ATI Physical Therapy builds year-long relationships with high-demand, short-supply talent


Headquarters:
Downer's Grove, IL
Industry:
Outpatient physical therapy
Founded:
1996
ICIMS customer since:
2021
Company size:
6,000
ICIMS products:
Applicant Tracking
Candidate Experience Management
Digital Assistant

Have you ever come across a job advertisement where both the role and the employer had you feeling excited? Now imagine discovering that this opportunity will only be available to you a year from now. The chances of remembering this opportunity – let alone feeling excited about it – are slim.

That’s the reality of hiring at ATI Physical Therapy.

Providing outpatient physical therapy and rehabilitation care across more than 850 clinics nationwide, ATI faces a challenging talent environment familiar to many in the healthcare space. Clinical roles such as physical therapists, occupational therapists, and physical therapist assistants are in high demand and short supply. Many prospective candidates are still students who won’t be ready to be hired for months or years.

3x

growth in talent database

400+

day candidate nurture

17%

year-over-year increase in applicants per opening

Building a scalable talent pipeline

ATI adopted ICIMS because it needed more than an ATS; it needed a talent relationship platform capable of sustaining a year-long engagement cycle with candidates.

Today, ATI engages students and emerging clinicians months, and sometimes years, before they enter the job market. Using automated workflows, recruiters add candidates to segmented talent pools, share relevant content, and keep them informed about upcoming opportunities. Powered by ICIMS CXM, candidate communication is consistent and structured, helping ATI maintain momentum with candidates they might otherwise lose connection with.

Automation frees recruiters to focus on relationships

Prior to ICIMS, ATI’s recruiting team spent significant time sending manual follow-up emails, managing event lists, and completing administrative tasks. Today, most of this is done for them. “Automation takes care of the necessary but less meaningful work so our recruiters can focus on what matters,” says Amanda Lobas, Director of People Services and Analytics.

For example, candidates who attend a hiring event are automatically entered into a structured, multi-step campaign. Candidates receive timely, personalized communication that reflects where they are in their academic journey or career. Instead of writing and sending hundreds of individual messages, recruiters now focus on meaningful conversations and relationship building. ATI has improved responsiveness, increased engagement, and deepened connections with candidates without adding extra headcount.

“CXM freed up our team,” says Lobas. “I don’t have to send follow-ups from the airport after an event. The system does that for me.”

Playing the long game with in-demand candidates

From first interaction to eventual hire, visibility into past interactions is essential. ATI’s recruiters have a comprehensive view of every email, event, and conversation had with candidates. This context gives them the confidence and information to build stronger, more personal relationships.

As hiring needs evolve, ATI can immediately identify engaged candidates, understand their interests, and continue nurturing them in ways that increase the likelihood of eventual conversion. “Our strategy is all about relationship building,” says Lobas. “ICIMS gives us the visibility to make those conversations meaningful.”

The strategic vision that set ATI up for success

ATI’s recruiting team attributes their success with ICIMS CXM to having a clear vision for their candidate engagement strategy.

During implementation, the team invested in building a thoughtful naming and segmentation strategy, ensuring that candidate data would remain organized and actionable as the database grew. Rather than attempting to recreate old processes, ATI’s team re-evaluated its workflows to align with best practices and what they wanted to achieve – not by time and technical limitations that had constrained them in the past.

This approach helped ATI avoid common pitfalls associated with talent CRMs, including messy candidate data and inconsistent recruiter adoption. By piloting campaigns before scaling and refining workflows through iteration, ATI created a sustainable, long-term system that supports strategic hiring rather than reactive activity.

Our strategy is all about relationship building. ICIMS gives us the visibility to make those conversations meaningful.

Amanda Lobas

Director of People Services and Analytics, ATI Physical Therapy

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