Indeed’s new Smart Sourcing product uses advanced matching technology and AI to help expedite the talent sourcing process without losing the personal touch candidates want.

Key Takeaways 

  • Indeed-commissioned survey data shows hiring managers struggle with manually sourcing unresponsive candidates, while candidates wish companies would more thoroughly review their qualifications before contacting them about new opportunities.
  • Indeed’s new Smart Sourcing product combines the power of Indeed CV Search and matched candidates with AI features to make talent sourcing more efficient.
  • Have an Indeed CV subscription? Contact your account manager to transition it into a Smart Sourcing subscription, available now in Standard and Professional options. 

3 in 4 (74%) UK businesses feel hiring has become harder in the past five years, according to new data from a recent Indeed survey. The survey of 1,000 workers and 1,000 hiring professionals in the UK shows that the hiring process is inefficient and frustrating, with 63% of hiring professionals wanting to be more productive but 61% feeling like they’re wasting time. 

With over 908,000 job vacancies in the UK, according to ONS data, and 53% of businesses saying they have ambitious hiring targets this year, the pressure is on. But, discovering quality candidates who are open to a new role is no mean feat; in fact, 66% of hiring professionals discount some hiring sites for fear they won’t be able to find a pool of candidates who could be a good fit. It’s no surprise that 65% say that the lack of quality candidates is one of the biggest frustrations in their job.

Now, imagine using a sourcing product  that automatically delivers a list of quality candidates that match the requirements of a job description you already wrote. That’s the experience with Indeed’s new AI-powered Smart Sourcing.

Building on the Indeed CV product, which allows recruiters to search the 245 million CVs on Indeed, Smart Sourcing adds the efficiency of AI to your talent sourcing. Rather than manually filtering through talent, Smart Sourcing’s algorithms match active candidates to your open roles. Custom-generated messaging and collaboration tools further streamline your workflow while maintaining an individualised approach to candidate communication. In fact, 77% of users agree that Smart Sourcing is the preferred product for sourcing quality talent.

“Indeed has been invested in AI for a long time,” says Jason Kudrikow, Indeed Senior Talent Strategy Advisor. “Now, with the recent acceleration of large language models and generative AI technology, we’re able to combine our enormous database of CVs with what we know employers are looking for in order to make smart matches — and help you connect with them faster.”

Here’s how the product can address your talent sourcing pain points.

Get Quality and Engaged Matched Candidates, Fast

While Indeed CV’s search is effective, providing 69,000 successful connections between employers and job seekers each day, the Indeed survey found that in the past year alone, 32% of contacted candidates were unsuitable due to avoidable reasons such as location, qualifications or lack of interest in new opportunities. Smart Sourcing’s matched candidates helps solve for this by allowing employers to match with qualified talent based on skills and relevant experiences — simply toggle between your jobs on Indeed via a drop-down menu to instantly view recommended candidates, then invite them to apply.

"As you accept or reject candidates, the Smart Sourcing AI will learn what you prefer over time,” says Kudrikow. “It lets you curate your matched candidates results like a Spotify playlist, tailored to your unique preferences.”

You can still manually search and filter CVs as you like, or use the automated recommendations to expedite the process. Matches are based on the keyword relevancy of your job post and job seeker CVs, job seekers’ search activity on Indeed and how recently job seekers have been on the site. This helps our matching algorithms present you with the most relevant candidates who are demonstrating interest in new opportunities.

Healthcare Homes, an award-winning provider of residential, nursing, homecare and live-in services across the UK, reported success within the first two months of using Smart Sourcing: 

“During our trial of Indeed Smart Sourcing the recruitment team have found the ease of use to be excellent. Over the course of the two months we offered 50% of the candidates contacted a position with our company and feel the new developments being made to the product will only enhance the results further. We look forward to using this in the future.”

In the survey, 62% of job seekers report being contacted for roles that aren’t right for them, while 66% say companies can do a better job of reviewing their skills and experience before reaching out. This lack of preparation, personalization and attention to detail in recruiting can reflect poorly on your company. 

That’s why matched candidates include candidate highlights, a generative AI capability that analyses and summarises each CV to suggest why the candidate could be a great fit for your role, or to point out potential gaps in their experience. This accelerated evaluation enables you to make better-informed hiring decisions to preserve both your employer brand and the candidate experience.

