AI Voice Agents for Staffing Agencies

Most staffing teams start with two call types. Inbound, the agent takes client job orders on your main line: it asks whether the client has worked with you before, then collects the role type, number of workers, start and end time, site address, and a callback number it reads back to confirm. Outbound, it calls candidates your recruiters have not reached, asks your qualification questions in order, and warm transfers the ones who are ready. It can also answer routine candidate and client questions from a knowledge base you control, book interviews on Calendly or Cal.com, and log every call with a summary. See how this works for candidate and client support.

Retell does not have a prebuilt ATS connector, so the connection runs through tools you control. During a call, a custom function calls your ATS API to look up a candidate or update a status. After a call, webhooks send the transcript, summary, and extracted answers to your system, or to an automation platform such as Make, Zapier, or n8n. To start outbound calls from an ATS status change, your system calls the Retell API or adds the candidate to a batch call. Native integrations cover CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and GoHighLevel) and calendars (Calendly and Cal.com).

Retell is SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2 certified and GDPR compliant, with a Data Processing Addendum you can self-sign at no extra cost. If your calls involve protected health information, Retell is HIPAA compliant and you sign a BAA before any PHI is sent. Each agent has its own data storage setting (Everything, Everything except PII, or Basic Attributes Only) and a retention period from 1 day to 2 years. Consent and calling rules for outbound candidate calls stay with your team: batch calls go out only inside the time window you set, and do-not-contact handling marks a candidate who asks to stop so later campaigns skip the number.

Pay as you go runs $0.07 to $0.31 per minute for AI voice agents, depending on the model, voice, and telephony you choose, and new accounts start with $10 in free credits. The first 20 concurrent calls are free, then each extra concurrent call is $8 per month. Enterprise plans add custom volume pricing, a high cap on concurrent calls, and 24/7 support. Full details are on the pricing page.

Yes. With warm transfer, the agent dials the recruiter, waits for a person to answer, and can play a private whisper message with the candidate's answers before connecting them, or introduce both sides on a three-way line. The transfer number can be a dynamic variable, so your system can pick the recruiter on shift or the next one in a rotation. If the recruiter does not pick up within the ring time you set, the transfer fails over to a fallback you define, such as taking a callback time for your system to schedule. With contact memory turned on, the next call picks up where this one ended instead of repeating the questions. Read more about call transfer.

Yes. Instead of a press-1 menu, the agent asks what the caller needs, tells a client placing an order from a candidate asking about a job, and routes each one: it takes the order, answers the question from your knowledge base, or transfers to the right desk with the context attached. You keep your number by importing it or connecting your carrier over SIP, with guides for Twilio, Telnyx, and Vonage. See IVR replacement for staffing agencies.