Recruitment Hive

The challenge

Recruitment Hive is a Canberra-based specialist recruitment firm delivering federal government IT contracting solutions. After more than a decade in market and more than 370 contractors placed across 45 federal departments, its technology needs had outgrown the firm’s incumbent CRM/ATS.

The old system was slow, difficult to manage and created avoidable email congestion through manual resume handling. More importantly, Recruitment Hive needed a platform that could support its work with sensitive government clients.

The core requirements were clear: Australian data hosting, alignment with the Australian Signals Directorate’s Essential Eight controls, support for Defence Industry Security Program requirements, and a modern cloud experience that gave consultants immediate visibility across job pipelines.

Recruitment Hive started with a global search of 35 CRM/ATS vendors. After asking each vendor for security specifications, the list narrowed to six providers that could meet the required hosting and compliance standards.

The solution

Recruit Wizard stood out because it met the technical criteria while also showing hands-on involvement and product flexibility. Glen Perry, Recruit Wizard’s CEO, led demonstrations and stayed directly involved throughout the project.

The team tailored features during early demos, responded with bespoke technical videos, and showed how Recruitment Hive could see candidate progress inside job records without clicking through multiple screens.

Recruit Wizard was selected in February 2025. The official go-live took place on May 12, 2025, two weeks before a critical DISP audit deadline.

The result

The move gave Recruitment Hive a faster, cloud-based ATS with stronger visibility, reduced inbox clutter and a more efficient applicant flow. Applications from Seek and website listings now parse directly into Recruit Wizard, keeping recruitment activity inside the platform instead of scattered across shared inboxes.

The new environment helped Recruitment Hive support high-level security clearances, keep data hosted in Australia, and maintain momentum through a rapid implementation timeline.

Recruiters quickly adopted practical workflow features such as traffic light tagging, while ongoing support stayed responsive after go-live. Recruitment Hive described the transition as successful and credited Recruit Wizard’s ability to troubleshoot and iterate quickly for making the change smoother than expected.

For Ben Ashman, the lesson was that a smaller, founder-led vendor can create better alignment and service when the stakes are high. For agencies operating in sensitive government sectors, Recruit Wizard provided the combination of speed, visibility and security Recruitment Hive needed.