At a time when more than 100 people apply for the same job, all YMCAs in the Chattanooga and North Georgia areas have started hosting casting calls to screen applicants for nonmanagement positions.
"This gives everybody a chance to relax and their personality an opportunity to come through," said Jill Plumer, the area YMCA director of human resources. "You don't always get to do that in a one-on-one interview."
Instead of the traditional interview or skimming stacks of resumes, area YMCAs are seeing 40 to 80 people at a time and screening them for a one-on-one job interview based on how well they role-play different crisis situations that may occur at the Y.
The area YMCAs have hosted about 30 casting calls since the process started about 10 months ago.
More than 800 people have taken part so far.
"Statistically, we're seeing positive results via decreased employee turnover rates and higher member retention," Ms. Plumer said.
Dr. Lisa Burke, a professor of management at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said a casting call is a good way to weed through job applicants quickly.
"With today's flooded labor market, given the recession, organizations are looking for creative ways to manage the tremendous outpouring of interest in any open position," Dr. Burke said. "A casting approach could be used as an initial screening method to efficiently sort through applicants."
Nineteen-year-old Nathaniel Eastwood was among more than 40 people who attended a casting call at the Cleveland YMCA this month.
"I've never done this, but I actually like it," he said. "I wasn't as nervous. It's less stress."
The casting call isn't specific to any job title but instead focuses on an applicant's skills for customer service.
It lasts about 90 minutes. YMCA interviewers watch as participants sit in small circles and interact with each other. Applicants demonstrate how they handle an angry parent in the child care area or a YMCA member frustrated because her fitness trainer is late.
Applicants who demonstrate good customer service to the interviewers are put on a list to be called back for a one-on-one interview when a position becomes available.
The process allows the YMCA to maximize the quality of its hiring pool while allowing the job applicant to learn from the experience of the casting call-style screening, Ms. Plumer said.
Dustin Shelton, 17, said he's never participated in a casting call before applying to work with youth sports at the Cleveland Y.
Instead of demonstrating his knowledge of sports, he sat in a circle with other applicants interested in providing child care or registering members at the front desk.
"It was different, but I understand where they're coming from," he said. "You interact with people and you get to know them before you hire them."