Cascade Environmental Unlocks the Capacity of 3 Full-Time Recruiters With Tenzo AI

Challenge

Turning High Applicant Volume Into a Competitive Hiring Advantage

As an industry leader and the largest firm of its kind in the US, Cascade Environmental is a dream job for those working in environmental services. As the company continued to expand its footprint, Director of Talent Jessica Alexander knew that making the right hires would be key.

For Jessica and her talent acquisition team, quantity wasn’t an issue — Cascade received 2,000–3,000 applications every month across 100+ specialized job listings, from boiler operators to traveling drillers. The process of identifying and engaging top candidates, however, was the bottleneck for her three-person team.

A talent acquisition manager and a coordinator would review resumes within 24 to 48 hours — an impressive turnaround given the scale — and organize applicants into priority tiers. They would then spend full days sending texts and emails to candidates, scheduling and conducting screening calls, and following up. Even with optimized response templates and structured outreach, the process was highly manual and easily overwhelmed.

In a competitive hiring market, even a one-day delay can mean losing top candidates.

“We had adjusted to the growth, but when you have two people managing thousands of applicants, there’s always going to be a fall off,” explains Jessica. Equally important as speed was maintaining the quality of talent identification and outreach.

Cascade was searching for an HR administrator when Tenzo reached out. From the demo alone, it was immediately clear to Jessica how impactful Tenzo could be for her team and the company.

“Our recruiting challenge wasn’t generating more applicants. It was about creating massive efficiencies to take advantage of the volume we already have.”

Solution

Unlocking Recruiter Bandwidth Through Human-Like Conversational AI

With Tenzo embedded as a collaborator, Jessica has transformed Cascade’s hiring process, freeing recruiter resources while enabling quick and effective talent acquisition. Speed and quality are no longer at odds.

Implementation was simple. Tenzo met with Cascade’s IT team to address security questions, then worked directly with Jessica and her team to integrate with their ATS. The technical lift required minimal configuration, and Tenzo was seamlessly integrated into their day-to-day workflows within 15 minutes.

Now, Jessica shares, Tenzo is “plug-and-play when it comes to finding the quality in volume.” When a candidate submits an application, Tenzo’s AI agent, Morgan, initiates contact within minutes via text or phone call.

Morgan autonomously schedules and conducts role-specific screening calls in multiple languages. Candidates are scored automatically with results fed directly into Cascade’s ATS. Morgan then handles follow-ups and reminders and can even plug meetings directly into Jessica’s team’s calendars.

While there had been some concern that tech-averse candidates wouldn’t be comfortable or familiar with AI in the interview process, this hasn’t been the case: "It sure seemed pretty real to me, even though it was an automated phone call. I like that, ” said one candidate.

After only a few months of implementation, Cascade’s apply-to-hire timeline has steadily shortened while candidate satisfaction scores remain high. “We’ve heard the feedback from candidates themselves, saying it’s crazy how fast we contacted them,” shares Jessica.

Importantly, Jessica maintains oversight. Her team reviews transcripts regularly to ensure tone and professionalism align with Cascade’s brand. The refinement process remains collaborative and controlled, with complete auditability, thanks to de-biasing research and explainable AI principles embedded into the core architecture.

“The agent still feels human,” she says. “The conversations are fluid, and we can tweak things when we need to.”

With Tenzo absorbing the bulk of screening and follow-up work, recruiters now focus their time on the high-priority, qualified candidates. Jessica has even paused the hiring process for additional headcount. In fact, with more time back, her team’s coordinator has transitioned into an expanded role, now providing support across departments

Throughout every step, Jessica has felt deeply seen and supported by the Tenzo team, highlighting a level of personal care and relationship-building that’s rare in vendor partnerships. It’s clear that Tenzo is more than just a service provider; they’re a long-term partner she trusts and respects.

“Tenzo is plug-and-play when it comes to finding quality candidates in volume. The platform has completely changed how we work.”

Results

Cascade Environmental Reclaims 87+ Days of Productivity Every Month

What began as an opportunity to improve efficiency has become a fundamental redesign of Cascade's hiring process. Tenzo’s agentic solutions have turned volume from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage.

The transformation is clear:

• 2-day reduction in applicant response time (48 hours to 4 minutes)

• 87.5 days of work saved per month, the equivalent of 3 full-time employees

• 4.6/5 average candidate satisfaction score

As a nationwide organization competing for skilled labor, Cascade is now better positioned to attract and hire the best talent. Looking forward, Jessica already envisions using Tenzo’s conversational AI to facilitate more strategic discussions, such as succession planning and talent development.

“If someone told me we had to get rid of Tenzo, it would be devastating. The platform has completely changed how we work.”