Tandym Catalyst^™ Case Study: LMSW Candidate

Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) roles are notoriously difficult to fill, due to specialized requirements: namely advanced education, licensure, and a willingness to provide direct, often in-home, behavioral health services. Despite rising demand, especially post-pandemic, traditional recruiting methods like job boards and LinkedIn yield low engagement and few viable candidates.

Contributing factors include demanding and often shifting work conditions, the risk of burnout, and workforce shortages in underserved areas. These systemic challenges make it increasingly difficult to attract and retain qualified LMSWs where they are needed most.

Tandym was tasked with filling a highly specific role: an LMSW-level social worker to join an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team. This position required not only clinical expertise but also the ability to deliver services in-home, an added challenge in a market already short on qualified candidates.

Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) provides comprehensive, person-centered mental health services in the community rather than institutional settings, with the goal of reducing hospitalizations and promoting recovery.

Leveraging Tandym Catalyst^™, the recruiter took a strategic, relationship-driven approach. Instead of relying solely on external sourcing or job postings, the team focused inward, tapping into Tandym’s extensive proprietary database of pre-vetted behavioral health professionals.

The recruiter partnered closely with the client to clarify the specific competencies and soft skills needed for the ACT role, particularly the candidate’s comfort with in-home service delivery for individuals with special needs, crisis intervention, and a collaborative, interdisciplinary work style. With these insights, Tandym’s team created a refined candidate profile and used advanced filtering techniques to generate a shortlist from its internal network.

One candidate in Tandym’s vast talent pool stood out. While earlier opportunities hadn’t been the right fit, Catalyst^™-Match helped identify key details including the candidate’s preferences, experiences, and career goals.

With near-instant access to the candidate’s qualifications and historical context, the recruiter re-engaged quickly with a targeted pitch that aligned with the candidate’s interest in transitioning to a more community-based, high-impact role.

Following this warm lead and an accelerated preliminary interview process, the candidate was presented to the client as a qualified, highly motivated individual looking for a career change in line with the opportunity.

“The power of Tandym Catalyst has radically changed the way that we’re able to create value for clients. This situation speaks to not just the quality of the candidate but how our team was able marry up AI-enabled solutions and client needs.” – Becca Eisenberg, Tandym Recruiter

The candidate was successfully placed on the ACT team, fulfilling a critical need for the client and representing a strong career move for the candidate. The success of this placement not only met an urgent client need but also validated the effectiveness of Tandym Catalyst^™’s refined, high-touch approach to recruiting in a talent-scarce market.

This placement highlighted the value of long-term relationship building, data-informed matchmaking enabled by Catalyst^™-Match, and the efficiencies gained through Tandym Catalyst^™’s intelligent recruitment model.