AI interviews for high-volume hourly hiring

Why hourly hiring breaks the usual process

Hourly applicants often accept the first reasonable offer, sometimes within days. A process that waits for a recruiter to call, leave a voicemail and call again loses them. Resumes say little for these jobs: they rarely show whether someone turns up, stays calm with a customer, or follows a safety rule when the line is long.

The first round has to do four things:

• Be quick for the candidate. Five questions, answered when they have a free ten minutes, including evenings and weekends.
• Be the same for everyone. Every applicant for the role gets the same questions in the same order.
• Be quick for the manager. A shift lead should be able to listen to a few answers and decide who to call.
• Leave the decision with people. It narrows the list. It does not reject anyone.

Interviewer profiles for these jobs

Pick the profile that matches the role. Each has its own question style and default scorecard, and you can edit both.

The retail and hospitality profile asks five questions by default, short and in everyday words. See also our pages on operations and logistics and customer support for more questions.

Example questions

Examples
We wrote these to illustrate the approach. Infyva writes one set for your role from your job description, asks every candidate that same set, and lets you edit or replace each question.

1. Tell me about a time the line was long and a customer was getting upset. What did you do?

   Tests: customer service, working under pressure (retail, hospitality)

   A real moment, what they said to the customer and how it ended. "I'm a people person" with no moment is generic.

2. The person before you on shift left the register short. What do you do?

   Tests: following procedures, honesty

   Names the count or report procedure, tells a lead and does not cover it up or guess.

3. You are asked to stay two extra hours but you have plans. How do you handle it?

   Tests: reliability, communication

   Says what they can and cannot do, early and plainly, and offers an alternative if there is one.

4. You see a spill in an aisle and a pallet blocking an exit on a busy day. What do you do first?

   Tests: safety judgment (warehouse)

   Deals with the safety issue first, warns others, tells a lead and does not walk past it.

5. A caller is angry about a charge and you cannot change it. What do you say?

   Tests: de-escalation, policy and escalation (call center)

   Acknowledges the problem, explains what they can do, escalates to the right person and says what happens next.

Mobile and phone

Many hourly applicants have a phone and no laptop. Here is exactly what we can say today.

• Browser, no app. The interview runs in a browser from the invite link. The interview page has a layout for phone screens, with one record, stop and submit button that stays in view.
• Test it on your candidates' phones. Our candidate help page recommends a desktop browser with a working microphone and camera. Open an invite on the devices your applicants use before you send a hundred.
• Camera. By default web interviews record each answer on camera, and a job can be set to audio only. Candidates who cannot use a camera can ask for an accommodation.
• Vibe coding is for laptops. Vibe coding rounds ask candidates to use a laptop or desktop. They do not apply to hourly roles.
• Phone calls. Candidates can also interview by phone call: the AI interview by phone on Pro and Enterprise, and Live AI by phone on every paid plan (US and Canadian numbers).

How scoring works

Each answer is transcribed and scored against the competencies for the role, with a written explanation next to the recording. Infyva scores what is said. Accent, tone of voice and appearance are not scored, which matters when your applicants include people for whom English is a second language, or who have never done a recorded interview. Interviews can run in 20 languages.

If a candidate answers fewer than three questions, the report says there is not enough evidence to recommend a next step. Integrity flags are tied to the answer they happened on and are for a person to review, never an automatic fail.

What a store or site manager sees

• A report link that opens without an account, so a manager does not need to learn another tool.
• Recordings and transcripts for every answer, so a manager can listen to one answer in under a minute.
• Scores per competency with the reason behind them.
• For several candidates, a shortlist link of up to 12 people to compare side by side.

Candidates move through six stages: Applied, Screened, Interviewed, Offer, Hired and Rejected. Infyva never rejects anyone. A person does.

Running a high-volume round well

• Invite fast. The best moment to send the interview is right after the application. Hourly candidates move quickly.
• Keep it to a handful of questions. Each question should test one thing from the scorecard: service, reliability, safety or procedure.
• Ask for moments, not opinions. "Tell me about a time" gets a story you can score. "Are you reliable?" gets a yes.
• Read the reasons. The written explanation behind each score is usually where a manager decides who to call.
• Re-use the set. Keep one question set per role across all sites, so a store in one city and a store in another judge candidates the same way.

The result is a faster first round with fewer calls, and a short list that a shift lead can trust because they heard it in the candidates' own words.

Cost at volume

You pay in credits, and a credit is used when a candidate actually answers. Applicants who never start cost nothing. Jobs and users are unlimited, so adding a site or a seasonal role does not add a seat fee. Starter is $39 a month for 30 credits and Pro is $149 a month for 150. Top-up credits never expire. Full details are on the pricing page, and the demo shows the candidate side.

Keep it short, ask for specific moments, and keep one question set for the role across every site. Our guide to structured interviews covers why, and if you hire in New York City, read the Local Law 144 guide.