The Challenge
Every new client contract meant a hiring sprint, and every sprint meant more recruiter headcount. Recruiting capacity was being bought in step with delivery capacity, which put a hard ceiling on how fast SquadStack could sign.
The sprints were also cold starts. Each one began with an empty pipeline, so the first fortnight of a contract went into sourcing rather than into training and delivery, and the client felt that delay directly.
SquadStack wanted the pipeline to be a standing capability rather than a project it restarted each quarter.
The Vahan.ai Solution
Vahan ran always-on sourcing against SquadStack’s agent profile, keeping a warm bench of screened candidates ahead of demand rather than behind it.
• Continuous sourcing, not sprints: the funnel ran against a standing agent profile every week, so a new contract drew from a bench that already existed.
• AI-led first-round screening: language, availability and basic aptitude were assessed by the AI recruiter, so SquadStack’s team only ever spoke to candidates worth interviewing.
• Bench sized to the forecast: the warm pool was held at a level set by the contracts in the pipeline, not by the ones already signed.
• No recruiter headcount in the loop: growth in hiring volume no longer required growth in the recruiting team, breaking the link that capped how fast SquadStack could sell.
Hiring stopped being a project SquadStack restarted each quarter and became a service that was simply running whenever a contract landed.
The Impact
Over 3,000 agents were hired without adding a single recruiter to the team. Pipeline throughput per recruiter more than doubled, because the hours that had gone into first-round screening went into closing instead.
A new client contract now produces its first trained cohort in five days rather than in the fortnight a cold start used to take, which changed what SquadStack could credibly commit to in a sales conversation.
3,000+ agents hired
Delivered without adding a single recruiter to the SquadStack team.
5 days from contract to first cohort
A standing warm bench removed the cold start at the front of every new programme.
2.1x pipeline throughput per recruiter
AI-led first-round screening moved recruiter hours from qualifying to closing.
We used to staff up recruiting to staff up delivery. Now the pipeline is just there, and we draw from it.
