The Employment Hero alternative that interviews every applicant live
Updated September 2026
Ployo is recruitment software with a built-in applicant tracking system and an AI video interviewer that interviews every applicant the day they apply. The interview is live and two-way: Sarah, Ployo's AI interviewer, talks with the candidate in real time and follows up on what they actually say, then Ployo returns a Met or Not Met verdict on the must-haves with the candidate's own words behind each one. Employment Hero is an HR and payroll platform that has added a Recruitment Agent, whose candidates complete a video interview on their own time. If hiring is the problem you are fixing, Ployo is our recommendation. This page uses only what each vendor's own site said on 10 September 2026.
For recruitment, Ployo is the recommendation. Sarah, Ployo's AI interviewer, runs a live, two-way video interview with every applicant, who can book a time or start straight away, and Ployo returns a Met or Not Met verdict on the must-haves with the candidate's own words behind each one, while a person makes every decision. Ployo's plans also run to 800 interviews a month, where Employment Hero's largest listed Pro plan stops at 200. Employment Hero is the better buy when you want payroll, rostering and hiring from one vendor, or the lowest listed entry price for a small number of interviews. Among the other options, Humanforce Talent suits operators who want rostering and hiring together, Scout Talent suits in-house teams wanting ads, onboarding and contracts, and ELMO suits mid-market employers wanting recruitment inside an Australian HR suite.
An AI-powered HR, payroll, hiring and rostering platform, founded in 2014, with an applicant tracking system and a Recruitment Agent that runs AI video interviews.
- Format
- An HR and payroll suite with a built-in ATS. Per its product page, the Recruitment Agent invites each candidate to complete a video interview on their own time, 24/7, with smart follow-up questions, then evaluates and ranks applicants.
- Based
- Sydney, Australia, per its contact page. Operates in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and Canada.
- Pricing
- Recruitment-only Pro 50 $199 (50 AI video interviews), Pro 100 $359, Pro 200 $639, as listed on its Australian pricing page, which does not print a currency or a billing period. HR Essentials $10 and HR Engage $14 per employee (minimum 10 users); HR Elite and Employment Unlimited by quote.
Side by side
| Employment Hero | Ployo | |
|---|---|---|
| AI interview format | Per its product page, candidates complete a video interview on their own time, 24/7, with smart follow-up questions. | A live, two-way AI video interview with Sarah, Ployo's AI interviewer, who follows up in real time on what the candidate says. The candidate books a slot or starts now. |
| What the hiring team receives | Applicants evaluated and ranked, with strong matches moved to the shortlist automatically, plus interview transcripts. | A Met or Not Met verdict on the must-haves, the candidate's verbatim words behind each requirement, red flags for good-to-have gaps, and the full recording and transcript. |
| Who removes a candidate | Recruiters keep control of the process, per its product page. | Always a person. Ployo's automation only moves candidates forward and never auto-rejects anyone. |
| Interview languages | Not stated on the pages checked. | 23 languages. |
| Largest listed interview plan | Pro 200: 200 AI video interviews for $639 (currency and billing period not printed). | Scale: 800 interviews for US$2,135 a month, about US$2.67 an interview. Group plans go higher. |
| Entry plan | Pro 50: 50 AI video interviews for $199, with no HR subscription needed. | Essential: 60 interviews for US$249 a month, with no per-seat charge. |
| Payroll, rostering and onboarding | Yes. Payroll and rostering are part of the platform, and its HR plans include onboarding and offboarding. | No. Keep your existing payroll, rostering and onboarding. |
Choose Employment Hero if
- You want payroll, rostering, HR and hiring from one vendor. Employment Hero describes itself as AI-powered HR, payroll, hiring and rostering in one platform. Ployo is not payroll or an HR system and does not roster staff.
- You run a small number of interviews and want the lowest listed entry price. Employment Hero's Pro 50 plan lists 50 AI video interviews for $199.
- You need onboarding and offboarding once someone is hired. Employment Hero's HR plans include both; Ployo stops at the hire.
Choose Ployo if
- You want the interview to be a real conversation. Sarah, Ployo's AI interviewer, runs a live, two-way video interview, listens to each answer and asks the follow-up it earns, so a claim like 'I have done dementia care' becomes a specific example before the interview ends. The candidate books a slot or starts straight away, on any device, at any hour, in any of 23 languages.
- You want a verdict you can defend, not a ranking. Ployo checks the role's must-haves and returns Met or Not Met on those only, with the candidate's verbatim words quoted behind each requirement and the full recording and transcript kept. Good-to-have gaps show as red flags rather than quietly moving someone down a list, which is the evidence an aged care provider needs when a hiring decision is questioned.
- You hire at volume. Ployo's Scale plan covers 800 interviews a month at about US$2.67 each, and Group plans go further. Employment Hero's largest listed recruitment plan is 200 interviews, so a provider interviewing every applicant across several sites outgrows it.
