Have you noticed that Indeed job postings aren’t what they used to be? Simply listing a job on the site doesn’t guarantee it’ll be seen, which has been a growing frustration for many employers. Another growing frustration is the sheer volume of low quality, duplicate, and inaccurate job postings blasted out by less-than-reputable staffing partners.
Indeed has set out to remedy the situation by moving all third-party job recruiters to a paid sponsorship-only model by January 7, 2019. We admit that we weren’t happy with the move initially but, once we had a chance to reflect on the changes, we realize it could be helpful for us all.
When it comes down to it, Indeed is where many of the job candidates are (2 million of them each month, in fact). For years, the company has been primarily a job aggregate, hosting a free party that keeps growing while graciously sweeping up and taking out the trash. So while Cila Warncke from AIMGroup calls the move to paywall job recruiters just “another step on [Indeed’s] steady march away from aggregation,” who can blame them? They’ve been leaving revenue on the table. But the question you’re likely asking yourself now is: If I can list my jobs for free and my employment agency must now pay, why don’t I just list the jobs myself?
Here are a few reasons:
-
- Paid listings are better. This new model is designed to weed out thousands of daily “junk” job listings, which should improve results for the rest of us. But with staffing partners on a paid model, your free, direct listings will still get lost. As Indeed explains, “Sponsored jobs get more applications than free job listings…If you choose to post your job for free, it will be most visible to job seekers for the first 2 or 3 days after posting. After that, your job will fall behind newer relevant search results and candidates will have to scroll farther back to find it.”
-
- You don’t have the time or additional resources. Your employment agency is doing much more for you than listing jobs on Indeed (or at least they should be). There are dozens of other job listing sites and aggregators to consider including ZipRecruiter, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Dice, SimplyHired, and Zippia. And then there’s the process: from crafting the job description to screening candidates. Many staffing partners use technology that simplifies the process and measures results, and they have resources and connections at job boards that give them a leg up. Matching your employment agency’s mastery this area of hiring is probably not practical.
- You may be moved to the new model, too. Indeed points out that the model is directed at recruiting firms, placement firms, headhunters, staffing agencies and outsourcing solutions, but it also includes this caveat: “Please note that companies or accounts may be categorized as a recruitment-based company at the sole discretion of Indeed and may be subject to this policy if so. Indeed further reserves the right to require sponsorship of jobs for any reason.” We anticipate this is only the beginning of Indeed’s new pay-to-play model. If you post jobs at a high volume, you’ll likely soon be affected, too.
Plus, that’s not all that’s changed at Indeed. Indeed Resume, a searchable database of millions of resumes, recently became a two-tier subscription-based model as well. As SHRM explains here, job recruiters browse the database for free and pay for each candidate they contact (above a certain amount). Trying to navigate these changes without the help of an employment agency could greatly reduce the quality of your search efforts in ways you may not even understand. Assess the amount of traffic you’re currently getting from Indeed, and how many of those leads are placed. That will help you determine whether any new costs are worth the investment.
