At a glance
Explore this case study if:
- You’re struggling to find qualified candidates for managerial and hard-to-fill roles
- You want to streamline your recruitment process and save time on shortlisting
- You’re curious about how SmartMatch can help you proactively find top talent
Overview
Allara Support Services is a registered NDIS provider operating across Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong and surrounding areas. Specialising in disability support, they regularly recruit entry-level support workers – a process that often brings in hundreds of applications per job posting. While they had no shortage of applicants for these roles, finding the right talent for head office and managerial positions was an ongoing challenge.
“For entry-level roles, we receive hundreds of applications daily. However, we struggled to attract candidates for head office positions – anything managerial or beyond entry-level. That’s where finding the right applicants became a real challenge,” explained Carle Marquez, Business Development and Recruitment Administrator at Allara Support Services.
Although the team had been unknowingly benefiting from SmartMatch, it had not been widely recognised or actively leveraged. When Carle joined the company four months ago, he discovered that many colleagues were unaware of its full potential.
“When I looked into it, I realised that our hiring managers were actually engaging with SmartMatch candidates without knowing it. The feature was seamlessly surfacing top matches at the top of our applicant lists, which meant we were already making smarter hires without extra effort.”
A new approach to recruitment
Determined to explore all possible avenues to improve recruitment, Carle took the initiative to test SmartMatch more intentionally. He explored the feature and started experimenting with it. What he found surprised him in the best way possible.
“I took a look at the SmartMatch tab on Employment Hero and found it so easy to use. I compared it with our current recruitment process, and I started noticing that SmartMatch candidates were appearing at the top of the list when new applications came in.”
One of the biggest advantages of SmartMatch is its ability to suggest relevant candidates for hard to fill roles, even before a job was actively posted.
“We’ve been having difficulty in sourcing for managerial roles. When I used SmartMatch just a while ago, it matched me with three candidates. That’s really helpful because it’s like a headhunting tool for us.”
Carle also found the candidate summaries particularly useful as it helped speed up the time reviewing profiles.
“It’s really helpful because I don’t have to click on a resume and read through the whole thing. Sometimes resumes can be one to three pages long, and it gets tiring to look through each one. With SmartMatch, I just have to read the first section, and I don’t even have to scroll anymore.”
A new level of confidence in recruitment
As Carle became more familiar with SmartMatch, he realised how much time it could save him and the team at Allara Support Services. With features like candidate scoring and automated interest checking, SmartMatch helped streamline the shortlisting process significantly.
“I like how everything’s summarised. I also like that it gives salary expectations, location and key qualifications right away. It definitely benefits me a lot because it saves time – not just seconds, but minutes, because I don’t have to click through different tabs to find essential details.”
Now that he fully understands the tool’s capabilities, Carle sees an even greater opportunity to maximise its impact.
“I feel confident to suggest using the feature more regularly to the team. We are always looking for ways to streamline processes. I think this will help our team scale their efforts, especially for managerial and technical roles that we’re struggling to recruit for.”
Making hiring more efficient
Beyond just job postings, SmartMatch’s talent search functionality allows recruiters to find suitable candidates without posting a job ad.
“One of the hardest parts of my job is posting a job ad. It takes a lot of time because I have to draft it from scratch, get it reviewed by hiring managers, and wait for approvals. With SmartMatch, I can just search for relevant candidates and skip all that.”
This marks a significant shift in how Allara approaches hiring, particularly for roles that require niche expertise. Instead of passively waiting for applications, they can proactively find and engage the best candidates. In many ways, SmartMatch had already been quietly improving their recruitment process. Now, they are ready to embrace it fully.
Looking ahead
As Allara continues to grow and open new sites, Carle sees SmartMatch playing a crucial role in scaling recruitment efforts. “We should be posting a lot more job ads soon. For each of those, I foresee us using SmartMatch.”
By leveraging SmartMatch, Allara Support Services is not just making recruitment easier –they’re making it smarter. What started as a hidden advantage has now become a key part of their hiring strategy, proving that the right tools, when used effectively, can make all the difference.
If you’d like to explore how Employment Hero can transform your HR and payroll processes so you can focus back on doing what you do best, connect with one of our business specialists today.
