What was holding hiring back
Amada Senior Care in Richmond, Virginia, is a non-medical home care franchise owned by Jay L. Mann and run day to day by its VP of Operations and Sales. The office employs 50 to 65 caregivers, hiring PCAs, CNAs and Med Techs, with about 80% of applicants coming from Indeed. One remote recruiter reviewed every application, made every screening call and booked in-person interviews by hand.
The office received 60 to 75 applicants a week, and the recruiter spent basically all day on recruiting calls. Hourly applicants rarely finished screener questions or answered the phone: in January and February only 8 to 13% of applicants completed a phone interview, and it took around a week to get an applicant to an interview.
Candidates also dropped off late. Of 15 people scheduled for an in-person interview in a typical week, about 7 showed up and 4 or 5 reached orientation. The owners wanted to double applicants to 150 a week without adding a second recruiter.
What changed
Care Hero went live in March 2026, plugged into Amada's Indeed postings, so every new applicant gets an invitation by Indeed message and text at the same time.
- Every applicant reached within minutes, 24/7. Applicants call in to a short AI phone interview whenever it suits them, evenings and weekends included.
- Questions built for each role. The interview checks PCA, CNA and Med Tech certification, experience, rehire status and availability by shift type, so dealbreakers surface before the recruiter spends a minute.
- A summary, transcript and recording within minutes of every interview, emailed to the recruiter and the operations lead, with a dashboard for the scheduling team.
- A no-call list of 830 past candidates, so the office does not spend time on people it has already ruled out.
What a Virginia applicant has to clear at Amada: a Virginia State Police background check authorized before hire, PCA or CNA certification (and about 68 hours of required certification training for Med Techs), a driver's license and their own car, a drug screen before the first shift, three references, and availability that fits full-time, part-time, weekend or overnight shifts.
The numbers
January and February 2026, before Care Hero, compared with the months since go-live:
| Metric | Before (Jan to Feb 2026) | With Care Hero (Mar 4 to Oct 29, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Applicants who completed a phone interview | 8 to 13% | 48% (550 of 1,145) |
| Time from application to interview | About a week | 29.1% completed within 1 hour |
| Phone screens completed after hours | Office hours only | 26.2% |
| Past candidates already ruled out | Re-screened by phone | 830 on a no-call list |
“I would give Care Hero a 2000 out of 10. It is wonderful.”
What the team told us
The owner set one goal at the start: twice the applicants, without adding a second recruiter. Today nearly half of applicants complete their phone interview, up from 8 to 13%. Five weeks in, the operations lead told us the time saving alone was massive.
Why this matters for Virginia agencies
In caregiver recruiting, the agency that reaches an applicant first usually gets them, and most applications arrive after a shift, at night or on a weekend. In Virginia every hire also needs a State Police background check, the right certification and a car, so an applicant who never finishes the first phone screen is a hire the agency never gets the chance to make.
Amada closed that gap without adding a recruiter. Nearly half of its applicants now complete a phone interview, three times as many interviews happen each month, and the recruiter spends her time reviewing candidates instead of leaving voicemails.
From first conversation to a running pipeline
- February 27: first conversation. Goal: twice the applicants without adding headcount.
- March 4: demo. The operations lead tested the AI interviewer herself, and the first AI interviews ran.
- March 10: live. An interview built on Amada's PCA, CNA and Med Tech requirements.
- April 10: Indeed connected. Every applicant invited by Indeed message and text at once.
- October: 550 interviews. 48% of applicants completed a phone interview, up from 8 to 13%.