What was holding hiring back
Home Instead in Tyler, Texas, is a franchise office owned by Ellen Trant, with 84 caregivers serving about 2,400 hours of care a week. The office is growing 62% this year, recruits on Indeed and uses ApplicantStack as its ATS.
To keep up with that growth, the office needs at least 6 to 8 new caregivers a week. In the weeks before Care Hero, hires swung from 11 one week to 2 and 3 the next. Free Indeed posting, which used to bring about 60 applicants a week, had ended, so every applicant now came from a paid, sponsored post. The team's time went to phone screens, and Ellen wanted the obvious no's handled for them so they could focus on the right candidates.
What changed
Care Hero kicked off on September 29, 2026, and Indeed applicants flowed straight into Care Hero from October 13. Every new applicant gets a message within minutes and calls in to a short AI phone interview from their phone, whenever it suits them.
- Every applicant reached, day or night. Evenings and weekends included, when no one is at the desk.
- Knockouts asked up front. Driver's license, reliable transportation, background and shift availability (overnight shifts often run 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.) are covered in the interview.
- Candidates reach the office already screened. The office can set an automatic score threshold: applicants above it go straight to interview scheduling; below it, the team reviews the scores and decides.
- Works with the tools they have. Indeed feeds Care Hero, ApplicantStack stays the ATS, and interviews book into the office calendar.
- A teammate for the team, not a replacement. Their time goes to qualified candidates and the conversations only a person can have.
The numbers
The office's earlier process compared with the first six weeks on Care Hero:
| Metric | Before | With Care Hero (Sep 30 to Nov 9, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| First screening | Messaging bot, then the team's own phone screens | AI phone interview, available 24/7 |
| Team time on phone screens | All first screens done by phone by the team | About half of that time freed up, in the team's words (Oct 27) |
| AI phone interviews | None | 71 phone interviews completed by the AI |
| Interviews after hours | Waited for office hours | 42% |
| Application to completed AI interview | Not tracked | 36 minutes (median) |
Median: 55 candidates with an application and a completed AI interview, September 30 to November 11, 2026. Before figures are what the team told us; the office had no tracked baseline.
“Freeing up, you know, half the amount of time that we were having to use on phone screens has been a wonderful thing.”
Why this matters for Texas agencies
When an office is growing fast and paying for every Indeed applicant, a slow first call is expensive. Caregivers often apply in the evening after their own shifts, and if the first conversation waits for the next business day, another agency may reach them first.
Tyler moved the first conversation to the moment the applicant applies. In the first six weeks, 42% of the AI phone interviews happened after hours, the typical applicant finished the interview 36 minutes after applying, and the team got about half of its phone-screen time back.
From kickoff to a live pipeline
- September 29: kickoff. Goals: handle the obvious no's, reach 6 to 8 hires a week, benchmark the old process.
- October 6 to 20: weekly tuning. Knockout questions and calendar booking set up for the office.
- October 13: Indeed connected. Indeed applicants flow straight into Care Hero.
- October 27: weekly call. The team reports about half its phone-screen time freed up.