Indeed has announced that they’re changing their policy on how recruiters and recruitment-based companies can post jobs as of January 7, 2019. While we touched on this subject a couple of weeks ago, we want to take a deeper dive on how paid sponsorship for job ads may affect recruiters.
We also asked some recruiting leaders what they think about the announcement and got some very interesting feedback. We’re here to help recruiters thrive in 2019, so we’ll take a look at how you can use your staffing software to diversify your applicant sources in light of Indeed’s upcoming changes.
Before we get into that, it’s important to understand Indeed’s gargantuan impact on how job seekers are reached, interviewed and hired in the workforce today.
Indeed is a Top Source for Job Seekers
Indeed is the world’s largest job search engine, reaching more than 200 million people per month. Every second, 9.8 new jobs are added to their platform. SilkRoad’s ‘The Sources of Hire Report’ showed that Indeed accounted for 65% of hires from all online sources in the U.S. in 2016. Without a doubt, these numbers are impressive.
However, that doesn’t mean other online sources aren’t effective in attracting candidates. The same report revealed that 86% of all job interviews and 72% of all hires come from online sources today. After Indeed, CareerBuilder and LinkedIn ranked as the second and third top sources of interviews and hires.
If you haven’t been exploring these job boards already, now is a good time to test them out. With the right staffing software, you’ll be able to see where you’re getting the most traction. As a result, you can invest your time and money wisely, with results-backed data.
It’s Time to Refresh Your Recruiting Strategy
Some recruiters have already been using sponsored job ads on Indeed, so these new policies won’t have a drastic effect on their business.
“It’s been more than two years since Indeed began cutting back on ‘free’ ads for staffing firms and began approaching many with their thought process and the change to a paid forum. So, we’re not upset or unhappy with the change. It levels the playing field for everyone,” said Shawn Hackett, Vice President of Business Development at Sizemore, Inc. and a long-time Mindscope customer.
Hackett says his company has been sponsoring their job ads on Indeed for nearly 18 months, so they were aware that Indeed was eventually moving to an “all pay” platform. However, recruiters who’ve relied on posting free job ads on Indeed may want to take this as an opportunity to re-evaluate their current recruiting strategy to see what’s actually working.
Use Your Staffing Software to See Which Sources Work Best For You
Tapping into your staffing software’s reporting functionality is a great starting point to understanding where you should keep investing your time and money. Use your staffing software to see which sources—whether it’s Indeed, Linkedin, Monster or any other job board —are the most effective in drawing the best job applicants. However, don’t stop at the numbers.
Dive down even deeper to discover how many interviews and placements were made that originated from any given source. If you’re not going to be posting for free anymore, it’s important to ensure that you’re getting quantity as well as quality.
If you’re considering using Indeed’s sponsored job ads, set a budget for what you want to spend to advertise a particular type of job. Let all the recruiters in the company know about it, too. As sponsored ads operate on a pay-per-click model, you can pay anywhere from 10 cents to $5 every time someone clicks on your ad.
When you setup a job ad, you can specify how much you’re willing to spend per click per day. If you want to sponsor all of your jobs, contact Indeed to determine what your monthly cost would be. Before you sign the dotted line, these are some of the key things you should plan for:
- Determine how much you’re currently spending on sponsoring job postings and review the results using your staffing software reports
- Decide what your new budget will be and what type of jobs you’re going to spend it on
- Set aside time to analyze and evaluate the results after your job ad results
You should then be able to garner an insightful understanding of whether it will be worth investing time and money on Indeed, or if you should rethink your strategy.
Diversify Where You Advertise Your Job Postings
If you haven’t been doing this already, now is the right time to start sharing your job postings to a variety of different places on the web – from social, to your website and job boards.
“You have to use multiple forums for promoting your jobs and Indeed is just one of those. You can’t rely on just one space for your recruiting needs,” said Hackett. He says this is a piece of advice he has given to all of his recruiters.
Identify the sources that you want to post to. With the right staffing software, like Mindscope, you can distribute your job postings to multiple job boards at once right from within the system. There are a number of options to consider including Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, Monster and niche job boards like FlexJobs and Energy Jobline. Social recruiting is becoming an increasingly effective tool as well.
Invest in Your Own Website’s Careers Page
Crafting a compelling careers page is a vital piece of your recruiting success, and it’s now more important than ever. It’s easy to get caught up in where and how to advertise your job postings without realizing that your very own website can be a powerful source in attracting candidates! A user-friendly and intuitive job board API integration will boost your chances of attracting candidates, while having their applications flow seamlessly into your staffing software.
ERE surveyed over 100,000 candidates in a report on candidate experience. Their findings showed that 64% of candidates said that company career sites are the most valuable resource when they are researching a company. As a staffing agency, your reputation amongst candidates is critical to your success, so it’s important to have a strong careers page with personality. The top five pieces of information candidates look for on a careers page include:
- Company values
- Products and services
- Employee testimonials
- The reasons why people work there
- The reasons why they choose to stay
As you design this page, try to include and elaborate on these five sections. This will increase your chances of attracting more qualified candidates who resonate with your company values.
New Year, New Rules
Recruiters will have to adapt to Indeed’s new rules to be prepared when the New Year rolls around. This new era on paying to advertise job postings will be beneficial for nudging recruiters to re-evaluate and rethink their strategies, which is instrumental for continued success. As 2019 is quickly approaching, think of this as the perfect opportunity to prepare yourself for surpassing company goals next year.
Do you have other questions or concerns, or want to know more about how your staffing software can help? Get in touch with us today, we’ll be glad to help you out.