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What Is a Matching and Hiring Platform? (A Guide for Employers)

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A matching and hiring platform provides a comprehensive hiring solution. They streamline the recruitment process, from job posting to job offer. Platforms like Indeed go beyond traditional job boards by providing comprehensive tools and features. These platforms typically offer a centralized dashboard to manage and track all hiring activities, leveraging advanced technologies to match your organization with quality candidates.

In this article, we explore matching and hiring platforms, including how they work, their benefits for employers, common features and how they can improve your recruiting process.

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What is a matching and hiring platform?

A matching and hiring platform facilitates the hiring journey from start to finish. In contrast to traditional job boards, they let you do more than post open positions and wait for candidates to apply. You can screen, message, interview and track hiring progress.

Matching and hiring platforms also help you find quality candidates who meet your requirements. They often use technology to match you with potential hires who meet your specific needs.

Matching and hiring platforms like Indeed also provide additional features, such as:

  • Recruiting automation
  • Collaboration tools
  • Advertising and branding solutions
  • Robust data and analytics
  • The ability to integrate with your existing workflow and tools, such as applicant tracking systems (ATS) and calendar apps

These platforms streamline the employer’s hiring process while simplifying the job search for candidates.

What is the difference between a matching and hiring platform and a job board?

Matching and hiring platforms and job boards both serve the purpose of connecting employers with job seekers. However, there are a few key differences.

A job board displays job listings from various employers in one central location. Employers can post their job openings for a fee or, in some cases, for free. When a job seeker applies to your job listing on a job board, it’s your responsibility to manage the rest of the process. This includes conducting your own screening and using scheduling and tracking tools. This process can be challenging to manage if you’re posting multiple jobs.

Matching and hiring platforms, on the other hand, are a more comprehensive solution for employers. They manage the entire hiring process. In addition to job listings, these platforms may offer features such as:

Matching and hiring platforms like Indeed may also use machine learning to help match job seekers with relevant job openings based on their skills and experience.

Benefits of using a matching and hiring platform for recruiting

Using a matching and hiring platform like Indeed can help you quickly and easily find the right candidates, saving your organization time and money. Here are just a few of the other benefits of using a matching and hiring platform:

  • Wider reach: Matching and hiring platforms let businesses reach a larger pool of potential candidates. They have a wider reach than traditional recruitment methods such as print advertising or job fairs. In fact, more than 275K job seekers create an Indeed account every day.
  • Cost-effective: A matching and hiring platform like Indeed can be more cost-effective than traditional recruitment methods. They eliminate the need for multiple disjointed tools such as job boards and spreadsheets. You can also start with a free job listing and then sponsor your job later for better visibility and to unlock other hiring features. Terms, conditions and usage limits apply.
  • Positive candidate experience: Hiring platforms also support a positive candidate experience throughout the hiring process. They encourage favorable word of mouth, build a strong talent pipeline and improve offer-acceptance rate. On average, job seekers spend less than three minutes completing an application on Indeed.
  • Time savings: Matching and hiring platforms can save you time by automating many aspects of the recruitment process. This includes automatically sourcing candidates and scheduling interviews. They allow you to focus on human connections rather than administrative work.
  • Candidate matching: Indeed adapts to your hiring preferences and recruiting activity. It recommends high-quality candidates whose resumes match your job description.
  • Collaboration: A matching and hiring platform can help you work effectively with others involved in the recruitment process. On Indeed, for example, everyone on your hiring team can stay informed about the hiring process. Your team can track applicants and share feedback after interviews.

12 features of matching and hiring platforms

Matching and hiring platforms offer a range of features to help recruiters and hiring managers find quality candidates:

  1. ​​Job postings: Employers can create and post job listings. Indeed provides job description templates and guidance on how to compete for top talent.
  2. Candidate sourcing: Matching and hiring platforms typically have a searchable database of candidate resumes. You can use these to find, connect and manage potential candidates for multiple or specialized roles. Indeed facilitates an average of 94K connections between employers and job seekers each day via its resume database.
  3. Candidate matching: Matching and hiring platforms use algorithms to match openings with candidates who possess the necessary skills and experience.
  4. Applicant tracking: Indeed’s matching and hiring platform offers tools to track and manage job applications. This may include each candidate’s resume, cover letter, assessment scores and communications. You can also filter and sort job applications based on specific criteria such as skills, answers to screener questions and work experience.
  5. Data and analytics: Matching and hiring platforms can provide employers with data and insights on their recruitment efforts, including job posting performance and candidate engagement. On Indeed, you have access to these reports, as well as competitive and market analytics by job type and location. Available information includes average salaries, top job-seeker search terms and the number of job seekers per job.
  6. Collaboration tools: Hiring managers can collaborate with colleagues and external recruiters on the hiring process, sharing notes and feedback on candidates. For example, on Indeed’s matching and hiring platform, you can give your hiring team different levels of access, forward resumes to your colleagues and share interview feedback.
  7. Candidate screening: Indeed’s matching and hiring platform has tools to help you quickly screen candidates. It offers skills assessments and screener questions. Postings on Indeed that include screener questions are 40% more likely to result in a hire.
  8. Candidate connections: Indeed’s matching and hiring platform has tools to help you message, interview and call candidates. You can call your candidate directly from your dashboard or use our masked phone number feature to keep your number private. Indeed Interview lets you conduct live virtual interviews without needing a separate video conferencing tool.
  9. Employer branding: On Indeed, employers can customize their company profile to showcase their brand and company culture. Job seekers who visit your Indeed Company Page are approximately three times more likely to apply to your jobs.
  10. Tools to standardize interviews: Indeed’s Interview Guide helps you conduct consistent, structured interviews. When you ask the same questions using the same evaluation process across all interviews, you can more objectively compare candidates.
  11. Hiring automation: Matching and hiring platforms use automation features to handle administrative tasks. This allows you to focus on building connections with talent and hiring more efficiently. Indeed can automate applicant screening based on your pre-set quality criteria and automatically schedule an introductory phone or video call. Jobs using Screening and Scheduling automation are 18% more likely to report a hire within seven days. Other hiring automation tools include automated sourcing, rejection emails and resume screening.
  12. Integrations with other HR tools: Matching and hiring platforms like Indeed can integrate with ATS or HR information systems (HRIS). HR tools streamline the hiring process and improve data sharing. Indeed integrates with more than 350 ATS systems.

Maximizing the benefits of matching and hiring platforms

Establishing an efficient hiring workflow allows you to maximize the potential of matching and hiring platforms. Use the platform’s centralized dashboard to manage all candidates, integrate existing tools such as calendars and ATS, and automate repetitive administrative tasks, including resume screening and interview scheduling.

The matching and hiring platform you choose can also help you make informed hiring decisions. These platforms let you track key metrics, such as time-to-hire and application rates. They provide insight into which postings attract quality candidates. They can help you improve future job listings by giving insight into trends in qualifications and skills.

Matching and hiring platforms like Indeed provide comprehensive recruitment solutions that go beyond basic job boards, streamlining the entire process from posting jobs to making offers. They leverage algorithms for precise candidate matching, automation, screening tools, analytics and integrations to save time, reduce costs, expand reach and improve candidate experience, helping you hire quality talent more efficiently.

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Indeed’s Employer Guide helps businesses grow and manage their workforce. With over 15,000 articles in 6 languages, we offer tactical advice, how-tos and best practices to help businesses hire and retain great employees.