When work never stops, AI automation saves the day: the Bykova Recruitment Agency Experience
About Our Client
Bykova Recruitment Agency is a Ukrainian recruitment firm specializing in hiring IT professionals. It was founded by Tetiana Bykova, an experienced IT recruiter who has worked in both outsourcing and product companies. She is also the creator of the well-known course “IT Recruiting from Scratch.” Today, her agency successfully hires IT specialists in Ukraine and abroad.
Energetic, bright, and driven — Tetiana has been in recruitment for over 10 years. She chose this profession intentionally: she enjoys communication, multitasking, and connecting with people. “That’s why I’ve been in this field for so many years and still enjoy my work every single day. Without an inner calling, it would be hard,” she says.
Tetiana works non-stop, juggling multiple projects and challenges — she needs that pace. And when everything is “moving at full speed,” there’s no time for sadness or burnout. What always lifts her spirits is positive feedback from clients and candidates, a signed offer, a new contract, or when people buy tickets to her signature events and later share glowing reviews.
How Bykova Recruitment Agency Works
This April, Tetiana’s agency turned 3 years old. The team now consists of five recruiters. Each of them handles the full recruitment cycle — from sourcing to interviewing. However, all client communication is managed personally by Tetiana.
The agency is currently extremely busy — they are working on over 25 vacancies at the same time, mostly complex ones. “Usually, these are roles that companies struggle to close on their own. Most often, they involve office relocation, C-level positions, and lately, many clients come from the iGaming industry,” Tetiana explains.
Their key sourcing channels and tools include Tetiana’s personal contact network built over 10 years and a candidate database in CleverStaff ATS. They also source candidates via LinkedIn, post vacancies on DOU, use Tetiana’s Instagram blog, and rely on referrals.
For Tetiana and her team, the greatest motivation is closing a difficult vacancy. When you’ve been searching for a long time, the role is extremely challenging — yet you still find the candidate. The candidate is happy, the client is happy — what could be better than this perfect match?
Challenges
Before switching to CleverStaff, the team mainly worked in Excel spreadsheets. Naturally, this was time-consuming, inconvenient, and required much more effort. “I believe every company goes through this stage — it’s temporary. I’m happy that my team and I now use a modern ATS and save so much time,” Tetiana shares.
The main task during the transition was to transfer the entire database without losing a single candidate — because each one is worth their weight in gold. The migration to CleverStaff and onboarding process were smooth and fast.
What They Wanted to Improve
First, Tetiana wanted to speed up adding candidates to the database and enable synchronization with LinkedIn and job boards.
Second, she needed more accurate and detailed reporting. The goal was to automate and simplify this process as much as possible to clearly track the team’s performance.
In short, the agency needed a single platform where everyone could work in an organized, calm manner — without worrying that someone or something might get lost. “Later, when we saw that our needs matched the ATS capabilities, we started recommending the system to our partners and even held joint events. It’s been an interesting experience,” says Tetiana.
What It’s Like Now
The team loves the platform’s UX — everything is intuitive and user-friendly, both for beginners and for those who have worked with other ATS systems. They also appreciate its speed. According to Tetiana, speed often plays a key role in recruitment — waiting too long to add a candidate or sync with LinkedIn is simply not acceptable.
Just a couple of months after they started using the ATS, the team felt both relief and acceleration. How could they tell? Recruiters gained extra time to work more deeply on vacancies.
Speaking of specifics — automation primarily improved operational tasks. Less time is spent checking vacancies, reviewing pipelines, analyzing statuses, or sending necessary links to clients or candidates.
AI tools also make a difference — within the system, Voithos AI suggests what additional details to clarify with a candidate before the interview, so time isn’t wasted on irrelevant applicants. It analyzes job requirements and candidate profiles to help select the best matches.
Overall, productivity increased by approximately 15–17%. Additionally, the ATS makes it much easier for Tetiana as a manager to see the bigger picture. Up-to-date analytics provide a clear view of the situation — whether things are going well or something is off track — and allow her to step in and adjust the process. She can also clearly see each recruiter’s performance dynamics.
Plans
Tetiana plans to double her team in the near future and handle around 50 vacancies per month. Automation tools will be essential to achieving these goals — as scaling always requires a flexible approach. Especially since many clients return with new requests or extend annual contracts.
The team is also actively working with international clients — the geography of vacancies is expanding every year. That’s why the candidate search process needs to be as automated as possible. “It encourages us to focus on everything that helps us move faster and deliver results — faster,” Tetiana smiles.
CleverStaff wishes Tetiana and her team continued success in achieving all their goals 🙂