Jumpstart your hiring with a $75 credit to sponsor your first job.*
Sponsored Jobs posted directly on Indeed with Urgently Hiring make a hire 5 days faster than non-sponsored jobs**
Visibility for hard-to-fill roles through branding and urgently hiring
Instantly source candidates through matching to expedite your hiring
Access skilled candidates to cut down on mismatched hires
*The $75 Sponsored Job credit offer is only available for new accounts in the US that post a job and expires one year after account creation. Upon expiration of the credit, users are charged based on Sponsored Job budget. Terms, conditions, and quality standards apply
**Indeed data, based on median United States, Q2 2024
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.
Before you start making your next job post, it’s worth preparing a few things beforehand. In this article, we’ll break down everything you need to make a great job post so you can attract quality candidates.
You’ll want your job post to be both informative and well-formatted. An effective job description includes the responsibilities, requirements, and benefits of the job. You can use Indeed’s job description templates as a foundation for your job post—we have one for almost every job title.
If you need help creating or refining your draft, Indeed’s AI Job Description Generator can quickly build a clear, skills-first job description based on the details you provide.
A great job post should also be scannable and easy to read. Here are a few best practices for formatting your job description:
Avoid big blocks of text – break it up into smaller 3-4 sentence paragraphs
Use lists (bullet points) to make info easy to scan
Add sections (qualifications, benefits, etc.) for scannability
Also, we recommend writing your job post in an upbeat tone that feels welcoming for job seekers. Try to stick to an accessible vocabulary that anyone can understand.
Did you know that employers who include pay in their job description receive up to 31% more apply starts per impression?[1] Also, benefits like health care and PTO can be just as important to candidates as a pay range. If commissions, tips or bonuses are applicable to the position, make sure to include this info too.
Indeed makes it easier for employers to come up with a fair pay range with the salary recommendation tool on the Job Details page when posting a job. The tool uses data collected from Indeed users to determine average pay based on the location and job title.
Once you start getting applicants, we’ll email you a daily digest of all the people who applied to your job each day. The digest will be sent to the account owner’s email address by default, but you can enter a colleague’s email address to receive those daily digests instead. You can even specify different email addresses for different jobs depending on who the hiring manager or recruiter is for that particular job post.
If you’d rather receive a separate email for each individual person who applies, click Company Settings in your Employer Dashboard and select Email Preferences.
4. Cover letter requirements
Some employers prefer that applicants submit a cover letter, but it’s not necessary for all job types. If you’d like to require a cover letter for your job post, make sure to mention that in the body of your job description.
5. Know the difference between required and preferred qualifications
Some qualifications are nice-to-haves while others are need-to-haves. It’s important to know the difference when posting a job.
Certain required qualifications like degrees and certifications are crucial for someone to perform a job. For example, you can’t even consider someone for a Nursing job if they don’t have the right degree.
To ensure that you only review candidates who meet your qualification criteria, you can add screener questions to your job post. Mark any of these questions as “deal-breakers” to tell Indeed what you need from applicants.
Soft skills, characteristics, and other proficiencies that aren’t 100% required to carry out the job are considered nice-to-have qualifications. Make sure you clearly label which qualifications are required and which are preferred in your job description.
*Not available to all users
6. Create a pitch strategy for potential hires
Since quality candidates are always in-demand, you’ll want to think about how to get them excited about working for your company. That means being prepared to talk about benefits, career growth opportunities, available training and support, and work/life balance.
Make sure you have your pitch down before talking with a candidate you’re hoping will join your team.
7. Know the current market for the position
Understanding how to align salary, work level, and job title for your market is key. Research jobs posted in your area and even nationwide to stay competitive. Here are some areas to look at to stay ahead of the competition:
Compensation and benefits (like PTO and healthcare)
Work schedules and flexibility
Location
Opportunities for growth
Job security
When top talent has multiple offers on the table, they research each company. You can claim your Indeed Company Page to provide a window into what it’s like working at your company and tell prospective employees about your company’s values and culture.
8. Make time to communicate with candidates
Nobody likes to be left waiting, and you don’t want to lose a great candidate because you took too long to reach out. In a recent study, we found that 66% of job seekers typically receive a response from an employer within 1 week or less after submitting their application[2]. Employers who reply sooner may be less likely to miss out on top talent.
Employers who regularly communicate with candidates can earn the Responsive Employer Badge, which shows up to job seekers every time they see your job post. The badge encourages applications by indicating you’re highly likely to engage with them.
If you’ve checked off all the items on your checklist, you can post a job now.
*Indeed provides this information as a courtesy to users of this site. Please note that we are not your recruiting or legal advisor, we are not responsible for the content of your job descriptions, and none of the information provided herein guarantees performance.
This article is based on product information available at the time of writing, which may change at any time. Indeed does not guarantee that this information is always up-to-date. Please seek out your CS/Sales rep for the latest on this topic.
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.