Matched candidates you invite to apply are 31x more likely to apply to your job than job seekers who only see it when searching on Indeed, and employers who use this feature when sponsoring their job hire 17% faster.2,3

Connect To Talent Right Away with AI-Powered Messaging

Employers contacting candidates through Indeed’s CV search receive a positive response from a job seeker in just 10 hours on average,4 but 95% of hiring managers believe that their productivity would be even better if administrative tasks like candidate outreach could be assisted by AI. Our customisable AI-powered messages reduce the time and effort it takes to manually write, personalise and proofread candidate communications.

This allows you to generate a customised message based on the content of the candidate’s CV and your job posting. You can generate message variations by desired tone and refine the information before sending it.

“The AI-powered messages are very effective because they’re personalised for each individual candidate. It’s amazing how the AI pulls in the right pieces of a job description to describe the highlights of the job and uses information from a candidate’s CV to say why it's a great fit,” says the recruiting director at Universal Health Services (UHS), a leading hospital and healthcare provider with 400 facilities across the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.K.

With a Professional subscription, you also gain the ability to automate post-outreach follow-up with custom reminder messages. Message analytics track how your templates perform and provide actionable insights on candidate engagement, helping you maximise ROI.

Optimise Recruiting Workflows and Team Productivity

Recruiting and hiring can be a complex task with work distributed across multiple people and platforms. To simplify the process, Smart Sourcing Professional Subscriptions allow you to invite collaborators to sourcing projects and accelerate the candidate feedback process with collaborative task management tools. 

For example, say you’ve used Smart Sourcing to curate a shortlist of suitable, responsive candidates. You can easily invite the hiring manager to provide feedback, even if they don’t have a subscription. Once they’ve chosen which candidates will move onto the next hiring stages and left notes about their decisions, you can then bulk-send invitations about next steps with AI-customised messages.

You can also take your sourcing with you on the go from your phone with the Indeed Connect for Employers app. Once you have reached out to potential candidates, notifications alert you when they respond to an application invite or a message, allowing you to reply in real-time and keep the hiring process moving forward.

Smart Sourcing in action

Through Indeed’s Customer No. 1 programme – which aims to have Indeed employees better understand the client experience by directly using Indeed's products and providing their feedback – the Indeed Talent Attraction team put Smart Sourcing to the test. They used the product to hire internally in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, India, Australia and France. Here’s what they reported.

First, the team worked with the Indeed Legal department to ensure the responsible use of AI in compliance with Indeed’s hiring rules and regulations. For example, recruiters add a stipulation at the end of every AI-generated message stating that it’s generated by AI but reviewed by a human before sending.

To connect with candidates, the team has found success using the combination of AI efficiency and the human touch. ‘We find the best response rates with messages generated by AI and then further customised by our experienced recruiters,’ says Christina Rippo, Indeed Senior Programme Manager of Talent Attraction.

Rippo recalled how one of Indeed’s recruiters found two qualified candidates for an open role in just two minutes. ‘When you're sourcing passive candidates, you never know what could happen,’ Rippo says. ‘Our recruiters have told me that, with the quality and responsiveness of the matched candidates, we’re engaging with candidates faster.

Getting Started with Smart Sourcing

Smart Sourcing subscriptions are available starting today, and existing Indeed CV subscriptions have transitioned to Smart Sourcing. Available in both Standard and Professional options, subscriptions include access to candidate search and filters, matched candidates, new AI functionality and collaboration tools.

“No one gets into talent attraction for the legwork,” says Kudikrow. “Indeed is harnessing the power of AI to make it easier than ever to get your opportunities in front of qualified talent, fast, and focus on what makes the profession so rewarding — the human connection.”

Learn more about Smart Sourcing and reach out to your Indeed account manager to discuss how you can discover and manage your ideal candidates and easily collaborate with your team to make better hiring decisions.

Survey methodology: The survey was conducted among 1000 hiring professionals and 1000 working people in the UK. The interviews were conducted online by Sapio Research in March 2024 using an email invitation and an online survey. Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

Sources

1Sapio Research survey of UK hiring managers with 2,000 hiring professionals (n=1000) and working people, ages 18 and older (n=1000), conducted on behalf of Indeed, March 2024

2Indeed data (UK), August 2023

3Indeed data (UK), 2023

4Indeed data (worldwide), 2023