30% More Candidates, 1 Hour Saved Daily: Pace Global's Atlas Story

About Pace Global

Pace Global recruits project controls professionals for the construction and engineering sector, connecting specialist talent in scheduling, cost management, and planning with the firms that need them. The agency has grown from three people to six people, expanding its reach without losing the personal touch that project controls recruitment demands.

We spoke with Martin Stanley, Recruitment Consultant at Pace Global, about the agency’s switch to Atlas, its growth since, and what’s changed in how the team works day to day.

Listen to our full conversation or keep reading below!

Why Pace Global Left Their Old CRM Behind

Pace Global’s previous CRM did the job, but the pace of improvement had stalled. Requests for training and product suggestions went largely unanswered, and the team started to feel the gap between what they needed and what the platform offered.

“It wasn’t that it was so frustrating before. It did its job, but with Atlas, there are better features that do much more,” Martin said. The tipping point wasn’t one bad experience so much as watching a competitor’s tool keep evolving while their own stayed still.

First Impressions: Automation That Simply Works

The automated task system was the first thing to stand out. When Martin logs information into a candidate profile, Atlas creates a reminder automatically, flagging follow-ups he might otherwise lose track of.

“An automated task is created, and it reminds me I should call this person or I need to do this. It really helps me out because in recruitment, you can be doing a thousand things at once,” he explained.

The built-in AI assistant reinforced that first impression. “Any question I ask of Atlas, it’s pretty much always getting answered. And if it’s not, there’s a Talk to Human feature that has been very effective,” Martin noted.

A Platform That Keeps Building

What surprised Martin most was the speed at which Atlas rolls out new features, something his previous CRM rarely managed. He pointed to the recent Claude integration and Atlas’s public API roadmap as evidence the platform is moving with, not behind, its users.

“This is what we were not happy with our previous CRM, was that we felt little improvement was being made over a couple of years,” he said. “We see the API roadmap, the things that are being developed… it’s night and day comparatively.”

He also credited the team behind the product directly, noting how responsive they’ve been to feedback and new ideas.

Managing the Pipeline Without the Admin

Martin highlighted the activity table as a small change with an outsized effect on his daily workflow. Where his old system gave him a static report of numbers, Atlas lets him move candidates through stages directly.

“On Atlas, it’s so much more user-friendly. I’m on my report, my activity table, and I can change this person from presented to interview, click,” Martin said. He contrasted it with tools that “felt like they were developed with the developer in mind” rather than the recruiter actually using them.

Growing With Atlas, Not Around It

Since joining Atlas, Pace Global has grown its team by 100%, from three people to six users on the platform. Martin credits Atlas with growing alongside the business rather than becoming a bottleneck as headcount increased.

“As a business, we have grown massively… at no point have we thought, you know what, I want to go back to what we were on before,” he said. “We see Atlas as part of our long-term vision.”

The team now handles around 30% more candidates and roles than before, and Martin estimates Atlas saves him at least an hour a day. Consolidating tools played a part too: Pace Global previously used a separate note-taking app alongside its CRM, and has since connected a dictation device directly into Atlas.

“I used to use Notion before. Whereas now I’m on Atlas, everything’s on the CRM… we’re putting better notes quicker,” he said.

We save at least an hour a day, at a minimum.

Finding the Right People, Faster

Asked which feature has had the biggest impact on results, Martin pointed to People Search without hesitation. He uses it to run specific, plain-language searches, like finding candidates in a given location he hasn’t spoken to in months, in seconds rather than through manual filtering.

“I could now say it essentially, and off it goes and gives me that,” he said. “A lot of recruiters are not using their CRM properly… our own data is valuable, but we’re not getting the value out of it.”

It’s also the one feature he said he wouldn’t want changed. “Don’t do anything to the people search. I like that. If you’re going to make it better, make it better, but don’t take anything away.”

Onboarding That Worked Around Their Schedule

Martin described the migration to Atlas as straightforward, crediting clear communication about deadlines and requirements from the outset, something past migrations to other tools hadn’t offered.

“They were very clear on what they needed from us and what the process would look like,” he said. Training calls were flexible enough to fit around the team’s schedules rather than requiring everyone to be on at once, which Martin said hadn’t been the case before.

“Any help we needed, we used the AI assistance, and it would give us the answer pretty much all the time. It’s been smooth sailing.”

Advice for Recruiters on the Fence

Asked to describe Atlas in three words, Martin landed on future, efficient, and simply “it works.” He pointed to Atlas’s pace of development and clear product direction as reasons he’d recommend it over a similarly matched alternative.

“I can really see they are really trying to make this the number one. They are trying to improve, they are going to develop,” he said. “If they’re equal, I would go with Atlas because I know in the future Atlas will be even better.”

With the team’s headcount already doubled and Martin’s own advice being simply “do it,” Pace Global is looking to keep growing alongside Atlas.