How Pivotel cut candidate screening time by 67% with AI Recruitment Agent

About the business

Pivotel is an Australian telecommunications carrier and service provider delivering mobile, satellite and hybrid connectivity solutions across rural, regional and remote locations. Supporting enterprise, government and consumer customers across Australia and internationally, the company delivers a broad range of communications solutions designed for complex, critical and hard-to-reach operating environments.

With more than 120 employees across offices on the Gold Coast, Sydney, Perth and Victoria, as well as teams in New Zealand and Indonesia, Pivotel employs a wide range of highly specialised roles spanning technical operations, solutions architecture, network design and product management.

For the business, hiring the right technical talent is essential to supporting its complex services and continued growth.

The challenge

For Senior HR Advisor Katarina Yzel, recruitment had become a highly manual process.

Every application required resume reviews, screening interviews and written summaries for hiring managers before candidates could progress.

“Previously, I would manually review all the applicants myself, which would take at least a day. Each week, I could have about 20 screening interviews, which would normally take me at least two days.”

From reviewing resumes to conducting interviews and writing summaries, each candidate required significant time. The workload also intensified when Katarina found herself managing HR largely on her own while hiring a new manager and preparing to go on leave.

“In total, I was spending around an hour and a half per applicant. This was time that added up as I was also trying to hire, run payroll and manage business as usual.”

The solution

To streamline the early stages of recruitment, Pivotel introduced Employment Hero’s AI Recruitment Agent.

Instead of scheduling live screening calls with every applicant, candidates now complete a structured video interview. The process includes six questions, all created by Katarina, with two minutes allowed for each response, allowing HR and hiring managers to quickly assess communication skills, experience and potential fit.

“Now the interview responses take about 12 minutes to watch and I can move them straight into the next stage,” 

The new process also gives hiring managers greater visibility and involvement in the hiring process.

“Managers can watch the responses themselves and make their own decisions. It gives them a lot more control over who they’re shortlisting.”

The ROI 

The impact on Pivotel’s recruitment process was immediate.

“Employment Hero’s Recruitment Agent reduced the total time spent per candidate from roughly one and a half hours down to about 30 minutes.”

Key outcomes include:

• 67% reduction in candidate screening from ~1.5 hours to ~30 minutes
• 12-minute AI interviews replacing 30-minute manual screening calls
• Hiring managers now directly shortlist candidates with full visibility
• Hours of manual HR administration eliminated each week

“Our CEO was highly supportive of the adoption, as they were interested in making the business more agile, speeding up processes and achieving faster, better results.”

Why it matters

For Pivotel, the biggest impact has been the ability to scale recruitment without overwhelming a small HR team.

“The Recruitment Agent frees up a lot more time from HR and also gives managers more control over who they’re hiring.”

What started as a quick experiment quickly proved its value.

“I didn’t know what to expect initially, but it ended up being a great feature that helped our business make our first hire through an efficient process.”

By removing the administrative burden of early stage screening while keeping hiring decisions human led, Employment Hero enables Pivotel to hire faster, operate more efficiently and build stronger teams.