Leading the Way: How Viking Cruises Steered Their Implementation to Success

At Viking Cruises, world-class guest experiences begin with exceptional talent and thoughtful strategy implementation. “For us, it's about understanding the places you are traveling to and ensuring that during this time you travel in comfort while you get there," explained Balázs Horváth, the company’s Executive Director Organization Effectiveness.

As Viking expanded its operations across rivers, oceans, and expeditions, the recruiting team recognized an opportunity to elevate its hiring process. They wanted to better target top talent through AI validation, streamline application processes to reduce time to hire, and enhance quality of hire. But first, they needed an implementation strategy that would help them deliver with the same attention to detail that defines the brand.

Horváth shared how his team embarked on a journey of AI adoption, navigated change management challenges, and charted a course for talent experience transformation. Their strategic implementation of the Phenom platform not only streamlined workflows but fundamentally shifted how recruiters find and connect with candidates — ensuring smoother voyages from application to hire.

Read on for the highlights!

The Talent Acquisition Challenges of Scale

Meticulously crafted travel experiences begin with hiring quality candidates who embody Viking’s values and service philosophy. The challenge?

"We are competing not only with other cruise lines, but other hospitality organizations like hotels, which makes it complicated," Horváth explained. "All of our crew members also need to have some sort of a visa or a work permit to be able to work on different vessels."

With guests consistently citing crew attentiveness as a defining element of their Viking experience, the company needed a hiring approach that would uphold these standards while accommodating:

Application Volume: The rise of AI-generated resumes made distinguishing genuinely qualified candidates increasingly difficult. "Almost 20% of the applications that we receive are actually fake applications," Horváth noted.
Recruiter Bandwidth: Limited automation meant skilled recruiters spent more time on administrative tasks than meaningful candidate engagement.
Culture Preservation: Maintaining Viking's service standards required a strategic approach to thoughtfully scale talent acquisition.

The Change Management Strategy Behind Success

Viking recognized that AI technology alone wouldn't drive transformation, so they developed a comprehensive implementation and adoption strategy centered on four key elements:

1. Strategic alignment with business objectives

To secure leadership buy-in, Viking focused directly on key business outcomes, reinforcing AI’s role as a strategic advantage.

Enhancing the guest experience – More efficient hiring meant service-oriented employees could be onboarded quickly, preserving Viking’s commitment to high-touch hospitality.
Boosting operational efficiency – Automation would reduce recruiters’ administrative workload, allowing them to focus on assessing and engaging top candidates.
Future-proofing workforce planning – AI-powered insights would enable proactive hiring, ensuring Viking remained ahead of staffing needs as the business expanded.

With leadership aligned on the broader impact, Viking had the green light to move forward with strategy implementation.

2. Recruiter empowerment and training

Viking faced dual perception challenges: recruiters feared job loss while others underestimated the platform's capabilities. "Our recruiters were scared that by implementing and automating processes, they might lose their jobs," Horváth explained. "Meanwhile, for many people, 'Phenom equals website' was the perception, but it’s so much more."

Addressing these misconceptions required active listening, reassurance, and education — showing recruiters how the technology would enhance rather than replace their roles, while demonstrating the platform's full potential beyond a simple career site. What helped?

Hands-on training – Interactive workshops demonstrated how AI-enhanced workflows improved efficiency without replacing human decision-making.
Real-world case studies – Success stories from early users helped skeptics see AI as a tool that simplified their job rather than complicating it.
Continuous learning resources – Ongoing training sessions provided recruiters with practical strategies for leveraging AI effectively in their daily work.

"It was important to show them some quick wins that say, 'Look, if you come in here, you'll be able to see immediately that someone started an application, and you can follow up with those people,'" shared Horváth.

The power of peer influence ultimately proved decisive in driving adoption. "It only took one recruiter who really started to use the system. That recruiter had an increase in productivity of over 200%, and suddenly the other recruiters said, 'Okay, I might not want to miss out on this,'" he elaborated.

3. Continuous optimization

"What is very important is to listen to your recruiters and not just say 'I hear you, but it's not in the script,'" Horváth emphasized. Data and meaningful feedback is essential to strategy implementation and optimization success. Viking focused on:

Enhancing AI-match accuracy – Continuous analysis of AI-driven candidate recommendations allowed for ongoing fine-tuning.
Refining recruiter workflows – Usage data highlighted areas for process improvements, making hiring even more seamless.
Incorporating user feedback – Recruiters’ input shaped platform adjustments, ensuring the technology remained intuitive and effective.

