Changing recruitment software is something many teams are happy to postpone. And for good reason. A recruitment system holds candidates, workflows, notes, history, process stages and the everyday habits of the team. When active recruitments are also running at the same time, the question is not only how data moves from one place to another. It’s how to make the change without bringing recruitment work to a halt.
Over the past five years, Helmes has used three different recruitment systems: Workable, Greenhouse and now Teamdash. This has not been change for the sake of change. Behind each move was one important question: does the system still support where the organisation is heading?
That’s what we spoke about with Maris Kärner and Angelika Pruel from Helmes, who shared their experience of implementing a new recruitment system.
Helmes Group is wider, but day-to-day cooperation and recruitment mainly take place across Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Finland has also recently been added, where the first recruitment has already been completed.
In Estonia, around five people work with recruitment on a daily basis. The Estonian team also supports recruitment in Poland and, when needed, in Finland and Latvia. In Lithuania, recruitment is handled by two people, and in Latvia by one recruiter. In Estonia, there are usually around 15–25 active roles at the same time. In the other countries, the volume is generally lower. Lithuania has around 50 recruitments per year, while Latvia has roughly half that number.
What came through clearly in the conversation was that Helmes was not simply choosing a new piece of software. They were looking for a solution that would help them move towards more group-wide and data-driven recruitment, while keeping the flexibility different teams and countries need.
When choosing Teamdash, functionality was not the only deciding factor. Just as important was the feeling that Teamdash was a partner whose product direction and way of working matched Helmes’ long-term vision.
Helmes’ experience shows that the right tool does not force a team to rebuild the way they work around the system. A good tool adapts to the needs of the organisation and helps teams build workflows that genuinely support how recruitment works in real life.
For a growing group company, this is also where enterprise recruitment software becomes more than a system for managing candidates. It becomes the foundation for visibility, collaboration and better decisions across the whole organisation.
The challenge: how to create a group-wide view without losing flexibility.
Recruitment at Helmes has long been connected to the independence of local teams and business units. This has allowed teams to work in a way that fits their market, candidates and business needs.
At the same time, as a group company grows, the need for a more unified view eventually becomes clear. When recruitment happens across different countries and entities, using different tools, processes and data structures, it becomes difficult to build a complete picture.
Maris described how recruitment and HR more broadly had long been a mostly local function at Helmes. “Different countries gave their input on their results, but everyone did it in a very different format,” she said. “To be honest, we didn’t really have a unified approach.”
“Different countries gave their input on their results, but everyone did it in a very different format,”
Helmes’ longer-term vision is to move towards more connected systems. Not to force every entity into one rigid process, but to create a better foundation for visibility, collaboration and more data-driven decisions.
According to Maris, Teamdash is now one part of that bigger puzzle. For Helmes, the bigger puzzle means systems that communicate with each other, data that supports better decisions and a recruitment process that supports both current needs and future growth.
Choosing a new system takes courage.
Changing recruitment software is never just a technical decision. It affects how people work every day, the habits of the team and how confidently recruiters can continue with active processes.
Helmes had already been through this journey several times before. They had previously used Workable, then Greenhouse, and Teamdash was their third recruitment system. This meant they knew very well how many questions, adjustments and unexpected situations can come with moving from one system to another.
When a team is used to one tool, switching can naturally feel uncomfortable at first. People need to understand the new logic, adapt workflows and find the best ways to make everyday work run smoothly in the new system.
At the same time, it was clear to Helmes that when the existing solution no longer supports where the organisation is going, change becomes necessary. Maris summed it up simply at the end of our conversation: “If the software you’re using no longer serves you, then you have to be brave.”
“If the software you’re using no longer serves you, then you have to be brave.”
That is why the role of the software provider is also so important when changing recruitment systems. A good product owner acts like a partner who understands that the transition should not disrupt the team’s usual working rhythm unnecessarily.
Teamdash’s goal was to be the driving force in that process: supporting data transfer, setup and the first workflows in a way that helped the Helmes team continue working as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Helmes was not only looking for a tool, but a long-term fit.
For Helmes, it was not only important what the recruitment system could do today. It was equally important to understand where the software partner was heading.
They were not looking for a solution they would constantly have to bend to their own needs, or whose development they would need to push in their direction. They were looking for a partner whose product direction matched their own longer-term vision.
Helmes had previously experienced how difficult it can be to work with a software provider when communication feels distant, slow or too tied to standard support processes. When recruitment software is a central part of everyday work, it is not enough for the system to simply work. It also matters whether there are people on the other side who think along, respond quickly and genuinely help find solutions. “We were really looking for that collaborative relationship,” Maris said.
“We were really looking for that collaborative relationship,”
With Teamdash, Helmes noticed the warm, sincere and meaningful communication already during the sales process. What mattered was not only that questions were answered quickly, but that Teamdash tried to understand where Helmes actually wanted to go.
Angelika described the cooperation like this: “It really is cooperation, not a situation where you have to chase someone.” And that cooperation did not end when the system was implemented. For Helmes, it is important that they can discuss ideas with Teamdash, talk through new needs and look for solutions that help them develop their processes further. According to Angelika, what makes the cooperation valuable is that Teamdash genuinely tries to understand what the customer wants to achieve.
For Maris, the future direction of the software partner is just as important as the features available today. “In our case, it felt like the direction Teamdash has taken matched our own longer-term vision,” she said.
Data transfer: the biggest worry that became a source of trust.
One of the most practical concerns was data transfer. Helmes needed to be sure that candidates would be moved into the new system together with the necessary history, comments, process stages, important fields and GDPR-related information. Even more importantly, ongoing recruitments could not stop because of the transition.
