Transforming Event Hiring for the NFL: How SSI Delivered Faster, Smarter Hiring with Jobma
Overview
Select Source International (SSI) is a global staffing and consulting company offering recruiting and staff augmentation services across industries such as IT, finance, healthcare, human resources, and more. The company primarily supports enterprise clients with professional talent needs, but has also built capabilities to deliver large-scale, project-based staffing.
Since 2018, SSI has partnered with the National Football League (NFL) to support event staffing and on-site operations for major fan-facing events. This includes the Super Bowl Experience (SBX) - a multiday interactive fan event - and the NFL FLAG Championships, both of which require coordinated staffing across logistics, field operations, and attendee engagement.
This partnership required SSI to scale a high-volume, temporary workforce in a short timeframe. As the scope of these events grew, SSI needed a more structured and scalable approach to screen candidates and improve talent quality.
The Challenge: Managing High-Volume Event Hiring
To support large-scale event staffing for the NFL, SSI needed a more structured and scalable approach to evaluating candidates. With hundreds of hires required within a short timeframe, telephonic screening created gaps in visibility, efficiency, and consistency.
To meet the demands of this engagement, SSI aimed to address the following challenges:
- Lack of Deeper Candidate Insights: SSI’s initial screening process was dependent on resumes and phone interviews, which provided only a surface-level view of candidates. This made it difficult to assess key factors such as communication skills, professionalism, customer service mindset, and familiarity with football or event environments.
- Screening High-Volume of Candidates: For a single event cycle, SSI needed to process a large number of candidates in a limited timeframe to ensure on-time project completion. Managing this volume using traditional methods posed risks of delays and missing qualified candidates. The team required a way to efficiently review applications without compromising evaluation quality.
- Manual Screening: A significant portion of recruiter time was spent conducting manual screens, entering candidate data into the Ceipal ATS, and coordinating candidate availability, slowing down the overall hiring process and limiting the number of candidates that could be evaluated each day.
- Application Process Limited Candidate Reach: SSI wanted to encourage referrals and broaden candidate reach, but traditional application workflows restricted easy scalability. It took longer for candidates to apply or share opportunities within their networks, limiting the potential talent pool.
- T ime-Sensitive Hiring Cycles: NFL event staffing operates on strict timelines, often requiring roles to be filled fast in the weeks leading up to major events like the Super Bowl Experience. SSI needed to move quickly from application to selection while ensuring candidates were reliable and available for specific shifts.
These challenges highlighted the need for a more structured, scalable approach to candidate screening - one that could handle high volumes, provide deeper insights, and reduce manual effort.
Goals
SSI’s objective was to establish a hiring process that could reliably support large-scale NFL event staffing while improving efficiency, consistency, and overall hiring outcomes. Their primary goals included:
- Create a Scala ble Hiring Framework: Framework: SSI needed a standardized and repeatable hiring model that could be used across multiple events. The goal was to build a process that could consistently handle high applicant volumes while remaining flexible enough to adapt to different event requirements and role types.
- Standardi ze Candidate Evaluation: With multiple recruiters involved and a wide range of roles to fill, SSI wanted to ensure that every candidate was assessed using the same standardized criteria and objectivity.
- Increase Hiring Speed Without Compromising Quality: The focus was on accelerating early-stage screening and decision-making so that qualified candidates could be identified and moved forward quickly, without skipping key evaluation steps.
- Expand Candidate Reach & Accessibility: SSI wanted to make it easier for candidates to apply and participate in the hiring process, especially for event-based roles that benefit from broader outreach.
- Support Data-Driven Hiring Decisions: SSI aimed to incorporate more structured data into its hiring process to support better decision-making. The goal was to move beyond basic resume screening and introduce measurable insights that could help recruiters identify the best possible candidates.
The Solution: Scalable Screening with Jobma's Pre-Recorded Interviews and AI Intelligence
SSI implemented Jobma as a core part of its hiring workflow, turning the interview process into a structured and scalable application layer.
SSI integrated Jobma's one-way video interviewing into its application process. When applying for a role, the candidates were prompted to complete a pre-recorded interview via a secure interview link. This allowed applicants to record and complete their responses without additional steps or the need for scheduling. The video interviews were designed to evaluate candidates for:
- Knowledge of football and the NFL
- Event staffing experience
- Customer service skills
- Availability and commitment during Super Bowl week
This accelerated candidate screening and enhanced decision-making with AI insights, and minimized manual effort.
With Jobma, SSI was able to:
Optimize Applications with Structured Video Interviews
Pre-recorded interviews became the first step in the hiring process, effectively replacing a large portion of phone screenings. As part of the application process, candidates were required to complete a one-way video interview through a secure link added directly to the job opening. This ensured that every applicant submitted standardized responses upfront, enabling the team to reduce scheduling dependencies and assess a higher volume of candidates in less time.
Enable Wider Candidate Reach
By using login-free open interview links, SSI removed barriers from the application process. Candidates could access and complete interviews without manually coordinating. With the shareable links, the opportunities could be instantly circulated through referrals. This made it easier to attract a broader pool of applicants and supported more candidate applications without adding to recruiter overhead.
Leverage AI for Faster Decision-Making
Jobma's AI scoring, transcripts, and recommendations provided additional. context to support recruiter evaluations.. Recruiters could quickly scan transcripts,. identify key skills and performance. indicators, and compare top candidates. more efficiently. This helped accelerate. shortlisting while still allowing for deeper. review.
Reinforce Employer Branding for Elevated Candidate Experience
Jobma's platform customizations allowed SSI to incorporate event-specific branding directly into the interview experience. Using custom templates, SSI embedded client-approved visuals such as event logos and sponsor branding into interview invites, emails, and more - helping the company deliver a more cohesive and engaging candidate experience.
The Outcome
Since implementing Jobma, SSI has significantly improved the efficiency, consistency, and scalability of its NFL event hiring:
Improved Hiring Efficiency
SSI reduced time spent on early-stage screening by at least 40% with pre-recorded video responses. The combination of on-demand interviews, AI insights, and structured evaluations enabled faster reviews and quicker decision-making. SSI was able to move candidates through the hiring pipeline even under tight timelines leading up to NFL events.
High-Volume Interview Management
With over 750 Jobma interviews completed, SSI was able to manage a large candidate pool efficiently within a short hiring window.
Smoothly Integrated for Accelerated Hiring
With Jobma integrated seamlessly with Ceipal, every interview, scoring, and summary flowed directly into their ATS, giving the hiring team a unified, real-time view of candidate data.
Driving Candidate Reach and High Completion Rates
Achieving an 77.47% completion rate, candidates completed a one-way interview as part of the application process. This allowed SSI to gain deeper insights into communication skills, role readiness, and event experience early on.
Superior Candidate Experience
SSI achieved a 92.7 candidate satisfaction score, indicating a superior candidate experience. The combination of flexible, branded, and structured evaluation contributed to an engaging and positive experience for applicants.
Consistent & Branded Candidate Communication
Through the use of customizable templates, SSI integrated event-specific branding and sponsor assets into interview workflows. This ensured that all candidate interactions were aligned with the NFL event environment, reinforcing a consistent and professional experience across touchpoints.
Quick Stats
77.47%
completion rate
40%
reduction in screening time
92.7%
candidate satisfaction rating
SSI transformed its approach to large-scale event hiring for the NFL. With Jobma, the company is now better equipped to support the NFL's growing event ecosystem while continuing to expand its event staffing capabilities in the years ahead.