By Allison McLellan
Indeed’s new Smart Sourcing product uses advanced matching technology to help expedite the talent-sourcing process without losing the personal touch candidates want.
Key Takeaways
- Indeed-commissioned survey data shows hiring managers struggle with manually sourcing unresponsive candidates, while candidates wish companies would more thoroughly review their qualifications before contacting them about new opportunities.
- Indeed’s new Smart Sourcing tool combines the power of Resume Search and matched candidates to make talent sourcing more efficient.
A staggering 99% of 300 U.S. hiring managers say sourcing qualified talent is a challenge, according to a recent Indeed-commissioned survey with Harris Poll.1 And it’s no wonder why — over half of those surveyed have seen reductions in their recruiting personnel, while they say only 36% of passive candidates are responsive, wasting the time and effort of an already limited team.
Now, imagine using a sourcing tool that automatically delivers a list of quality candidates who match the requirements of a job description you already wrote. That’s the experience with Indeed Smart Sourcing — now available in Australia.
Building on the Indeed Resume tool, which allows recruiters to search the 245 million resumes on Indeed, Smart Sourcing adds the efficiency of matching technology to your talent sourcing. Rather than manually filtering through talent, Smart Sourcing’s algorithms match active candidates to your open roles. Collaboration tools and outreach capabilities can further streamline your workflow while maintaining an individualised approach to candidate communication. In fact, 90% of users agree that Smart Sourcing is the preferred product for sourcing quality talent.1
Indeed has been invested in using AI to optimise hiring and recruiting for a long time. “What we hear from job seekers and employers is that they welcome any help to make the process better, as long as they stay in the driver’s seat and with a human making the final hiring decision,” says Raj Mukherjee, Indeed Executive Vice President of Marketplace Product and UX.
Here’s how the tool can address your talent-sourcing pain points.
Get Quality and Engaged Matched Candidates, Fast
While Indeed Resume’s search is effective, providing 69,000 successful connections between employers and job seekers each day, the Indeed-commissioned Harris Poll survey found that 74% of hiring managers would prefer to match with qualified talent based on skills and relevant experiences instead of manually searching for them. Smart Sourcing’s matched candidates does exactly that — simply toggle between your jobs on Indeed via a drop-down menu to instantly view recommended candidates, then invite them to apply.
As you accept or reject candidates, the Smart Sourcing AI will learn what you prefer over time. This lets you curate your matched candidates results like a Spotify playlist, tailored to your unique preferences.
You can still manually search and filter resumes or use the automated recommendations to expedite the process. Matches are based on the keyword relevancy of your job post and job seeker resumes, job seekers’ search activity on Indeed and how recently job seekers have been on the site. This helps Indeed’s matching algorithms present you with the most relevant candidates who are demonstrating interest in new opportunities.
Universal Health Services (UHS), a leading hospital and healthcare provider with 400 facilities across the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.K., has reported its candidate-response rate improving 30% since using Smart Sourcing.
“Smart Sourcing serves up appropriate candidates that tend to be more eager to respond and are active on Indeed. So we get both quality candidates that are a fit and a higher response rate than with another similar tool,” says one director of recruiting at UHS.
Matched candidates you invite to apply are 17x more likely to apply to your job than job seekers who only see it when searching on Indeed, and employers who use this feature when sponsoring their jobs hire 20% faster.2,3
Optimise Recruiting Workflows and Team Productivity
Recruiting and hiring can be a complex task with work distributed across multiple people and platforms. To simplify the process, Smart Sourcing Professional Subscriptions allow you to invite collaborators to sourcing projects and accelerate the candidate feedback process with collaborative task management tools.
For example, say you’ve used Smart Sourcing to curate a short list of suitable, responsive candidates. You can easily share contacted candidates with members of your team, add notes to stay up to date on the candidate throughout the hiring funnel and invite the hiring manager to provide feedback.
You can also take your sourcing with you on the go with the Indeed Connect for Employers app. Once you’ve reached out to potential candidates, notifications alert you when they respond to an application invite or a message, allowing you to reply in real time and keep the hiring process moving forward.
Smart Sourcing in Action
Through Indeed’s Customer No. 1 program – which aims to have Indeed employees better understand the client experience by directly using Indeed's products and providing their feedback – the Indeed talent attraction team put Smart Sourcing to the test. They use the product to hire internally across the US, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, India, Australia and France. Here’s what they reported.
First, the team worked with the Indeed legal department to ensure the responsible use of AI in compliance with Indeed’s hiring rules and regulations. For example, recruiters add a stipulation at the end of every AI-generated message stating that it’s generated by AI but reviewed by a human before sending.
To connect with candidates, the team has found success using the combination of AI efficiency and the human touch. “We find the best response rates with messages generated by AI and then further customised by our experienced recruiters,” says Christina Rippo, Indeed Senior Program Manager of Talent Attraction.
Rippo recalled how one of Indeed’s recruiters found two qualified candidates for an open role in just two minutes. “When you're sourcing passive candidates, you never know what could happen,” Rippo says. “Our recruiters have told me that, with the quality and responsiveness of the matched candidates, we’re engaging candidates faster.”
Getting Started with Smart Sourcing
Smart Sourcing subscriptions are now available in Australia, and existing Indeed Resume subscriptions have transitioned to Smart Sourcing. Available in both Standard and Professional options, subscriptions include access to candidate search and filters, matching quality candidates to your job and offering faster candidate connections.
Ultimately, no one gets into talent attraction for the legwork – it's for the people. “AI can and will make hiring way simpler and faster,” says Maggie Hulce, Indeed Chief Revenue Officer. “But together, we can ensure the ‘human’ is always at the heart of hiring.”
Learn more about Smart Sourcing and reach out to your Indeed account manager to discuss how you can discover and manage your ideal candidates and easily collaborate with your team to make better hiring decisions.
Survey methodology: This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Indeed from February 12–20, 2024, among 1,107 employed adults, ages 18 and older, and 300 hiring managers (those with sole or primary decision making in the recruiting and hiring process) with 2,000+ employees. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the employee sample data is accurate to within +/– 2.6 percentage points and the hiring manager sample data is accurate to within +/— 5.6% using a 95% confidence level.
Sources:
1Harris Poll survey of U.S. hiring managers with 2,000+ employees (n=300) and employed adults, ages 18 and older (n=1107), conducted on behalf of Indeed, February 2024
2Indeed data (U.S.), August 20233Indeed data (U.S.), 2023
3Indeed data (U.S.), 2023