- You want no candidate removed by software. Ployo's automation is advance-only: it invites candidates to screening or interview when a CV clears your bar, and it never auto-rejects anyone. Every move out of the pipeline is made by a person, and the activity log and email log record it.
- Payroll and rostering already work and you do not want to move them to fix hiring. Ployo sits beside the systems you run today, with one pipeline per job from Pending to Hired, bulk moves with undo, a drag-and-drop review board, and owner, admin and member roles with no per-seat charge.
Candidates ranked by what they actually proved
The alternatives, and who each one suits
Ordered by the kind of buyer they fit, not by preference. Several of these are a better choice than Ployo for a given team, and the note says which.
Recruitment software with a built-in applicant tracking system and an AI video interviewer, Sarah, who interviews every applicant live the day they apply. Not payroll or HR.
Best for: An aged care or care provider whose payroll and rostering already work, and whose problem is getting through applicants fast with evidence it can defend, at any volume up to 800 interviews a month and beyond.
Humanforce's talent product for frontline workforces, combining direct sourcing, applicant tracking and talent communities, inside a suite that also covers rostering, HR and payroll.
Best for: An aged care or healthcare operator that wants rostering, payroll and hiring from one frontline-focused vendor.
An AI-powered ATS with job posting, onboarding, contracts and a learning system, plus recruitment services, whose clients include healthcare, aged care and not-for-profit organisations.
Best for: An in-house HR team that wants a dedicated recruitment system with ads, onboarding and contracts, separate from payroll.
An Australian HR platform, founded in 2002, whose recruitment module posts to SEEK, LinkedIn and Indeed, adds AI job ads and AI screening, runs employment checks through Referoo and hands off to onboarding.
Best for: A mid-market employer that wants recruitment, employment checks and onboarding inside a larger Australian HR suite.
An end-to-end talent acquisition suite founded in Australia in 1997, with career sites, ATS, onboarding and performance.
Best for: A large health employer that needs career sites, onboarding and performance management from one enterprise vendor.
What is the best Employment Hero alternative for recruitment?
If hiring is the problem, Ployo. Ployo is recruitment software with a built-in applicant tracking system and an AI video interviewer that interviews every applicant the day they apply. It tracks each candidate from application to hire, and it puts its depth into the one step that decides a shortlist: the interview.
Employment Hero is a strong HR and payroll platform that has added recruitment. Ployo is built only for hiring, so it does not ask you to move payroll or rostering to fix a slow pipeline. Many providers keep their HR system and add Ployo in front of it.
The same answer, two formats
A first round is worth what it can find out. Both of these are real screening formats and both work; they differ in what happens after the candidate stops talking.
Typed answer
“One of our residents kept trying to leave at night. I sat with her, worked out she was looking for her husband, and changed her evening routine.”
Submitted, scored, and the interview moves to the next question. Written in private, at the candidate’s own pace, with every tab on their machine available to them.
Spoken answer
“One of our residents kept trying to leave at night. I sat with her, worked out she was looking for her husband, and changed her evening routine.”
And then, unscripted
“You changed the routine. Who signed that off, and what did you write in the notes?”
That second question did not exist until she gave the first answer. It is the one that separates a story a candidate can tell from a shift they actually ran.
A live interview or a video link: the difference that changes your shortlist
On its own product page, Employment Hero says each candidate receives an invite to complete a video interview on their own time, with smart follow-up questions. Ployo's interview happens live. Sarah, Ployo's AI interviewer, asks the role's must-have questions on video, listens, and follows up in real time on what the candidate actually said.
That is where a vague answer becomes evidence. 'I am comfortable with personal care' earns a follow-up asking for a real example, and the example is what your coordinator reads. Ployo then returns Met or Not Met on each must-have, with the candidate's verbatim words behind every requirement, and keeps the full recording and transcript. A person makes every decision.
Pricing: which suits your volume?
Both vendors publish prices. Employment Hero's recruitment-only Pro plans list $199 for 50 AI video interviews, $359 for 100 and $639 for 200; its pricing page does not print a currency or a billing period. Ployo publishes in US dollars: Essential US$249 a month for 60 interviews, Growth US$850 for 250 and Scale US$2,135 for 800, which works out from about US$4.16 down to US$2.67 an interview, with Group pricing above that.
For a handful of interviews a month, Employment Hero lists the lower entry price. Once you interview every applicant across several sites, volume decides it: Employment Hero's largest listed plan is 200 interviews, and Ployo's Scale plan is built for 800. Buying Ployo starts with a call to the founder, and ployo.ai/sample shows a real interview without signing up.
