before anyone steps into an interview room.
In-person interviews remain central, taking place in around 90–95% of hires, though for some entry-level roles a Willo assessment alone is sufficient. And with the ability to screen more than 1,000 applicants for a single role without a phone call, hiring teams now spend their time meeting the candidates most likely to succeed.
What's harder to quantify, but equally significant, is the shift in candidate experience. The flexibility to record on their own terms, take preparation time, and choose audio or video has expanded who is able to show up well. Hiring managers get a genuine sense of a candidate's energy and fit before a single meeting takes place.
What's Next: Exploring Expansion to Classified Roles and Building One Unified Hiring System
Having proven the model on unclassified hiring, the City of Long Beach is now exploring extending Willo's role to its classified recruitments, roles that make up 60% of the organization's positions.
