It’s a tough hiring environment these days. Many businesses have slowed or paused hiring amid economic uncertainty. So, any employer increasing its hiring volume is like a magnet for job-seekers.
That’s the case for Progressive. The insurance giant recently announced plans to hire more than 12,000 employees for 2025, up from 10,000 new hires last year. Additionally, the company’s talent acquisition team expects to receive hundreds of thousands of applications this year, Progressive’s business leader of talent acquisition, Neil Lenane, tells HR Brew. Lenane shared how the company plans to manage that volume of résumés while supporting the business’s growth.
Hiring spree. Much of Progressive’s growth stems from booming business. Last year, Progressive added more than 5 million policies while net premiums collected grew by 21% to $74.4 billion. On top of that, the company has already added 1.3 million policies in the first quarter of 2025.
The largest bucket of new hires this year, around 5,000, will account for this growth, Lenane said. The remainder will be to fill vacancies created by internal promotions which Progressive must hire externally for, and lastly, to fill attrition.
Most of the roles Progressive will hire for involve claims and contact center roles—50% of the company’s workforce is in claims.
“[We’re] always making sure that we have folks to be able to handle claims and or to replace the folks who have moved into trainers and leadership and all those things,” Lenane said.
They’re bulking up their legal team as well. “Lawyers is a big focus this year again as we get more policy holders, more claims, you need more lawyers to be able to represent our insurance when they’re in accidents,” Lenane said.
TA advantage. At a time when many hiring teams are getting flooded with increased résumé volumes, any employer growing its ranks can expect a tsunami. Progressive receives an average of 800,000 applications annually, and Lenane said volume for roles that typically don’t attract much interest has spiked. For example, a recent opening for a digital and communication manager role netted 178 applications when historically it would not have received more than 30, according to Lenane.
“I’m not struggling to find people. Where you’re always challenged is to find the right folks based on the skillset and people who are going to thrive in a very inclusive culture,” he said.
But it’s not just actively hiring during a recruitment slowdown that’s attracting talent to Progressive. The insurance company has an advantage over some of its competitors, as it has established a remote or hybrid-friendly policy for most roles including in claims, customer care, IT, analyst, legal, and corporate functions, while competitors like Geico and Farmers have implemented return-to-office mandates. And, as firms in other professions that Progressive employs, such as tech, implement strict RTO mandates, that will drive talent its way as well.
“The more companies that are dialing back remote, hybrid work, the more those people tend to be in my hiring pools,” Lenane said.
Turning to AI. To accommodate the rapidly growing number of job applicants, Lenane’s team is leveraging AI.
With recruitment, AI is used to forecast growth expectations and shape hiring strategy, source candidates, and cut down recruiters’ workloads.
“I get 800,000 applicants. I can’t talk to every single one of them,” Lenane said. As a result, Progressive has adopted asynchronous interviews, allowing candidates to answer questions sent to them over video at their own convenience. AI is used to help hiring teams understand how that individual would succeed in that role, though a recruiter ultimately makes the decision on who to move forward with.
“AI is enhancing our ability to make decisions and solve problems,” Lenane said. “But at the end of the day, the humans are driving the bus.”
Eye on candidate experience. As AI speeds up the hiring process, Lenane’s team must be mindful about candidate experience. Around one in every four candidates are current or prospective Progressive customers, he notes, and poor experiences can turn away future business—especially if people air out their frustrations online.
“We’re moving a lot faster through the process because we’re leveraging technology. So that changes people’s expectations,” Lenane said.
Lenane’s team has increased focus on providing candidates with feedback, such as suggesting how they can improve their interview conduct, or recommending other roles they are better suited for.
“We’re able to have a little bit more of those types of interactions…because some of the systems are helping them do some of the back end admin work,” Lenane said.
This report was originally published by HR Brew.