Summer, Trainee and Graduate Recruitment That Scales

When there are thousands of candidates, the process matters

Summer, trainee and graduate recruitment is one of the largest recruitment efforts of the year for many organizations. Thousands of candidates may apply for dozens or even hundreds of roles, with recruiters and hiring managers across the organization involved.

At that scale, small tasks quickly add up. Applications need to be reviewed, candidates assessed, information shared and interviews coordinated. At the same time, the process needs to stay consistent, manageable and candidate-friendly.

The challenge is therefore not only handling candidates efficiently. It is building a recruitment process that continues to work when volumes grow.

In this guide, we look at three ways organizations use Recright in high-volume recruitment, with practical examples from OP Pohjola, Volvo Cars and a large international steel company.

Three ways to structure high-volume recruitment

Recright can support summer, trainee and graduate recruitment at different stages of the process.

1. Video as part of the application
Candidates answer a small number of predefined video questions when they apply, giving recruiters more information early in the process.

2. Video after the application stage
Recruiters shortlist candidates first, then use a video interview as a consistent first interview stage before live interviews.

3. Manage the recruitment project in Recright
Large, recurring recruitment campaigns can be managed as separate projects alongside the organization’s other recruitment activities.

The approaches can also be combined within the same recruitment process.

Video as part of the application

When application volumes are high, a short video interview can be included directly in the application stage.

A few predefined questions give recruiters additional information alongside the written application, for example about relevant experience, motivation or language skills.

Using the same questions for everyone also creates a more consistent basis for assessment. Candidates have an equal opportunity to provide relevant information, and recruiters can compare responses against the same starting point.

Keep the stage focused

One to three questions are often enough.

Choose questions that are relevant to the role, clear and easy to compare. Questions based on previous behavior and concrete examples tend to provide more useful evidence than broad or hypothetical questions.

For example:

• What interests you about this role?
• Please describe a situation where you had to communicate in English with a customer or colleague.
• Tell us about a situation where you used the skills required for this role.

Preparation time, response length and the number of recording attempts can also be adjusted depending on what you want to assess.

How OP Pohjola manages summer recruitment at scale

Summer recruitment at OP Pohjola is a large, recurring process. In 2026, the organization recruited hundreds of summer employees across Finland, particularly for customer service roles.

OP Pohjola integrates the video interview directly into the application. Candidates answer two to three short, role-specific video questions alongside their application.

The questions focus on skills and competencies relevant to the role, giving every candidate an opportunity to provide information beyond the written application while giving the recruitment team a consistent basis for assessment.

Clear roles make scale manageable

Recruitment at this scale starts well before applications arrive.

Hiring managers and recruiters identify recruitment needs, define profiles and prepare video questions before the application period begins. During the process, the project team coordinates the recruitment while hiring managers contribute to candidate assessment and live interviews.

That division of work helps OP Pohjola recruit hundreds of people across Finland without each team creating its own process.

Candidate experience remains important too. In Recright’s 2025 candidate survey, satisfaction with the video interview stage of OP Pohjola’s summer recruitment reached 87%.

Candidates particularly valued being able to complete the interview at a suitable time, re-record responses when needed and receive clear instructions about the process.

Video after the application stage

Another approach is to introduce video after the initial application review.

Application → Screening → Video interview → Follow-up interview → Decision

Recruiters first shortlist candidates based on their applications. Those candidates then complete the same video interview before the team decides who should progress to live interviews.

This gives recruiters more information than the application alone while avoiding the need to coordinate individual first-round interviews with every shortlisted candidate.

More flexibility for candidates and recruitment teams

Candidates can complete the interview within a defined response window at a time that works for them. Recruiters and hiring managers can review responses when their schedules allow.

AI can also produce transcripts and summaries of video responses, reducing manual note-taking and making relevant information easier to review before follow-up interviews.

How Volvo Cars used video in graduate recruitment

Volvo Cars used Recright for its Global Graduate Program.

From approximately 4,200 applications, three recruiters selected 300 candidates for video interviews. From that group, 100 progressed to the next stage.

The video interviews gave the recruitment team additional information beyond the written applications while reducing the coordination required for individual interviews.

“Recright lets us see how a person acts without meeting them.”
— Linda Wall, Recruiter, Volvo Cars

High-volume recruitment can still feel human

Efficiency and candidate experience can easily come into tension when thousands of people apply.

For the organization, the process needs to be manageable. For the candidate, applying for a job is still personal.

Video can help bring a human element into the process early. Questions can be presented by a future colleague or hiring manager, and team videos can introduce the role, workplace and people candidates may eventually work with.

Video responses can also add information that is difficult to capture in a CV alone, including how candidates communicate and describe their experience.

A scalable recruitment process does not have to become an impersonal one. Good structure can reduce repetitive coordination while leaving more room for meaningful human interaction later in the process.

Manage the entire recruitment project in Recright

Large and recurring summer, trainee and graduate recruitment campaigns can also be managed as separate projects in Recright alongside an organization’s other recruitment activities.

Applications, candidate communication, video interviews and assessments can then be kept within the same environment.

This approach is particularly useful when:

• application volumes are high
• several roles or business units are recruiting at the same time
• many recruiters and hiring managers are involved
• hiring managers need to participate actively in assessment
• the recruitment campaign is repeated every year
• the project needs to remain separate from ongoing recruitment

Many larger Recright customers use this approach alongside their main applicant tracking system.

Make participation easy for hiring managers

Large recruitment projects often depend on hiring managers who do not work with recruitment systems every day.

The process becomes easier to scale when they can review candidates and contribute to assessment without extensive training or constant support from the recruitment team.

A shared environment also makes it easier for everyone involved to work from the same information and follow the same process.

How a global steel company changed its summer recruitment

One large international steel company uses Recright alongside its existing recruitment system for high-volume summer recruitment.

A single production site could receive up to 1,300 applications. Reviewing applications and CVs required significant time, and the written application did not always provide enough information about a candidate’s suitability.

The company introduced a video interview stage in Recright where candidates answered two predefined questions.

This gave recruiters additional information alongside the CV while creating a more consistent first assessment stage across teams and business units.

Hiring managers could participate directly in candidate assessment without extensive system training.

Approximately six weeks of screening work saved

During the first year, the company estimated that it saved approximately six weeks of work previously spent screening applications.

The process also gave recruiters deeper information about candidates and a more consistent basis for comparison.

What these recruitment processes have in common

OP Pohjola, Volvo Cars and the international steel company use Recright in different ways. But the same practical lessons appear across their recruitment processes.

Use a consistent basis for assessment

When candidates answer the same predefined questions, recruiters have comparable information to work with.

That makes it easier to assess relevant skills and experience consistently.

Build the process for the volume you expect

A recruitment process involving thousands of candidates, multiple roles and many people needs clear stages, responsibilities and a shared way of working.

Make hiring manager participation easy

Hiring managers are important to candidate assessment, but recruitment is usually only one part of their job.

The easier it is for them to understand what they need to do and participate independently, the easier the overall process becomes to scale.

Protect candidate experience as you scale

A structured digital process can support high application volumes while keeping assessment consistent and giving candidates clear expectations throughout the process.

Reducing repetitive coordination can also give recruiters more time for the interactions where human involvement matters most.

How could you improve your summer recruitment process?

Every large recruitment campaign has its own mix of candidate volumes, roles, teams and systems.

Start by looking at where your current process becomes difficult to manage. Where does assessment become inconsistent? Where does coordination take too much time? Where is it difficult for hiring managers to participate?

Better structure can make summer, trainee and graduate recruitment easier to manage without sacrificing assessment quality or candidate experience.