What Employment Hero's Recruitment Agent does
Per its product page, the Recruitment Agent invites candidates to complete a video interview on their own time, with smart follow-up questions for a consistent experience. Recruiters can edit, delete or add questions before invites go out. Applicants from every source are evaluated and ranked, strong matches can be moved to the shortlist automatically, and recruiters keep control of the process.
It is sold two ways: included in the HR Engage, Elite and Employment Unlimited plans, or as recruitment-only Pro plans with 50, 100 or 200 AI video interviews, each including an ATS pipeline and interview transcripts.
Ployo platform data
30,000+
AI Interviews Completed
340,000+
Candidate Answers Graded
70%+
Interview Completion Rate
15,000+
Recruiter Hours Saved
Is Employment Hero good for recruitment in aged care?
It is a sensible choice when you want hiring inside the same platform that pays and rosters your staff, and your volumes are modest. Employment Hero says it is used by more than 350,000 businesses, and its HR plans include recruitment, an applicant tracking board and onboarding.
When hiring itself is the bottleneck, an aged care provider needs more from the interview than a recording: a live conversation that follows up on the answers that matter, and a Met or Not Met verdict on each must-have with the evidence attached. That is what Ployo is built to do.
Ployo is not payroll or an HR system
Plainly: Ployo does not run payroll, rosters, timesheets, onboarding, offer letters or employee records. It does not post to job boards or verify AHPRA registration, police checks or NDIS worker screening with the issuing body; it asks the candidate and records the answer, and confirming it stays your process.
If you are choosing one system to run your whole workforce, Employment Hero or Humanforce is the right kind of purchase. If you already have that system and your hiring is slow, Ployo fixes the part that is slow without asking you to move anything else.
Employment Hero sends the candidate a video interview to complete on their own time. Ployo holds the interview with them: a live, two-way conversation where Sarah follows up on what each applicant actually says, and a verdict on every must-have with their own words behind it. If hiring is the problem you are fixing, the depth of that conversation is what changes your shortlist.
Employment Hero is a layer 0 tool: the ats knockout and resume screen. Software reads the application and rejects most of them before any person is involved. See how the six layers of first-round screening fit together →
Frequently asked
What is the best alternative to Employment Hero for recruitment?
Ployo, when hiring is the problem. Sarah, Ployo's AI interviewer, runs a live, two-way video interview with every applicant, and Ployo returns a Met or Not Met verdict on the must-haves with the candidate's own words behind each one. It sits beside your existing HR and payroll system rather than replacing it.
Is Employment Hero good for recruitment in aged care?
Yes, if you want hiring inside the platform that pays and rosters your staff and your volumes are modest. If hiring is your main problem, Ployo is the recommendation, because it interviews every applicant live and shows the evidence behind each must-have.
Does Employment Hero have AI video interviews?
Yes. Per its product page, its Recruitment Agent invites candidates to complete a video interview on their own time, with smart follow-up questions. It is included in some HR plans and sold separately as Pro plans listed from $199 for 50 interviews.
Which is cheaper, Employment Hero or Ployo?
For a small number of interviews, Employment Hero lists the lower entry price: $199 for 50, with no currency or billing period printed. Ployo's Essential plan is US$249 a month for 60. At volume, Ployo's Scale plan covers 800 interviews at about US$2.67 each, a volume Employment Hero's largest listed plan of 200 does not reach.
Can I use Ployo alongside Employment Hero?
Yes. Ployo can handle applicants and interviews while Employment Hero stays your HR and payroll system. How results reach another system is set up with each customer.
Sources
Facts about other products come from their own public pages, checked on the dates below. Vendors change pricing and features without notice, so verify anything decision-critical at the source. Found something out of date? Tell us and we'll correct it.
- Employment Hero pricing page (Pro and HR plans; no currency or billing period printed) · checked 2026-09-10
- Employment Hero Recruitment Agent product page (video interviews completed on the candidate's own time, follow-up questions, ranking, auto shortlisting) · checked 2026-09-10
- Employment Hero about page (founded 2014, 350,000+ businesses, countries) · checked 2026-09-10
- Employment Hero contact page (Sydney office) · checked 2026-09-10
- Humanforce Talent product page · checked 2026-09-10
- Humanforce announcement: Humanforce acquires LiveHire (suite covers workforce management, HR, payroll, wellbeing and talent) · checked 2026-09-10
- Scout Talent recruitment software page · checked 2026-09-10
- ELMO Recruitment product page · checked 2026-09-10
- ELMO pricing page (custom quote) · checked 2026-09-10
- PageUp healthcare page · checked 2026-09-10
- Ployo pricing (US dollars) · checked 2026-09-10
Most of what decides this is your own role, not the feature grid. Worked examples of AI screening applied to specific sectors are on the solutions pages, and the practical how-to side, including what compliance actually requires before someone starts a shift, is in the hiring guides.
If you would rather see the mechanics than read about them, the AI video interviewer page walks through an interview end to end.
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