What was holding hiring back
Home Instead in Midland and San Angelo, Texas, is a franchise owned by William Shensky, with about 170 CarePros across the two offices. The offices recruit on Indeed and onboard new hires in iSolved. They hire about 20 caregivers a month to stay ahead of turnover, across a rural West Texas territory where many applicants live a long drive from the office.
Screening Indeed applicants took about 4 hours a day for the Midland recruiter. In San Angelo, the general manager spent most of each office day screening. The team swept applicants twice a day, so anyone who applied in the evening waited until the next morning, and there was no consistent tracking of applications or hires.
What changed
Care Hero was set up on October 1, 2026, and the first AI phone interviews ran on October 5. Every new Indeed applicant gets a message within minutes and calls in to a short AI phone interview whenever it suits them.
- Every applicant reached, day or night. Evenings and weekends included, when no recruiter is at the desk.
- One AI interviewer for two offices. After the first week, the script was updated so San Angelo applicants hear their own office.
- Candidates reach the office already screened. Offices can set an automatic score threshold: applicants above it go straight to interview scheduling; below it, a recruiter reviews the scores and decides.
- A teammate for the recruiters, not a replacement. Their time goes to qualified candidates and the conversations only a person can have.
The numbers
The offices' earlier process compared with the first month on Care Hero:
| Metric | Before | With Care Hero (Oct 5 to Nov 5, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| First screening | Recruiters on Indeed, two sweeps a day | AI phone interview, available 24/7 |
| Recruiter time on first screens | About 4 hours a day (Midland); most of each office day (San Angelo) | Recruiters check in on scored candidates during the day |
| AI phone interviews | None | 146 phone interviews completed by the AI |
| Interviews after hours | Waited until the next morning | 42% |
| Pipeline tracking | No consistent tracking | Live pipeline for both offices |
Before figures are what the team told us; the offices had no tracked baseline.
“The candidates and quality that we’re receiving are tenfold from what we were doing on our own because of the screening process.”
Why this matters for Texas agencies
In a rural Texas territory, a caregiver applicant may live an hour from the office and apply at 10 p.m. after a shift. If the first call waits for the next business day, someone else may reach them first.
Midland and San Angelo moved the first conversation to the moment the applicant applies. In the first month, 42% of the AI phone interviews happened after hours, and the recruiters' screening time went back to candidates who had already cleared the basics.
From kickoff to a live pipeline
- October 1: kickoff. Goals: take Indeed screening off the recruiters, reach every applicant, track the pipeline.
- October 5: live. First AI phone interviews for Midland and San Angelo.
- October 9 to 30: weekly catch-ups. Script updated so each applicant hears the right office.
- November 6: first-month check-in. 146 AI phone interviews, 42% after hours; the recruiters report better candidates.