How Sourcing Assistant helps employers identify quality candidates

Sourcing Assistant is a sourcing feature available within Indeed Smart Sourcing. It uses employer-defined instructions and job details to help you identify, engage and deliver candidates whose backgrounds align with role requirements.

Sourcing Assistant can help hiring teams identify candidates they might not otherwise reach. Rather than relying only on keyword searches, manual sourcing or inbound applications from job seekers, Sourcing Assistant uses structured candidate information, resumes and Indeed profile details to support candidate discovery and initial outreach.

Once candidates are identified, Sourcing Assistant can support you by inviting candidates to apply who align with your job description and role details, helping to fill your candidate pipeline with applicants who you might have missed via a manual search alone.

What are the core features of Sourcing Assistant?

Sourcing Assistant helps you identify and engage candidates by supporting sourcing and outreach workflows.

During setup, you define your hiring criteria, customize outreach messaging guardrails and guidance and establish engagement settings based on your team’s hiring goals and outreach preferences.

After this initial setup, Sourcing Assistant continuously searches for candidate matches and delivers applicants into your existing hiring workflow when you enable Indeed Apply sync.

Use natural language to define your ideal candidate

When you attach a job during setup, Sourcing Assistant pre-fills assistant instructions using information from your job post, including key responsibilities from the job description, mandatory qualifications, skills and preferences.

You can then refine these instructions using everyday language, to add, remove or confirm what you’re looking for in your own words. For example:

• “Minimum three years of acute-care experience”
• “Open to overnight shifts”
• “Experience managing multi-location retail teams”

Sourcing Assistant turns these instructions into structured criteria it can use while searching, identifying specific skills, experience levels, locations and “nice-to-have” signals like preferred past employers or titles.

You can update this text any time as your hiring priorities change. Even when you remove a suggested match and share why, the assistant uses that feedback to refine its understanding of your ideal candidate for that specific role.

Find candidates beyond exact keyword matches

Sourcing Assistant uses Indeed’s matching technology and sourceable job seeker profiles to prioritize candidates whose experience and qualifications align with your instructions.

This tool evaluates more than direct keyword matches. As a result, you can discover candidates with related experience or transferable skills before searching for candidates or waiting for them to apply to your open job from search results.

Candidates found through Sourcing Assistant are more likely to be hired than those from other sources. Indeed test data suggests that applicants sourced by Sourcing Assistant were 2.9X more likely to be hired than applicants from other sources.^[1]

Automate outreach and engagement

Once you approve setup and outreach settings, Sourcing Assistant can send invitations to candidates whose profiles align with your hiring criteria.

You can:

• Use AI-generated outreach messaging to save time
• Upload your own messaging templates for consistency
• Customize sender names and messaging tone for personalization
• Set outreach limits and engagement settings to stay in control

This allows hiring teams to maintain consistency in candidate communication while reducing repetitive sourcing tasks. Furthermore, each job can be set up differently, so each role can follow a different approach as your team sees fit.

Integrate with your existing workflows

Sourcing Assistant works on jobs that use Indeed Apply, helping you manage candidate activity within your existing workflows. Applications and candidate summaries may also be delivered into supported applicant tracking systems (ATS) through Indeed Apply Sync integrations.*

While exact functionality varies for each ATS system, supported ATS integrations available through Professional Smart Sourcing currently include compatibility with Workday, iCIMS, isolved and Workable.

*Sourcing Assistant requires Indeed Apply. Sourced candidates are delivered on Indeed. For ATS delivery, Third-Party Indeed Apply (TPIA) is required. Contact your Indeed representative or in-product purchase flow for current plans and availability.

What are the benefits of using Sourcing Assistant?

Hiring teams often need to balance sourcing, outreach, screening and candidate communication across multiple open roles at the same time.

Sourcing Assistant acts as an extension of your HR team, supporting your workflows by helping you identify stronger candidate matches and reduce repetitive, manual sourcing and outreach activity.

Reach high-quality candidates who align with your needs

By combining natural-language prompts with Indeed matching technology, Sourcing Assistant may help you discover potential applicants who may not appear in traditional keyword searches and filters.

It also leverages job seeker behavior and activity on Indeed, prioritizing matches who meet your qualifications and may be ready to move forward as a potential match for your role.

Refocus hours for your highest-priority work

Recruiters and hiring teams often spend substantial time manually building outreach lists and sending first-contact messages.

