They were losing deals without recruitment.
How a leading HR platform stopped losing 25% of new business opportunities, launched a fully embedded ATS in just 5 weeks, and generated £1m in new ARR.
- 25%
- Fewer sales lost due to no ATS
- £1m
- New ARR generated
- 5 weeks
- Time to go live
The challenge
Recruitment had become a commercial necessity.
For a growing HR platform, recruitment had become the missing piece of the product. Prospective customers increasingly expected hiring to sit alongside HR, onboarding and payroll in one seamless experience. Without an ATS, the sales team was regularly losing opportunities to competitors offering a more complete platform.
Internal analysis revealed the business was losing around one in four new sales opportunities simply because it couldn't offer recruitment.
Building an ATS internally was explored but quickly ruled out. An estimated 18–24 month development timeline, significant investment and the opportunity cost of diverting engineering resources made it the wrong strategic decision.
They needed a faster route to market — one that would strengthen their proposition, create new revenue opportunities and keep their product team focused on their core roadmap.
The solution
A fully branded ATS. Live in five weeks.
Rather than spending years building recruitment capability internally, the platform embedded Candidly's fully white-label ATS directly into its existing HR platform.
Working alongside the product team, Candidly delivered a completely branded recruitment experience — including their logo, colours and domain — that felt like a native part of the platform from day one.
Customers could advertise jobs, screen candidates with AI, manage interviews and hire employees without ever leaving the HR platform.
Most importantly, the business gained a premium recruitment product that sales teams could confidently lead with and customer success teams could upsell.
"Launching recruitment completely changed our commercial conversations. Instead of explaining why we didn't have an ATS, we were showing prospects a recruitment experience that looked like we'd built it ourselves."
The results
Recruitment became a revenue engine.
The impact extended far beyond adding another product feature. Recruitment quickly became one of the platform's strongest commercial drivers.
Results at a glance
- £1m new ARR generated
- 25% fewer sales lost due to no ATS
- 60% customer adoption of the recruitment module
- 27% increase in average contract value
- 18% reduction in customer churn
- 5-week implementation
By launching recruitment as a premium add-on, the platform unlocked a significant new recurring revenue stream. Existing customers upgraded, average contract values increased and the sales team could compete for opportunities that had previously been out of reach.
Customers adopting recruitment also became more engaged with the wider platform, resulting in stronger retention and longer customer lifecycles.
"Recruitment transformed from one of our biggest product gaps into one of our strongest commercial advantages. We didn't just stop losing deals — we created a completely new revenue stream."
Key takeaways
What made it work.
What drove success
- Native by design.
The recruitment experience felt like a natural extension of the HR platform, driving rapid adoption and high customer satisfaction. - Revenue from day one.
Recruitment created an entirely new premium revenue stream without years of product development. - Sales became more competitive.
The platform could confidently compete with larger HR suites by offering an integrated hiring solution. - Engineering stayed focused.
Instead of spending two years building an ATS, internal teams continued investing in the platform's core product while Candidly handled recruitment infrastructure.
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