How a U.S. Healthcare Staffing Agency Cut Interview Costs by 90%

A U.S. healthcare staffing agency was screening candidates by hand and taking clinical staff call-offs by phone and text, with no coverage after hours. It put Sarah AI, Asendia's voice agent, on both jobs. Interview costs fell by 90%, candidates now get an interview in under 24 hours instead of 3 to 5 days, and every call-off is captured, day or night.

What changed in recruiting costs and coverage

• Screening costs fell by 90%, saving the agency tens of thousands each month.
• Time-to-interview dropped from 3 to 5 days to under 24 hours, so candidates no longer wait days for a first conversation.
• Recruiter efficiency rose 4x, freeing recruiters for higher-value work.
• Every call-off, including after-hours ones, is now captured and confirmed, 24/7.
• Facility managers get absence alerts in seconds rather than hours.

Where manual screening and call-offs were costing the agency

Recruiters ran first-round screens themselves, asking the same generic questions, which used up their time and created a queue. Exceptional candidates weren't spotted in real time and were often lost. There was no consistent way to pitch the best people, and the candidate experience lacked warmth and did little to reinforce the agency's brand.

Clinical staff reported absences by phone or text, and they were tracked inconsistently. Nobody covered the lines after hours, so late-night and early-morning call-offs were missed. Alerts were sometimes delayed or misrouted, there was no central log to audit, and call volumes during flu season and holidays overwhelmed the team.

Screening: structured interviews that switch to a closing pitch

Sarah AI now interviews candidates right away, with questions set by role and department. Answers are scored against weighted rubrics and scenario-based questions. When a candidate stands out during the call, Sarah switches from screening to a personalized closing pitch, using separate scripts for permanent, locum and government placements. The agency saw acceptance rates rise as candidates who heard that pitch felt chosen.

After each call, the results, score, recording, summary and a candidate-fit label are pushed straight into the agency's ATS. Recruiters described Sarah AI as the first filter with empathy.

Call-offs: a line staff can reach around the clock

Clinical staff can report an absence any time of day, any day of the week. Sarah collects the same details on every call (who is out, when, and why) and routes an alert through a dynamic Excel sheet to the right facility contacts and the operations team. Every call-off is logged with a timestamp and structured data, which gives leadership a full audit trail for compliance.

The system is built on Azure and powered by Retell AI, and supports up to 20 concurrent calls with an overflow fallback. During peak flu season it handled multiple simultaneous call-offs.

What the agency is adding next

The agency plans to pre-rank candidates with predictive matching before human review, let facilities respond directly to absence alerts, accept call-offs by SMS or app as well as voice, and keep refining scoring and conversation flow over time.

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