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How does candidate matching work?
Indeed’s candidate matching technology helps you get more quality candidates fast. Instead of waiting for applications to roll in, this feature allows you to connect with candidates before they even apply for your job. How does it work? When you subscribe to Indeed Smart Sourcing, our matching technology automatically searches through the millions of resumes on Indeed to surface candidates who match your job requirements. When you see a candidate you’re interested in, send them a personalized invitation to connect.
When you subscribe to Indeed Smart Sourcing, you can invite matched candidates to apply as soon as you post a job or any time after from your Employer Dashboard.
Benefits of Indeed’s matching technology
One of employers’ most significant obstacles when hiring is attracting candidates with the right qualifications, skills and experience. Indeed’s matching technology helps employers like you connect with quality candidates and hire quickly. .
Here’s how our matching and hiring platform can improve your hiring process:
- Find more quality candidates: We make it easy to find the right candidates. Our matching technology automatically searches the over 245M resumes on Indeed to find matches that fit your job criteria.
- Connect and hire faster: When you subscribe to Indeed Smart Sourcing, quickly invite matched candidates to apply immediately after you post your job instead of waiting for them to find you.
- Stand out to quality job seekers: When you invite matched candidates to apply, you can send them a personalized email with your job information. Reaching out directly can show candidates you’ve noticed them and help you create a positive candidate experience. This encourages them to apply. In fact, matched candidates you invite to apply are 15X more likely to apply to your job than job seekers who only see it in search[1]
- Identify candidates who meet your job criteria up front: Rather than waiting to see who applies and going through a large pool of applicants, you get immediate access to quality candidates who match your job requirements and you can invite them to apply right away.
How Indeed’s matching technology works
Our hiring and matching platform is quick and easy to use. Here’s how it works:
1. Share your job details
First, spend some time setting your criteria for quality candidates. This information is used to surface your matched candidates, so make sure it’s accurate and complete. Write an informative job description and consider including screener questions or assessments.
Indeed provides a number of pre-made screener questions to choose from based on your job title. You can also customize questions based on your specific requirements, like licenses, certifications or years of experience. Then, mark any as must-haves. This tells Indeed what you need from applicants to help you get matched with quality candidates.
Once you have all your job details together and you post your job, unlock our matching technology by subscribing to Indeed Smart Sourcing.
2. See matched candidates
View the list of candidates whose resumes on Indeed match your job requirements. If you don’t have time to review and invite your matched candidates right away, no problem. You can review your most recently matched candidates by going to “Match candidates by job” under the Find Candidates tab in Smart Sourcing and invite them to apply at any time.
3. Invite candidates to connect
Click the Message button next to the candidates you’re interested in. We’ll send these candidates a customizable email with your job information and a link to the job description.
When a match you invite confirms their interest, you’ll be notified and the candidate will appear in the Projects tab. Matched candidates who replied to your message after getting your invitation will appear under “New responses”.
4. Schedule interviews
Review your matched candidates and schedule interviews to learn more about their skills and experience. Note that you are under no obligation to interview or hire any invited matched candidate.
Tips for making the most of candidate matching
Here are some tips for successfully matching with quality candidates:
Optimize your job description to get great matches
Since our matching technology uses your job description to find matched candidates, make sure your job description accurately and completely describes who you’re looking for. Consider adding screener questions and marking any must-haves to help us surface better matches.
It can also help to think like a job seeker when creating your job posts so you don’t leave out any important details. Additionally, here are some quick tips for writing effective job titles and descriptions on Indeed.
Customize your invitations
Your invitation messages are important because they can influence a candidate’s decision to apply for your job or not, and can form their first impression of your company. You can quickly create customized contact templates and generate AI-powered messages based on the candidate’s resume and your job description.
Here’s an example of what a personalized invitation can look like:
Hi [Candidate name],
I have a [specific position] open that I think you would be a good fit for! There’s a brief overview and the job description below. Please let me know if you are interested.
Job details
[Link to full job description]
[Specific details about the job, including job type and location]
Regards,
[Recruiter name]
[Company name]
Be intentional about who you invite to apply
We recommend thoughtfully inviting candidates to apply based on their skills, experience and qualifications, instead of inviting all matched candidates to apply. By only inviting the candidates you think could truly be a good fit for your role, you improve your chances of finding the right person for the job while maintaining a great candidate experience.
FAQs about matched candidates
Where do the matched candidates come from?
We use the information you share as part of your job requirements to search the millions of resumes on Indeed in order to show you a shortlist of candidates who match based on information collected from the job seeker such as skills, experience, and preferences and your job criteria.
How much does it cost to use the candidate matching technology?
The ability to access quality matched candidates is one of many features you unlock when you subscribe to Indeed Smart Sourcing. Indeed Smart Sourcing streamlines the hiring process by matching quality candidates to your job, offering faster candidate connections in one cohesive experience. For more about what’s included with Smart Sourcing subscriptions, check out our article.
Where will I see matched candidates?
When you subscribe to Indeed Smart Sourcing, you’ll initially see matched candidates right after you post your job. After that, you can find these candidates in the Find Candidates tab under “Match candidates by job”.
When can I invite candidates to apply?
After you subscribe to Indeed Smart Sourcing, you can invite matched candidates to apply right when you post your job and any time after.
Can I customize the invite message to my matched candidates?
Yes. You can choose to send job seekers a pre-written, personalized message and create customized contact templates and generate AI-powered messages based on the candidate’s resume and your job description.
What if none of my matched candidates are qualified?
We use the job criteria listed in your posting to find your matched candidates. If you’re not getting quality matches, it may help to review and tweak the job posting. This article includes helpful tips for improving your job descriptions.
What candidate details can I see? Can I see the whole resume?
You may see the candidate’s recent experience or their full resume by clicking on their name. If you’re interested in a candidate, we recommend inviting them to apply. You can review their full qualifications after they apply, and there’s no obligation to hire them if you find a candidate who’s a better fit.
Here are some tips for reviewing applicant resume to help you identify your top picks.
*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.