Ascent Programs, a pivotal corporate organization overseeing a network of residential and wilderness treatment programs for teens and young adults across Utah, has achieved significant operational efficiencies and strategic advantages through the comprehensive implementation of Workable, an applicant tracking system (ATS). Facing the complex challenges of staffing highly specialized and high-volume roles within a distributed, multi-site environment, Ascent leveraged technology to centralize its previously disparate hiring efforts, leading to demonstrable improvements in efficiency, compliance, and candidate quality across its workforce of over 600 employees. The transition from a fragmented, site-specific approach to a unified, data-driven system has not only streamlined recruitment but also elevated the human resources function to a strategic level, directly impacting the quality of care provided to its vulnerable client population.
The Landscape of Youth Treatment and Ascent Programs’ Mission
Ascent Programs operates at the forefront of the therapeutic youth care industry, providing essential residential and wilderness treatment services designed to support adolescents and young adults facing a range of mental health and behavioral challenges. These programs are critical, offering structured environments, clinical interventions, and therapeutic modalities aimed at fostering personal growth and healing. The efficacy and safety of such programs are inextricably linked to the quality and consistency of their staff. Ascent’s network, which includes facilities like Three Peaks Ascent, its pioneering wilderness program, demands a robust and adaptable hiring strategy capable of attracting and retaining highly qualified professionals across diverse roles, from licensed therapists and certified teachers to direct-care residential staff.
The unique nature of this sector presents inherent staffing challenges. Residential care roles, which involve continuous direct interaction with clients, often experience high turnover due to the demanding nature of the work, requiring a constant pipeline of new hires. Specialized clinical positions, such as licensed therapists, are subject to tight labor markets and stringent credentialing requirements, making recruitment competitive and time-consuming. Furthermore, operating six distinct programs across Utah necessitates a delicate balance between local operational autonomy and enterprise-wide consistency, particularly in human resources practices. The strategic importance of efficient and compliant hiring in this context cannot be overstated; staffing levels directly correlate with client capacity and, crucially, the delivery of quality, ethical care.
A Decentralized Past: The Hiring Hurdles Before Workable
Prior to its partnership with Workable, Ascent Programs grappled with a hiring infrastructure characterized by extreme decentralization. Each of Ascent’s six program sites managed its recruitment processes independently, operating largely in silos. HR directors at individual locations were responsible for every facet of hiring, from creating and posting job advertisements – predominantly through individual Indeed accounts – to managing payments, coordinating interviews, and handling candidate communications. This fragmented approach meant that there was no shared technological backbone, no unified data repository, and, critically, no corporate-level visibility into the overarching hiring landscape.
The consequences of this decentralized model were profound and predictable. Recruitment processes were inherently slower, as the full administrative burden of each hire fell squarely on a single individual at each site. This not only consumed valuable HR time but also extended the time-to-hire, a critical metric in an industry where staffing shortages can directly impact client intake and program capacity. Interview questions and evaluation criteria varied significantly from one program to another, leading to inconsistencies in candidate assessment. This lack of standardization presented potential compliance risks and undermined the organization’s ability to ensure equitable and defensible hiring decisions across its network. Collaboration between site-level HR teams and clinical or operational managers was limited, further hindering a holistic approach to talent acquisition.
Perhaps the most significant impediment was the dearth of actionable data. As Jodi Levie, who oversees HR operations at the corporate level, highlighted, "There was no visibility at the corporate level. We weren’t able to report on anything." This absence of centralized metrics meant that Ascent’s leadership could not gain a clear, aggregated understanding of hiring performance, identify systemic challenges, or implement data-driven strategies. When a particular site struggled to fill a role, it was impossible to discern whether the issue stemmed from an inefficient internal process or broader market conditions. This lack of insight severely hampered Ascent’s ability to build a scalable and strategically informed talent acquisition function essential for its continued growth and mission fulfillment. The organization was, in essence, operating blind in a critical area of its operations.
The Strategic Shift: Why Workable Was Chosen
The imperative for change at Ascent Programs was driven by two overriding strategic priorities: the urgent need for enhanced corporate visibility and robust accountability in its hiring processes. The leadership team recognized that presenting hiring performance to the board of directors required more than anecdotal observations; it demanded concrete, data-driven insights. Concurrently, the organization sought a unified platform capable of bringing much-needed consistency to a hiring process that, by its very nature, spanned multiple, independently operating program sites.
