Optimizing Recruitment for 1 Million Annual Job Applicants: Walmart’s Success Story

Walmart, with its 1,800 stores and plants in five Central American countries, had the opportunity to enhance its high-volume recruitment process to better serve over a million applicants each year.

To achieve this, Walmart sought a new system to effectively manage its diverse applicant pool, ensure that every application was processed from start to finish, and provide precise, actionable analytics for improved decision-making.

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The Challenge

Handling recruitment across such a broad region meant transitioning from a decentralized approach, led by store managers, to a more centralized talent acquisition operation. This shift aimed to provide better visibility into Walmart’s talent pool, enhance recruitment strategies, reduce hiring time, and ensure every candidate received a timely response to their application.

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The Solution

In collaboration with Talkpush, Walmart transitioned to a fully digitalized application process, moving away from in-store manual CV collections. This transformation included activating Talkpush-powered job application channels on platforms like Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, leading to an impressive 92% application completion rate. Conversational bots provided candidates with 24/7 real-time support tailored to local preferences and allowed Walmart to reach out to candidates beyond traditional email methods, unfit for the frontline positions they needed to fill as quickly as possible.

Walmart now sends over 700,000 monthly messages to potential candidates through these instant messaging channels. Thanks to the efficiency of conversational AI and automated messaging, recruiters handle only 2% of these communications, freeing them to focus on more strategic tasks.

With Talkpush, Walmart effectively filters and ranks every incoming application, matching top talent with the perfect open position. The platform's targeted selection process also played an essential role in reducing employee turnover.

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Results

What used to take weeks could now be done in hours:

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“Automating parts of our process and putting humans in control of that automation allows us to focus on what is actually important”

David Castro

Talent Acquisition Manager
for Mexico and Central America

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Walmart's collaboration with Talkpush transformed its recruitment process, cutting time-to-fill nearly in half and improving both hire quality and candidate experience. By integrating automation and digital tools, Walmart has set a new benchmark for efficiency and effectiveness, ensuring it meets the demands of its operations across Central America.

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