Previous experience had shown how painful a system change can be when data does not arrive in the new system in a user-friendly format, or when the team has to start fixing parts of the information manually.
According to Angelika, the worries before the data transfer were significant. That made it even more surprising when the data came over in a way that allowed the team to continue working almost immediately.
It was especially important that candidates stayed in the correct process stages. This meant recruiters did not have to manually correct where each candidate was in an active recruitment process.
For Helmes, this strongly changed the experience of switching systems. Their biggest fear did not come true. Quite the opposite, it created trust. According to Angelika, they were able to continue working straight away, and the transition did not bring any real pain.
Everyday change: more visible information, less manual work and easier collaboration with managers.
Once Teamdash was implemented, its impact quickly became visible in everyday work.
Previously, recruiters often had to create separate Excel files to present candidates to hiring managers and share important information. Now, the status of a recruitment project is easier to understand, because recruiters do not need to go through candidates one by one and the most important information is visible in the overview.
In Teamdash, key information can be shown directly inside the workflow, where decisions are actually made. Without opening the candidate profile, users can see the necessary background information, and project-based tags make it easier to give an overview both to the hiring manager and the recruiter.
Another important change was the logic of the system. For Helmes, it is important that the system is understandable not only for recruiters, but also for managers who need to quickly find candidate information in order to make decisions. If a system is complicated, information quickly starts moving elsewhere: into separate notes, messages or files.
According to Maris, the Teamdash user journey felt natural from the beginning. “When I go into your environment, I don’t need to think too much. I understand very quickly where things are,” she said. “When I think where something should be, it’s already there.”
This is also important when involving managers in recruitment. As Maris put it: “Managers don’t want to feel stupid.” When managers can use the system independently, information stays in one place more easily and the recruiter’s work becomes smoother.
Time is also saved through automation. For Helmes, it is valuable that one button click or moving a candidate can trigger several different actions. This makes repetitive parts of the process smoother and gives recruiters more room for meaningful work with candidates and managers.
This is where recruitment process automation has a very practical role. It removes small repetitive steps, keeps the process moving and helps teams spend more time on the work that needs human attention.
Speed, quality and moving candidates between roles.
Helmes’ recruitment needs can change quickly. In a service business, the need to hire new people depends on projects, clients and business decisions. This means the recruitment team needs to be ready to react quickly, while still keeping the quality of the process high.
At Helmes, candidates often move between roles. Because roles and required competencies are often similar across different software development teams, candidates frequently find a place in a role they did not originally apply for. According to Angelika, this happens in almost half of the cases. That makes it important that candidate information moves with the person and is easy for a new manager to understand quickly.
This is one area where system flexibility becomes very practical. When information is structured, easy to find and easy to move forward, the recruitment team can act faster without compromising quality.
For companies that are hiring at scale, this kind of flexibility matters. It helps recruiters respond to changing business needs while keeping candidate information clear, useful and connected.
AI can help, but it does not replace the recruiter’s judgement.
Helmes also uses AI-supported features in Teamdash, such as interview summaries and CV pre-screening. These help process information faster and give recruiters a better first overview.
When there is a high number of candidates, AI helps identify suitable candidates more quickly, and the overview created during pre-screening stays on the candidate profile. In interviews, AI-supported transcription has become part of the way Helmes works. Angelika says it has made that specific part of the work at least three times faster and much more enjoyable.
For Helmes, however, it is very clear that the role of AI is to support people, not replace them. “AI does not feel, sense or see,” Angelika said.
When evaluating a candidate, the judgement of the recruiter and manager still matters. AI can provide a summary, but it does not see everything a person notices in a conversation: body language, uncertainty, fit, instinct or small question marks that need to be explored further.
The same principle applies to candidate experience. Helmes values personal and meaningful feedback, especially when a candidate has moved further in the process. Technology can help this work happen better, but candidates should never feel like they are communicating with a machine without human input.
This fits well with Helmes’ people-first mindset. Technology should help people do their work better and more efficiently, not replace human judgement and responsibility.
Technology should help people do their work better and more efficiently, not replace human judgement and responsibility.
For Helmes, AI recruiting tools are valuable when they make recruiters more effective, not when they try to remove the human part of recruitment.
The next step: recruitment that supports the growth of the whole group.
Recruitment at Helmes is moving more and more towards a group-wide view. This means better visibility, more unified systems and more opportunities to use data intelligently. At the same time, recruitment must remain flexible enough to support different markets, teams, roles and business needs.
Maris described the possible future direction like this: “If recruitment becomes group-wide, for us it means more unified processes and the opportunity to better support all recruiters.”
For Helmes, Teamdash is not simply a tool for managing candidates. It is part of a wider movement where recruitment becomes more visible, more data-driven and more closely connected to the development of the whole group.
At the centre of all this, according to Maris, is still flexibility.
The right system creates a unified view without taking flexibility away.
Helmes’ experience shows that choosing recruitment software is not only about comparing features.
Especially in a growing group company, it is important to ask bigger questions. Does the system support where the organisation is heading? Does it help create a more unified view without forgetting local needs? What does data transfer look like? Can managers actually use the system independently? Is the software provider a partner who thinks along?
Helmes found in Teamdash a solution that helps them move step by step towards more group-wide recruitment, while keeping the flexibility different teams and countries need.
This is also what good recruitment automation software should do in a growing organisation. It should not force everyone into the same mould. It should create a shared foundation that helps every team work better.