Following a thorough evaluation, Workable was selected as the preferred applicant tracking system. The implementation began strategically at Three Peaks Ascent, the organization’s wilderness program, serving as a pilot site. This phased approach allowed Ascent to assess the platform’s efficacy and gather valuable user feedback before a broader rollout. For Jodi Levie and her team, the critical selection criteria revolved around ease of implementation and the tangible organizational impact Workable could deliver. The platform excelled on both fronts, demonstrating an intuitive interface and immediate benefits that facilitated its rapid adoption.
The early adopters within the HR team quickly recognized the potential for significant time savings. As these practical benefits became evident and were communicated across the network, adoption of Workable spread organically, driven not by a top-down mandate but by the palpable value it offered. Levie recounted the transition, noting, "Some people get set in their ways, and they don’t like change. But as we talked about how much easier it was making our lives, it grew. Within a year, everyone was saying this is so much better.” This groundswell of positive feedback underscored the platform’s user-friendliness and its ability to genuinely improve daily HR operations.
A key factor accelerating Workable’s adoption was Ascent’s deliberate decision to extend hiring team access beyond just HR personnel. By empowering more employees – including clinical and operational managers – with visibility into candidates for their respective teams and giving them a direct voice in the selection process, Ascent cultivated a sense of ownership. This inclusive approach transformed platform adoption from a mere policy requirement into a perceived benefit, fostering greater collaboration and commitment to the new system. The success of this strategic implementation quickly led to the full integration of Workable across all six Ascent Programs sites within a year, establishing a unified hiring infrastructure that now seamlessly supports over 600 employees organization-wide.
Transformative Outcomes: Quick Results and Tangible Impacts
The implementation of Workable has yielded a suite of quantifiable and qualitative improvements across Ascent Programs’ hiring operations, translating directly into enhanced organizational efficiency, reduced risk, and improved talent acquisition.
Time Savings and Operational Efficiency: A primary benefit has been the substantial reduction in administrative burden. Ascent estimates an average of 3 to 5 hours saved per hire. This seemingly modest figure, when extrapolated across hundreds of hires annually within an organization of over 600 employees, represents thousands of hours reclaimed. These hours, previously spent on manual research, outreach, and coordination across disparate systems, are now reallocated to more strategic HR initiatives, candidate engagement, and direct support for program staff.
Enhanced Visibility and Data-Driven Decision Making: Workable’s reporting capabilities have revolutionized corporate oversight. Prior to the platform, corporate-level reporting on hiring metrics was non-existent. Now, leadership and the board of directors receive regular, data-driven updates on key performance indicators such as time-to-hire, qualified candidate volume, and candidate source. This newfound visibility allows for proactive identification of trends, challenges, and successes, enabling executive decision-making grounded in real-time operational data rather than anecdotal information.
Standardization and Compliance Assurance: One of the most meaningful shifts has been the establishment of consistent interview workflows and standardized question sets across all programs. Previously, the evaluation criteria for a therapist candidate, for instance, could vary significantly between different sites. With Workable, Ascent has developed role-specific workflows and interview guides for every position, from high-volume residential staff to complex clinical roles requiring multi-stage evaluations. Every candidate for a given role now progresses through an identical process, answers the same questions, and is assessed against uniform criteria. This standardization significantly reduces the risk of inconsistency-driven compliance issues and ensures that all hiring decisions are made on a defensible, equitable basis. As Jodi Levie emphasized, "Standardization was huge for us. We’re making sure we avoid any potential discrimination issues by asking the same questions for the same group of people – comparing apples to apples.” The platform also provides the flexibility to customize workflows by role, adding necessary steps for specialized clinical hires while maintaining streamlined processes for high-volume positions, thus standardizing without sacrificing nuance.
Improved Candidate Quality and Expanded Pools: Hiring teams across Ascent’s six programs consistently report seeing a higher volume of more qualified applicants. This improvement is attributed to Workable’s multi-board job distribution, which automatically posts openings across a wide network of job boards and platforms, significantly expanding candidate reach. Furthermore, the structured evaluation processes integrated into the platform help filter for fit and qualifications earlier in the recruitment funnel, ensuring that hiring managers spend time with the most suitable candidates.
Scalability and Unified Infrastructure: The successful expansion from a single pilot program to full adoption across all six sites within a year highlights Workable’s scalability. This rapid integration has provided Ascent with a unified hiring infrastructure, centralizing all recruitment activities and data. This single source of truth eliminates redundancy, improves data integrity, and provides a cohesive framework for managing talent acquisition for an organization supporting hundreds of employees.
High Adoption Rates: The full platform adoption across all sites within one year underscores the system’s intuitive design and demonstrated value. HR directors and hiring managers now operate from a shared, consistent platform, fostering greater collaboration and efficiency across the entire network.
