HR Leaders: How Valvoline Schedules Thousands of Interviews a Month with Conversational AI

Chris Rainey [00:00:00]:
Welcome to HR Leaders. I’m joined today by Sarah Wright, Director of Talent Acquisition at Valvoline. Sarah, great to have you on the show.

Sarah Wright [00:00:10]:
Thanks, Chris. Excited to be here and talk about what we’ve been building.

Chris Rainey [00:00:15]:
Let’s jump right in. Valvoline has a massive frontline workforce — service technicians across thousands of locations. What did hiring look like before you started modernizing it?

Sarah Wright [00:00:28]:
It was a lot of manual work. Recruiters were spending most of their time on logistics — posting jobs, screening resumes, sending emails, scheduling interviews. The candidate experience wasn’t great either. Someone would apply and then wait. Sometimes days. By the time we got back to them, they’d already taken a job somewhere else. Frontline candidates don’t wait. They can’t afford to.

Chris Rainey [00:01:10]:
So what was the turning point?

Sarah Wright [00:01:15]:
We started looking at chat-to-apply technology — conversational AI that could engage a candidate the moment they expressed interest. No waiting. The candidate texts in, the AI starts a conversation, asks the right qualifying questions, and if they’re a fit, schedules an interview right then. The recruiter comes in after that — they’re meeting a qualified, pre-screened candidate, not starting from scratch.

Chris Rainey [00:02:05]:
What’s the volume you’re running through that now?

Sarah Wright [00:02:10]:
We schedule thousands of interviews each month through the conversational AI flow. That would have required a significant recruiting team to handle manually. Now our recruiters are focused on the human part of hiring — the conversations that actually build connection and help candidates see themselves at Valvoline long-term.

Chris Rainey [00:03:00]:
What about candidate drop-off? Was that a problem before?

Sarah Wright [00:03:06]:
Significant. Traditional applications are long, they require information candidates don’t always have handy, and they assume someone is sitting at a computer. Most of our candidates are on their phones, often between shifts or right after seeing one of our locations. When you make it a quick, natural text conversation instead of a form, completion rates go up dramatically. We saw that immediately.

Chris Rainey [00:04:00]:
How did recruiters respond to the change? Was there resistance?

Sarah Wright [00:04:08]:
Some, at first. There’s always a fear that technology is replacing the human element. But when recruiters saw that they were spending less time on scheduling and more time actually talking to candidates — having real conversations about career goals, culture fit, what they’re looking for — the perspective shifted. This isn’t automation replacing recruiters. It’s automation removing the parts of the job that nobody liked doing anyway.

Chris Rainey [00:05:10]:
What advice would you give to another TA leader in a similar service or retail environment who’s thinking about making this shift?

Sarah Wright [00:05:20]:
Start with your highest-volume role and your biggest friction point. For us, it was the application and scheduling step. Map out where candidates are dropping off and why. Then build a conversational flow specifically for that moment. Measure what changes. The data will tell you where to go next. And involve your recruiters early — if they understand the why and see the benefit to their own work, adoption is much smoother.

Chris Rainey [00:06:30]:
Sarah, this has been a fantastic conversation. Really practical insights for anyone in frontline TA. Thank you for joining us.

Sarah Wright [00:06:38]:
Thanks, Chris. Happy to share what’s been working for us.