With Ribbon’s conversational AI, Opencare automated screening, saved over 100 hours, and gave candidates the flexibility they deserve.

“Ribbon has saved me over 100 hours of screening time while giving candidates the flexibility they deserve.”
— Cathy Lefebvre, Senior Manager, People Ops & Talent, Opencare

The Challenge: Sixteen Interviews a Day, Every Day

For more than a year, Cathy was the sole HR and talent leader at Opencare. She managed sourcing, screening, and hiring for every open role. On an average day, her calendar was booked solid from morning to evening.

“At any given quarter, we might have three or four active roles. But almost every hire came through headhunting, not inbound applications. I was spending my entire day on screening calls,” she said.

From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Cathy would run back-to-back pre-screens, often speaking with sixteen candidates in a single day. Recruiters know within the first few minutes whether someone is a fit, but she still had to complete the full thirty-minute call. The workload was unsustainable.

“I took a step back and said, I can’t keep doing this. We needed a way to maintain quality while freeing up time to actually source and strategize.”

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Searching for a Better Way

Cathy began exploring new tools that could take some of the weight off her calendar. Over several weeks, she evaluated ten to twelve vendors, ranging from one-way video platforms to scheduling and assessment tools. Most of them, however, felt impersonal and rigid.

“A lot of tools were just static video prompts where the candidate records themselves,” she explained. “We wanted something that felt like a real conversation.”

That search led her to Ribbon.

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Why Opencare Chose Ribbon

Ribbon stood out immediately because it offered something unique: a two-way conversational AI interviewer that could probe deeper into a candidate’s responses and adjust naturally. Instead of collecting pre-recorded videos, Ribbon created a real dialogue.

“I can tell Ribbon exactly what I’m looking for and tweak the questions. It’s like having another recruiter who never gets tired,” Cathy said.

For Opencare, this meant the ability to deliver a consistent, human-like candidate experience, run interviews around the clock, and reach international candidates in regions like Romania or South America where time zones previously made scheduling difficult. The AI also produced transcripts, summaries, and scores that made reviewing candidates fast and structured.

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The Results: Over 200 Interviews and 100 Hours Saved

Since implementing Ribbon, Opencare has conducted more than 200 interviews through the platform and saved well over 100 hours of recruiter time. Those hours now go into sourcing, building relationships, and refining processes rather than sitting through repetitive screening calls.

“It’s helped me get way more qualified candidates in front of hiring managers and freed me up to focus on sourcing instead of nonstop screening,” Cathy shared.

Ribbon is now part of hiring across a range of roles, including account executives, customer success managers, design leads, and data engineers. Candidate feedback has been consistently positive.

“At first, some candidates are hesitant because it’s their first AI interview. But once they try it, they love it. We’ve never had negative feedback.”

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A Streamlined Recruiter Workflow

Today, Cathy’s process looks entirely different. Ribbon conducts the initial screen, engaging candidates in a natural, adaptive conversation. Cathy reviews the AI-generated transcripts, summaries, and scores to identify top candidates quickly. She can even search transcripts for details like salary expectations and speed through interviews at double speed when needed.

“I love being able to search transcripts, even for salary mentions, and review interviews efficiently,” she said.

Once candidates are shortlisted, Cathy sends hiring managers a simple interview link and her notes. The process is fast, consistent, and easy for everyone involved. Even without a direct ATS integration, the workflow remains smooth and centralized.

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The Human Impact

The improvement in efficiency has translated into more than just saved hours. It has allowed Cathy to restore balance and focus to her role.

“For sixteen months, I was alone handling everything. Work-life balance is a big deal for us at Opencare, and Ribbon helped me actually reclaim that balance,” she explained.

With her team now back from leave, recruiting feels more strategic and less reactive. The People team has more space to think about culture and alignment, rather than just managing volume.

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Partnering with Ribbon

Cathy also credits the Ribbon team for their partnership and responsiveness throughout the rollout.

“You should be proud of what you’ve built, not just the product but the team. Tyler and Hayden have been phenomenal. They make us feel supported, not sold to.”

That level of support has made it easy for Opencare to adopt new tools without adding unnecessary complexity. The partnership feels collaborative, not transactional.

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Looking Ahead

As Opencare continues to expand its global hiring footprint, Cathy’s focus remains the same: to provide a thoughtful, flexible candidate experience that reflects the company’s values. With Ribbon handling the first step of every interview, her team can spend more time on what really matters—building human connections.

“Ribbon helps us hire faster, smarter, and more humanly. It’s that simple.”
— Cathy Lefebvre, Senior Manager, People Ops & Talent, Opencare

About Opencare

Opencare is a Toronto-based healthcare marketplace that connects patients with top-rated dentists across North America. The company has built a reputation for putting people first and for maintaining an exceptionally high hiring bar. Every hire at Opencare is expected to contribute not just to the business, but to a culture that values empathy, care, and trust.

For Cathy Lefebvre, Senior Manager of People Ops & Talent, that commitment created both an opportunity and a challenge. She needed to continue building a world-class team while managing the realities of a small but ambitious organization. Scaling recruiting without sacrificing the human connection that defines Opencare became her focus.