The Aspen Group (TAG), a healthcare organization encompassing five retail healthcare brands and over 15,000 employees, has received the Brandon Hall Group™ Silver Award for Excellence in the category of “Best Use of AI for HR.” The recognition highlights TAG’s integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into its recruitment processes, with the goal of improving candidate experiences, supporting recruiters, and enhancing overall hiring outcomes.
Working in partnership with applied AI provider Phenom, TAG implemented several AI-driven capabilities designed to meet the unique hiring demands of healthcare settings, including dental practices:
- AI tools now assist in organizing candidate information and recognizing patterns to support more informed hiring decisions.
- Intelligent sourcing functionality allows recruiters to more effectively identify and connect with qualified healthcare professionals.
- Sector-specific AI features enable automated support for candidate sourcing, screening, and interview scheduling.
- A generative AI chatbot has been deployed to respond to over 1,500 frequently asked questions, reducing recruiter administrative burden.
In a clinical workforce environment where recruiting qualified providers is critical to sustaining care delivery, TAG’s AI-enhanced system demonstrated measurable results. The organization reported a 33% increase in candidate reach and time savings equivalent to over 100 recruiter hours in a single quarter. Of the 1,840 candidates identified through AI-supported methods, 20% joined the organization.
Importantly, TAG emphasized that its technology strategy is designed to complement—not replace—human judgment. Recruiters retain control over all candidate communications, outreach strategies, and hiring decisions. On average, recruiters gained over 10 hours per week to focus on higher-value tasks such as relationship-building and career advising.
“This award recognizes our commitment to using technology thoughtfully to enhance our hiring process while preserving the personal touch that makes healthcare careers so rewarding,” said Lizzie Garner, one of TAG’s Chief People Leaders. “Phenom’s AI solutions have enabled our recruiters to spend more quality time with candidates—having deeper conversations about their career goals and showing them the growth opportunities available within our organization. When our recruiters can focus on providing exceptional candidate experiences rather than administrative tasks, it benefits everyone—our team members, our patients and the communities we serve.”
Rachel Cooke, Chief Operating Officer of Brandon Hall Group and leader of the HCM Excellence Awards® program, added: “This year’s Excellence Award winners exemplify the transformative power of strategic human capital management. Through their innovative approaches to talent development and employee engagement, these organizations have not only achieved remarkable business outcomes but have also redefined what it means to create truly people-centric workplaces.”
