Summer break around the corner. A small TA team. Massive pressure. And candidates who can't wait. That's when Jane Sandberg, who heads the recruitment and staffing unit at Region Gotland, decided to question how the work was being done. Could it be done differently? And better?
Every spring, the same scenario returns for Region Gotland's recruitment team — the regional authority responsible for healthcare, schools, and social care on the Swedish island of Gotland. Hundreds of summer temps need to be hired for eldercare, all while the regular work of staffing preschools, primary schools, and after-school programs runs at full tilt.
The result is a team under constant pressure: longer response times, less room for follow-up, and a process that applicants experience as sluggish.
For Jane Sandberg, it came down to two things that go hand in hand: a sustainable work environment for her team, and a positive experience for candidates.
"When resources are tight, we as employers sometimes need to stop and ask ourselves whether we're doing things the right way," said Jane Sandberg, head of the recruitment and staffing unit at Region Gotland.
After exploring her digital options, Jane found Tengai — an automated screening software where candidates complete a structured pre-interview with an interactive AI avatar. The same questions, in the same order, for every candidate. Around the clock.
That meant the TA team no longer had to sift through CVs to decide who moved forward. What used to be a manual — and fundamentally subjective — selection became something else entirely. Now every applicant gets invited to complete the same structured interview with Tengai, and recruiters get a data-enriched, fact-based shortlist to work from. Here, based on the collected data and recorded interview answers, they could rank candidates and make qualified decisions on the next step with each candidate. It freed up time for follow-up, analysis, and the human-to-human conversations with candidates.
"Using Tengai has made our processes easier and faster and given us more time to follow up with candidates," said Lotta Valby, a recruiter at Region Gotland.
Candidates felt the change too. The process came across as modern and fast — which matters when you're hiring summer temps, as the most qualified candidates often have several offers on the table at once.
Here's what some of the candidates said about the experience:
"It must save the recruiter so much time, and it's the kind of future-facing solution I like. Really positive about this type of interview."
"I wondered what it would be like, but it was nothing but positive. A genuinely good way to bring out who a person really is. 10 out of 10."
"Thanks for your time! That was the coolest interview ever."
What makes Region Gotland stand out isn't just that they chose a new tool. It's that they dared to question how the work was being done — in a sector where change tends to move slowly and resources sometimes are lacking.
"Renewal isn't about doing more. It's about the courage to change and work smarter," said Jane Sandberg.
It's a reality most TA-people in the public sector will recognize. Many organizations wrestle with the same core problem: too much to do, too little time, and a constant demand to keep quality high for the people they serve.
But the result was clear. The talent acquisition team got a more manageable workload during peak season. Candidates experienced a faster, more modern process. And the internal follow-up process and analysis finally got the room it had been missing.
Region Gotland also earned external recognition: the innovation award at the region's annual Innovation Day (Förnyelsedag), which honors teams that have improved quality, service, or efficiency in ways that make a real difference for the people the organization serves.
"Change is about daring to try — and doing it together," said Gabriella Ahlqvist, team leader at Region Gotland.
Public-sector recruitment makes its own demands: seasonal peaks, limited resources, and constant responsibility to citizens. At Tengai, we have experience supporting public-sector teams with automated screening for faster, more confident hiring decisions — validated, legally sound, and time-efficient.
Want to see how Tengai can give your team a more sustainable process without compromising the candidate experience? Book a demo and see how it works in practice.