Sourcing Assistant supports your early sourcing and outreach workflows in the background so recruiters can spend more time on:

• Person-to-person interviews
• Hiring manager collaboration
• Building relationships with potential candidates
• Closing potential job offers
• Dedicating extra time to specialized roles

Indeed test data found that employers saved a median of seven hours per week when using the Sourcing Assistant to support early sourcing and outreach tasks.^[2]

Build momentum around the clock

Because Sourcing Assistant continuously searches for potential candidate matches, it can help you maintain hiring momentum even as your team focuses on other tasks.

Traditionally, outreach is conducted during your active business hours, requiring your hiring team to manually send messages while more likely to be online or working. Instead of allocating resources on candidate outreach during business hours, Sourcing Assistant can continue identifying potential matches while your team focuses on other hiring tasks or may be away from their computer.

This continuous sourcing and outreach may help employers move quality candidates through the hiring process more quickly and efficiently. For example, according to Indeed test data, applicants sourced by the Sourcing Assistant were hired 31% faster on average than applicants hired from other sources.^[3]

Maintain control and transparency

You control:

• Which jobs use Sourcing Assistant
• Outreach limits and pacing
• Messaging templates
• Candidate review processes
• When sourcing activity is paused or adjusted

Candidates sourced through Sourcing Assistant are clearly labeled within supported workflows, helping you track sourcing activity and evaluate hiring outcomes over time. You can also review and fine-tune matches over time, giving feedback that helps the system better reflect what “qualified” means for your organization.

How can I start using Sourcing Assistant?

Sourcing Assistant is available through Indeed Smart Sourcing when Indeed Apply is enabled.

Using Sourcing Assistant in Smart Sourcing

Within Smart Sourcing, Sourcing Assistant is available through the Professional and Enterprise Smart Sourcing subscription tiers.

Under the Smart Sourcing Professional tier, each subscription can run Sourcing Assistant for up to three eligible jobs at a time. Outreach from the assistant uses the contacts included with that subscription, and you choose how many contacts to send per day and when to pause activity.

Under the Smart Sourcing Enterprise tier, Sourcing Assistant can support an unlimited number of eligible jobs simultaneously, drawing from a shared contact pool across your license, which is designed for larger teams with continuous or high-volume hiring needs.

In both subscription types, Sourcing Assistant works on sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed, and jobs aggregated from an ATS or career site that use Indeed Apply*.

*Sourcing Assistant requires Indeed Apply. Sourced candidates are delivered on Indeed only, not in the ATS. For ATS delivery, Sourcing Assistant requires Indeed Apply Sync. Contact your Indeed representative or in-product purchase flow for current plans and availability.

How Sourcing Assistant works: step-by-step

From start to finish, employers direct every stage of Sourcing Assistant’s workflow.

1. Set your ideal candidate criteria

Start by selecting an eligible job in Smart Sourcing and choosing to start assistant setup. Sourcing Assistant scans the selected job details to understand what you’re hiring for and pre-fills “assistant instructions” with specific, mandatory qualifications and skills, candidate background preferences and location details.

From there, you can refine the instructions by adding hiring manager preferences, target locations, preferred backgrounds or companies you like to hire from. You can also guide Sourcing Assistant toward candidates with experience similar to previously successful hires. These instructions are private to your team and can be updated at any time.

As part of the setup, you’ll review a curated group of candidate matches and can remove candidates who do not align with your role requirements.

Providing feedback during this stage can help improve future matching for that role. Sourcing Assistant uses this feedback to update its instructions and better reflect what you define as “qualified” for that specific role.

2. Configure outreach settings and guardrails

Next, employers establish outreach settings that control how Sourcing Assistant engages candidates.

You can:

• Set daily outreach limits
• Pause outreach activity
• Define response-based rules
• Select messaging templates
• Establish exclusion criteria

Finally, you choose your messaging approach. You can let the assistant generate personalized invitations based on each candidate’s background, or opt instead to use your own saved templates reflecting your company voice and brand. You control the sender name, subject line and tone, and can preview the message template so you know exactly what candidates will receive before anything is sent.

This helps employers maintain oversight of candidate communication while supporting consistent outreach workflows.

3. Sourcing Assistant discovers and invites candidates

After you complete the setup process, Sourcing Assistant continuously searches for new candidate matches based on your instructions and role requirements.

It explores multiple angles at once, exploring a range of factors including:

• Candidates with related skills
• Applicants from similar industries
• Proximity to your job location or work site (if not remote)
• Identifying those with similar or transferable experience

When strong matches are identified, Sourcing Assistant sends invitations using your approved outreach settings.

To reduce duplicate outreach, the system avoids contacting candidates who have already applied to the same job or previously received invitations through certain sourcing workflows.

4. Review, collaborate and move candidates to hire

As sourcing activity continues, employers can review activity, outreach status and contact usage within the platform.

