How HSI is building a smarter, more scalable recruiting function with Workable

Who Is HSI

HSI is a SaaS organization delivering workplace health, safety, and compliance solutions to organizations across the US and, more recently, Europe and APAC. With approximately 700 employees and a growing international footprint that now includes the UK, Ireland, and dedicated team members across the Asia-Pacific region, HSI operates at the intersection of technology and human capital, where speed, precision, and scale are operational necessities.

Managing recruiting for the entire organization — across every function, every geography, and every level — is Deanna Surmeier, HSI’s Human Resources Generalist. From intake calls with hiring managers to offer negotiations and onboarding handoffs, Deanna owns the full recruitment lifecycle.

What Hiring Looked Like Before Workable

HSI’s previous recruiting infrastructure ran through a prior ATS solution — a system that Deanna describes as neither collaborative nor well-suited to the pace and complexity of modern talent acquisition. Hiring was managed largely through emails and direct connections, with no structured pipeline and limited visibility for the managers and interviewers involved in the process.

“When we switched to Workable, we got strong praise from our managers using the system. They love the ease of use and collaboration. They’re able to add in other interviewers — even if they’re just in a reviewer status. It’s made the recruiting process more transparent and collaborative.”

The contrast with the prior ATS was immediate and meaningful. Where the previous system kept the hiring process siloed and one-directional, Workable opened it up, giving hiring managers genuine visibility and a real role in the process.

How Workable Changed Hiring at HSI

A centralized, end-to-end process.

HSI now runs everything through Workable: requisition approvals, job postings, application review, interview scheduling, offer management, and onboarding coordination. When one person owns the full arc of hiring across 27 open roles and multiple continents, a unified platform is the only way the operation holds together.

Self-scheduling that keeps the process moving.

With high application volumes and a packed calendar, Deanna relies on Workable’s self-scheduling feature to keep interviews progressing without the back-and-forth of manual coordination. Candidates move through stages and book directly into available slots, reducing the administrative overhead that would otherwise consume hours each week.

Collaborative hiring that scales across teams.

One of the most tangible changes since switching to Workable is the degree to which hiring managers are now genuinely engaged. The ability to add interviewers and reviewers directly into the platform — each with appropriate access — has made HSI’s hiring process more inclusive, more defensible, and more visible to everyone involved.

Messaging automation that keeps candidates informed.

In a market where candidate experience is a competitive differentiator, consistent communication matters even when there is nothing new to report. Deanna uses Workable’s messaging automation and templates to send updates at scale — ensuring every applicant in the pipeline feels seen, regardless of where they stand in the process.

“Recruiting today is all about communication. Even if it’s just a quick update to say there’s no change, I like being able to easily message candidates or use templates to keep them informed.”

Entering the AI Era: HSI and the Workable AI Recruiting Agent

As a SaaS organization, HSI approaches technology adoption with a practitioner’s lens — evaluating new tools not on promise alone but on fit, performance, and practical value. When Workable introduced the AI Recruiting Agent, Deanna saw an immediate application for the challenge that defines her day: volume.

It is not uncommon for a single HSI role to attract more than 1,000 applicants. Across 27 open positions, the filtering work alone represents a significant portion of the recruiting week — time that Deanna would rather spend in front of candidates and alongside hiring managers.

“One of the biggest things we were hoping the agent could help with is the volume of applicants. With 27 roles and 1,000+ applications each, there’s a significant amount of filtering. That’s where we see the AI agent adding real value.”

A deliberate, collaborative adoption approach.

After activating the agent for her first role, Deanna quickly identified a workflow adjustment that improved results: bringing the hiring manager into the room during the agent’s setup intake. Because the agent builds its evaluation criteria through a structured series of questions at role creation, having the manager present ensures the criteria reflect the most current and precise requirements, not just what the recruiter anticipates they might need.

“I incorporated it into our intake calls so hiring managers can clearly see what’s happening. That’s led to stronger alignment and better outcomes.”

This iterative, hands-on calibration is characteristic of how HSI approaches new technology — carefully, with attention to what the data is telling them, and with a clear picture of where they want to end up.

The vision ahead.

Deanna is candid about where she wants this to go. As HSI continues to scale — with recruiting volume expected to increase alongside the company’s growth — her goal is for the AI Recruiting Agent to become a genuine extension of her capacity: handling the initial CV screening, moving candidates through early pipeline stages, and freeing her to invest more time in the parts of recruiting that benefit most from a human touch.

“I’m hopeful that over time it can become a true source of recruiting support. Being able to handle initial CV screening and some basic admin work would allow me to spend more time engaging with candidates and partnering with hiring managers, instead of spending hours reviewing resumes.”

For a recruiting function built around one person and a mandate to hire across multiple continents, that kind of leverage is not incremental improvement. It is transformation.