Strategic Reporting: Elevating HR to the Boardroom
Perhaps the most transformative impact of Workable for Ascent Programs has been its ability to generate meaningful, actionable reports. The shift from a state of "no data" to robust, corporate-level analytics represents a fundamental elevation of the HR function. The corporate HR team now meticulously tracks key metrics such as time to hire, qualified candidate volume, and the source of successful candidates across all six programs. This data is not merely collected; it is actively utilized to inform both operational adjustments and strategic planning.
Workable’s reporting features are, in Levie’s words, "easy to use," enabling the team to quickly generate comprehensive reports. Beyond historical analysis, the predictive reporting functionality has proven invaluable. This capability allows Ascent to identify patterns in application flow and recruitment cycles, providing foresight into potential staffing challenges. For instance, if a specific site begins to struggle with filling a particular role, HR can consult historical data to determine whether the issue reflects a temporary market dip – perhaps seasonal or industry-wide – or if it signals a more persistent challenge requiring a targeted intervention, such as adjusting recruitment strategies or compensation packages.
This ability to articulate challenges and successes with concrete evidence has fundamentally changed how HR interacts with leadership and the board of directors. "We can now report to our board of directors," Levie stated. "We can show them areas of improvement, areas that have improved, and explain why we’re having a challenge in a specific area. We have data to drive our strategies now.” This transformation from reliance on instinct to evidence-based strategy represents a significant maturation of the HR function, repositioning it from administrative support to a strategic contributor vital to the organization’s growth and mission.
Operational Velocity and Enhanced Candidate Experience
For Ascent Programs, where staffing levels directly influence client capacity and, by extension, the ability to serve more teens and young adults, the agility to respond rapidly to hiring demands is an operational imperative. Workable provides the robust infrastructure to scale recruitment efforts quickly and efficiently, without compromising the quality or integrity of the hiring process.
The platform streamlines numerous aspects of the recruitment workflow, leading to substantial time savings. Multi-board job distribution ensures that job openings reach a broad and diverse candidate pool across various platforms, eliminating the need for manual posting on individual sites. Features such as self-scheduling for interviews and integrated candidate texting have significantly improved communication efficiency and responsiveness, enhancing the overall candidate experience. Ascent is also actively expanding its utilization of automated messaging workflows to further standardize and accelerate candidate communication, ensuring consistent engagement throughout the hiring journey.
The tangible benefits extend to candidate quality, with hiring teams consistently reporting an increase in qualified applicants. This is a direct result of both the expanded reach facilitated by broader distribution and the more structured evaluation processes that efficiently filter for suitable candidates earlier in the application process.
From the candidate’s perspective, the application experience with Ascent Programs has become seamless and intuitive. Regardless of whether applicants discover an opening through Indeed, directly via Ascent’s careers page, or through referral channels, their information is routed directly and efficiently into Workable. This centralized data management eliminates the need for HR teams to juggle multiple platforms or reconcile disparate data sources, ensuring a single, comprehensive record for each applicant. "It’s great that it’s all in one place. Someone can apply from Indeed or another platform and it feeds right through to us. Candidates can do what they want, and we still get the information,” Levie affirmed. This unified system ensures a frictionless application process, contributing to a positive candidate experience and safeguarding Ascent’s employer brand in a competitive talent market.
Looking Ahead: Continuous Improvement and Mission Fulfillment
As Three Peaks Ascent and its sister programs continue their growth trajectory, Ascent Programs is committed to deliberately expanding its utilization of Workable’s advanced capabilities. Future plans include a deeper integration of automated messaging and AI screening functionalities, aimed at refining existing workflows, enhancing efficiency, and maximizing the return on its foundational HR technology investment. These enhancements are not merely about technological optimization; for an organization managing clinical hiring at scale, where the quality and suitability of every hire have a direct and profound impact on the well-being and therapeutic outcomes of the teens and young adults they serve, this commitment to continuous improvement is central to its mission.
Workable has provided Ascent Programs with a critical foundation built on visibility, standardization, and speed. Upon this robust framework, the HR team is strategically developing a talent acquisition function that is not only efficient but also genuinely strategic. This transformation enables Ascent to better navigate the complexities of the healthcare and youth treatment labor markets, ensuring that it can consistently attract, evaluate, and onboard the high-caliber professionals necessary to support both its ambitious organizational growth and its unwavering commitment to providing exceptional care. The strategic investment in HR technology underscores Ascent Programs’ dedication to operational excellence as a direct means of fulfilling its vital therapeutic mission.