Candidates sourced through Sourcing Assistant are clearly labeled within workflows, helping recruiters evaluate sourcing performance and hiring outcomes over time.

For employers using supported ATS integrations* through Professional Smart Sourcing, candidate information may also flow directly into existing recruiting workflows.

Recruiters and hiring teams can then continue reviewing applicants, sharing feedback, scheduling interviews and progressing candidates through their normal hiring process.

*Sourcing Assistant requires Indeed Apply. Sourced candidates are delivered on Indeed. For ATS delivery, Third-Party Indeed Apply (TPIA) is required. Contact your Indeed representative or in-product purchase flow for current plans and availability.

Best practices for getting the most from Sourcing Assistant

You can get stronger sourcing outcomes when hiring criteria, outreach workflows and review processes are clearly defined before sourcing begins.

Start with clear must-haves and nice-to-haves

Separating required qualifications from preferred qualifications can help Sourcing Assistant prioritize candidates whose backgrounds align more closely with role expectations.

Must-have requirements are mandatory details for your role. Potential candidates who do not meet your set must-have criteria will be avoided. Examples of must-have criteria may include:

• Licenses or certifications
• Shift availability
• A minimum required years of experience

You can also identify preferred qualifications for Sourcing Assistant to prioritize, while still allowing the tool to surface candidates who may be qualified even if they don’t meet every preferred qualification.

Preferred qualifications may include:

• Experience within a related industry or project type
• Leadership background
• Familiarity with specific tools or systems

Sourcing Assistant can also keep other additional considerations in mind as it sources candidates. These serve as additional filters the tool will consider and can use to surface potential matches. These criteria could include:

• Previously rejected candidates
• Former employees of your organization
• Proximity to the job site

Calibrate early and refine over time

You may benefit from reviewing early sourcing results and refining instructions as new information becomes available.

Even small adjustments to instructions or outreach criteria can influence match quality over time.

Use Sourcing Assistant alongside recruiter outreach

Sourcing Assistant is designed to support recruiter workflows rather than replace recruiter decision-making. Consider using it as an extension of your team, not a replacement.

Many hiring teams use Sourcing Assistant to support ongoing sourcing activity while recruiters can focus on:

• In-person candidate conversations
• Hiring manager collaboration and alignment
• Interview and offer coordination
• Relationship-building with high-priority candidates

Track performance and share what’s working

You can evaluate sourcing workflows over time by monitoring:

• Outreach activity
• Candidate responses
• Applications received
• Interview progression
• Hiring outcomes

Reviewing this information may help hiring teams refine outreach strategies and identify which sourcing approaches work best for different types of roles.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to use Sourcing Assistant?

Sourcing Assistant is included within Smart Sourcing Professional and Smart Sourcing Enterprise subscriptions.

Does Sourcing Assistant work on all of my jobs?

No. Sourcing Assistant requires your jobs to use Indeed Apply.

It works jobs posted directly on Indeed and jobs that are aggregated from an ATS or career site where Indeed Apply is enabled. Jobs that route candidates only to an external apply page without Indeed Apply are not supported.

How does the Sourcing Assistant change a recruiter’s workflow?

Sourcing Assistant is designed to support recruiter workflows and requires recruiter oversight.

The Sourcing Assistant is built to fit into a recruiter’s existing workflow. It can help automate select tasks and help relieve the operational strain that can arise with proactive candidate outreach Recruiters and hiring teams can switch between manual and using the Sourcing Assistant for tasks such as outreach and messaging templates with review built into the process. This frees up time for making hiring decisions, reviewing existing engaged candidates and managing interviews throughout the hiring process.

How much control do I have over who Sourcing Assistant contacts?

Employers control every part of the Sourcing Assistant outreach process. This includes:

• Which jobs use Sourcing Assistant
• Outreach limits
• Messaging templates
• Candidate criteria
• When outreach is paused or adjusted

Candidates sourced through Sourcing Assistant are also clearly labeled within supported workflows.

How does Sourcing Assistant work with my ATS?

For jobs using Indeed Apply with an eligible ATS integration, Sourcing Assistant can send applications, resumes and summaries directly into your ATS so recruiters can review and move candidates forward without changing systems.

If your ATS is not yet integrated for this flow, you can still manage Sourcing Assistant candidates on Indeed and explore adding or upgrading an integration through the Integrations Hub.

Who is Sourcing Assistant best suited for?

Sourcing Assistant may be especially useful for employers who:

• Hire at high volume
• Manage difficult-to-fill roles
• Recruit for recurring positions
• Support multiple concurrent openings
• Need ongoing sourcing support across teams

Smart Sourcing Professional and Enterprise subscriptions support larger organizations with continuous sourcing needs.

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