This approach also led to a key technical enhancement that removed barriers to adoption — bi-directional integration between Phenom and their SAP SuccessFactors Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

Now, instead of requiring recruiters to constantly switch between systems, the two-way hiring solution enables seamless data synchronization. Candidate information, status updates, and communications flow automatically between platforms. This integration dramatically improved user adoption by eliminating duplicate data entry and creating a unified workflow.

Simplifying Screening

With the foundation of change management and implementation strategy in place, Viking is now leveraging key Phenom tools Phenom X+ Screening and Phenom Fit Score to make a difference. Together, these solutions help Viking:

Surface essential candidate insights: Fit Score automatically ranks applicants (A, B, or C) based on the skills, experience, and location that matter most — so recruiters can focus on the most qualified candidates right away.
Filter out non-genuine applications: Twenty percent of the resumes Viking receives are actually fake, revealed Horváth. By helping identify legitimate resumes, Fit Score and X+ Screening reduce wasted time and ensure recruiters engage only with serious, qualified talent.
Evaluate candidates more comprehensively: X+ Screening helps evaluate candidates by asking key questions going beyond just keywords, offering a richer, more accurate picture of fit.

Localized Role-based Candidate Journeys

Finding qualified candidates represented only half the challenge. Maintaining their interest throughout the hiring process was equally important. Phenom Career Site and Phenom Talent CRM enable Viking to provide:

Tailored job recommendations – AI-driven insights match candidates with the most relevant opportunities based on their skills, experience, and interests
24/7 engagement – AI-powered chatbots provide real-time responses to candidate inquiries, keeping them engaged without recruiter intervention
Automated follow-ups – Personalized nurture campaigns keeps top talent connected through timely updates, reminders, and relevant content
Role-based candidate journeys – To truly personalize the candidate experience, Viking is leveraging the CRM to create customized journeys based on different roles and requirements. "We have been creating different profiles and understanding that if we’re looking for somebody in utility, they might not need to respond to all the different questions… They can just upload their CV. While if we are looking for a captain, we might want to ask a few more questions," Horváth elaborated.
Localized experiences – "We have started to implement different subtenants in terms of our global reach as well, so we have different subtenants for the US, for the European region, and for Asia Pacific as well," ensuring candidates find regionally relevant opportunities.

Charting the Results & Next Steps

Viking's implementation delivered significant improvements across all key metrics:

40% increase in recruiter productivity
99% increase in completed applications
300% more time spent with candidates
80,000 hours saved

"I want to highlight the amount of hours that we have saved with streamlining the processes," Horváth emphasized. "The impact we made within our team of 50 recruiters allowed them to focus on different campaigns and career events, while our candidates experienced a much more seamless application journey."

When asked about next steps, Horváth shared that Viking's focus has shifted from volume to quality. Moving forward, the team plans to further optimize their Fit Score algorithm to better identify authentic candidates, expand their global subtenant structure with specialized regional targeting, and enhance role-based application paths with streamlined processes for frontline roles while maintaining comprehensive assessments for specialized positions. “Quality is king,” he noted.

Recommendations for Implementation Success

Viking's strategy implementation journey offers valuable insights for companies embarking on their own transformation. A few highlights?

Design Around Personas: Create workflows based on your ideal candidate profiles for different roles
Iterate After Testing: Use feedback from UAT to adjust processes before full implementation
Bring Recruiters Onboard Early: "What is very important... is to listen to your recruiters," Horváth emphasized
Focus on Behavior Change: Help your team see the benefits of new technology through concrete examples

By strategically implementing AI across their talent experience, Viking has set a new standard for recruitment in the travel and hospitality industry. "When you start this journey, it's continuous," Horváth emphasized, reminding us that implementation is never truly "done" but rather an ongoing voyage of optimization and refinement. For organizations embarking on their own transformation, Viking's approach offers a compass — proving that with thoughtful planning, active listening, and persistent course corrections, the path to recruiting excellence can indeed be smooth sailing.

Transform your hiring strategy with AI-powered talent experiences. Explore how Phenom Global Professional Services helps organizations implement, optimize, and scale intelligent hiring solutions.

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