Three Tips to Making the Most of Your Recruiting with Indeed

In addition to designing a company’s website to best attract jobseekers, using third-party tools like Indeed is equally critical in expanding a firm’s recruitment effectiveness.

Indeed is the leading online recruiting tool and is more than just a job board.  250 million people visit Indeed every month and is the number one source of external hiring for more than 3 million businesses.

To fully take advantage of Indeed there are several tips and tricks to increase the chances of attracting talent for a specific role.  Below are three such tips for recruiting success on Indeed.

1. Change thinking from “Job Descriptions” to “Job Ads.”  In today’s fight for talent, traditional job descriptions may not be enough to attract jobseekers. In addition to a basic rundown of job duties, there must be a component of selling a firm or an opportunity to increase the odds of attracting talent. This may include a compelling and concise opening that illustrates what’s great about working for the company and language that explains what makes a company unique and why someone would want to work there. Also, consider providing details on training or learning opportunities, advancement paths, compensation, perks and benefits.
2. Using job titles that will resonate with candidates is important and will minimize the chance of a posting falling lower in a job seeker’s search results.  The length of a job title is something that Indeed considers.  35 characters or less is optimal for mobile display which is how roughly 80 percent of opportunities are viewed. A maximum of 60 characters is suggested for desktop viewing.  Also, avoiding internal language in a job title or sign-on bonus information helps keep a posting higher in results.
3. The format of a job ad is also important to increase its visibility.  Proper length, avoiding jargon and having balance all improve the chances of a job ad being seen by as many candidates as possible. Indeed reports that job postings with descriptions between 700 and 2,000 characters get up to 30 percent more applicants than other postings.  Generally speaking, a job seeker on a mobile device will have to view a separate screen for every thousand characters which underscores the importance of brevity.  If the candidate has to scroll through multiple screens, they will quickly lose interest. It’s also important to make sure a job ad doesn’t include internal jargon or acronyms that may only be known to existing employees and mean nothing to a candidate.

At its most basic level, Indeed is a giant search engine. Similar to Google, it has a lot of artificial intelligence built into it to deliver the best experience for the jobseeker.  This means that following these three basic tips will help in making sure candidates see job postings and increase the chances of applications.

ASA recently held a webinar as part of Project Talent that went into more depth on the power of Indeed.  A recording of this webinar can be seen here.

Project Talent is a component of ASA’s Employee Recruitment and Education goal, one of four mega goals included in the Association’s strategic plan.  This goal includes the objective of developing and implementing a program to attract and grow the number of talented workers taking advantage of fulfilling career opportunities in the PHCP/PVF Industry.