A honest review on the job board Indeed

Searching for that perfect candidate or seeking the ideal job can feel a little overwhelming. This is why there are so many great platforms to help you navigate the process.

Back in the day a newspaper would suffice in your job hunt or recruitment drive but now with technology so frequently at our fingertips it’s a whole new world.

This is an unbiased review about the jobsite Indeed. I’ll tell you all about it’s features for both candidate and employer, highlight the benefits of using it and critique some aspects so you have the fullest understanding.

What is Indeed?

Indeed is one of the most popular job sites on the market at the moment.

Although advertised as a free job posting site it is in fact a fee earning, pay per click platform. This means every time someone applies for a role the hiring company is charged per applicant.

Indeed is arguably the largest job board in the world and whilst it’s primary service is to offer a platform to advertise and apply for jobs it can also help with company reviews and salary guidance.

Indeed for the candidate

Navigation on the website is very user friendly. You can search for your preferred job and location in a matter of seconds!

A generic admin search for ‘Taunton’ returns over 100 hits on Indeed with one click.

Candidates immediately have the option to search and review every job advert as well as vital insight into the company/agency advertising it. Indeed is able to let the candidate know whether the company is quick to respond to applicants, whether the hire is urgent and also see if other people have reviewed the company or agency.

Indeed invite you as the candidate to upload your CV for a number of reasons;

• You can apply for a job within seconds of reading the job advert by having your CV saved on their database, a once click apply is encouraged by the site.
• Convenience of applying for a range of jobs is perfect if you are flexible with the type of work you are looking for.
• It also becomes clear that a lot of companies and agencies use the site and so you might not feel the need to look anywhere else!

Another service that is offered by Indeed is a ‘Build your own CV’. This is a perfect tool for those people who have either never made a CV before or those that might have not have looked online for a job in recent years.

It begins with a fill in the blanks around education and previous work experience but the boxes are optional. This continues through to the type of work you are looking for, any skills you wish to add and a contact number or email address for you.

This makes the process much simpler for you as the candidate, giving you the confidence to apply for your dream job.

Indeed for the employer 

As recruiters, we have found that using Indeed to advertise certain roles can drum up a lot of interest and applicants over a short period of time.

We have previously advertised receptionist positions and received over 100 applications within 24 hours!

A fantastic feature that is unique to Indeed is that when you are posting a job it can have disqualifying questions such as level of qualifications, previous experience or flexibility with working hours.

This is a brilliant addition to Indeed and can really save time when trying to find that perfect candidate!

‘We only have an Indeed email address for you at the moment please can we take down a personal one?’

That is probably one of our most used phrases in the office and it is amazing how many candidates don’t realise Indeed automatically can do that to their CVs.

When we sift a candidate for suitability part of that process will be calling them to chat through their CV. Sometimes we will find that an Indeed CV can be inaccurate with information or be missing parts such as education or location.

It can be detrimental to our process of sending a candidate to a client because we often ask candidates to send over a word formatted CV or amend/ clarify what might be on their submitted Indeed CV.

Budget management is something that Indeed offers to manage for you and this has been received with mixed reviews in our office. You are given a dedicated Account Manager who stays in contact regularly and is happy to answer any questions or queries via email which is great and we definitely benefit from that support.

We were slightly disappointed with the level of service we received when it came to do talking about invoices, speaking to the right people and getting budgets amended. This may have just been a really busy time for them, perhaps we were talking to slightly less trained staff than normal but certainly noticed a very evasive change as soon as we wanted to query an invoice or amend a budget.

What about the Indeed app?

The app is very similar to the website and if you log in on your mobile device it can enable you to apply for jobs on the move.

The days of having to fill out application forms for each job are slowly dying out.

Nowadays if you have 5 minutes on the bus or tube you can scroll and apply for 10+ jobs in minutes.

This is great for the employee but not always great for the consultant sifting as often people have applied for everything because they are desperate for a job and if you end up calling them back then they can’t remember which one it is ‘because they’ve applied for so many’.

The counter argument is for that very reason, Indeed does have a tab that records the jobs you’ve applied for and whether you have had a response back or not.

Pros and Cons

It is clear to see that Indeed has its place in the recruitment / job seeking world and that it comes with both benefits and challenges.

My favourite things about Indeed are;

• Lots of people use it and as a recruiter you get a good response rate to ads
• Indeed as a platform can drive traffic to our website and encourage candidates to call
• Very placeable candidates

There are a couple of things I feel they can certainly improve on and I’m sure other people who have recruited before would agree with me…

• Lack of word formatted CV often with incomplete CV or the wrong contact email
• The one click apply button can be very time consuming for someone sifting lots of applications that have just applied for anything and everything
• The hidden costs of Indeed can be punishing to a small business.

A human touch is always best if you’re searching for your next employee. At Elite Staffing Solutions we take care to vet the candidates so that you don’t get inundated with irrelevant applications.

If you’re eager to start working and struggling to get a response from your jobsite applications, we’re here to hold your hand through the process and make sure you’re paired up with a great employer!

Let us know what you’re looking for!

Whether you’re seeking your next big opportunity or excited to grow your team, we’re here for you.