Monarch Healthcare
"The residents are getting consistent care because of it, they're getting better quality of care, and we're able to hire more RNs."
Erica Sward, Talent Acquisition Director
Intro
Monarch Healthcare Management, a Minnesota-based senior care organization, hires in one of the toughest environments in healthcare: high-volume frontline roles, rural staffing gaps, and hard-to-fill leadership positions. With a nine-person talent acquisition team supporting a workforce of more than 5,000 people, Monarch turned to Indeed’s AI-powered recruiting tools to help its recruiters find stronger-fit candidates faster, reduce manual sourcing work, and move more confidently on the right talent.
Background
Monarch’s mission is to change the way short-term rehabilitation and long-term healthcare are delivered, with a strong emphasis on customer service, resident care, and investing in its people. Erica described it as an organization that builds career paths, funds scholarships, supports nursing assistant training, and helps employees grow into new roles across the business.
That mission shapes how Monarch hires. The team is not recruiting for one location or one predictable role type. They’re hiring across roughly 60 Minnesota communities, including a dense metro footprint and harder-to-staff rural markets. They also need to constantly match candidates to the right building, geography, and level of clinical complexity.
Challenge
Before adopting the current workflow, sourcing was manual, time-consuming, and hard to scale. Erica said a lot of that work fell to her because recruiters were tied up processing applicants and conducting interviews. At times, she was sourcing on nights and weekends just to keep pace with demand.
The cost of that friction was real. Rural roles could stay open for “weeks and weeks.” Leadership and nursing jobs were especially difficult, and Monarch had previously relied heavily on agencies to cover critical openings.
"It makes the recruiters feel less stressed."
Erica Sward, Talent Acquisition Director
Monarch Healthcare
Solution
Monarch’s workflow now layers Smart Sourcing, Sourcing Assistant, and Smart Screening.
Smart Sourcing and Sourcing Assistant helps the team automate outreach for hard-to-fill roles and build targeted pipelines more efficiently. Erica described the shift simply: recruiters can “put in what you need,” let the system work, and move on to the next task instead of spending as much time searching for candidates manually.
Smart Screening then helps Monarch prioritize quickly. It helps recruiters spend more time on the right applicants.
Results
Early proof came from a nursing home administrator search in Faribault. Erica said the role was exceptionally difficult to fill, but after putting it into the new sourcing workflow, Smart Sourcing surfaced an applicant, Smart Screening scored that candidate’s application at 92, and the team moved quickly into interviews. Although the role was ultimately filled internally, the workflow proved it could surface the kind of qualified leadership talent Monarch had struggled to find manually.
The bigger story is operational. Erica emphasized these tools make recruiters feel less stressed, reduce the need to comb through resumes manually, and free time for career fairs, hiring events, and faster follow-up with stronger candidates.
