How to use Smart Sourcing to find candidates on Indeed

Using Smart Sourcing and posting jobs on Indeed can bring you a different set of candidates.

Candidates that are matched with your job through Indeed Smart Sourcing have been active on Indeed in the last 30 days and have opted into being sourced by employers.

If you’d like to search for candidates, you can use Indeed Smart Sourcing to instantly match with quality talent from Indeed’s pool of millions of job seekers. Using Smart Sourcing can be especially beneficial if you’re looking for highly-skilled candidates or if your job posts aren’t bringing in the right candidates. Matched candidates you invite to apply are 23X more likely to apply to your job than job seekers who only see it in search results1.

What is Indeed Smart Sourcing?

Smart Sourcing is a sourcing solution that helps you find, evaluate, and contact candidates more efficiently. Candidate matching capabilities along with AI features speed up the time to hire so you can work more efficiently. Smart Sourcing also helps you manage candidates across your hiring team, which can be especially beneficial for larger employers. We want to make hiring faster, simpler, and more human for both job seekers and employers. 

Benefits of using Smart Sourcing to find candidates

Beyond having access to job seekers across your industry and location, there are many other benefits to using Smart Sourcing, including:

• Access to active and engaged job seekers: With Smart Sourcing candidates that are matched to your job have been active on Indeed in the last 30 days. 
• Instantly match with quality candidates: Once you post your job, you’ll automatically get a shortlist of candidates across a variety of industries, skills, and education levels who match your job criteria based on information collected from the job seekers, such as skills, experience, and preferences. Matched candidates can save you time by presenting you with quality candidates upfront. If you prefer, you can also search for candidates by using unlimited search and refine results with basic filters like availability and job title. Alternatively, use advanced filters (Professional subscriptions only), such as willingness to relocate and job type. Boolean search words like AND and OR can be used to narrow or broaden search results to help with hard-to-fill roles.

• Easily evaluate candidates: When you review a candidate profile, you’ll automatically see AI-powered candidate summaries that highlight candidates’ skills or gaps to make it easier for you to determine whether they’re a fit. This helps to streamline your evaluation process and speed up the time to hire. 

• Quickly connect with responsive candidates: You can immediately message candidates from their candidate profiles.

• Efficient team collaboration: Organize candidates into projects based on your workflow—by location, role, hiring manager, requisition number, etc. Using projects, you can easily monitor candidates’ responses and automatically send emails to unresponsive candidates. You can also share candidate information and activity with your team members, and give hiring managers direct access to candidate feedback and status to make hiring decisions faster (Professional subscriptions only). Get actionable insights on candidate engagement to improve performance across your team.

Tips for contacting Smart Sourcing candidates

Deciding which candidates to message based on their resume can be challenging. Candidate highlights can be helpful with this since you can see a quick summary without reading through each resume in full. However, once you’ve identified a strong candidate, you’ll likely want to look closer at their resume. Look for the skills that align with the job description and your ideal candidate profile. You’ll also want to look for any must-have requirements—for example, if the job requires a specific certification, does the applicant have it? If not, you can put their resume in your “no” or “maybe” pile. Previous achievements or measurable impact in previous roles, and specific tools, programs, or other hard skills can all give you clues about whether a candidate could be a match.

When you find a candidate who may match your job opening, send them a message to gauge their interest. Once a candidate replies, you’ll receive an email with their message and a link to their Indeed Resume with contact details.

Indeed Smart Sourcing FAQs

Can I get matches and view resumes on Indeed for free?

You can search for candidates on Indeed and see a preview of candidates’ resumes for free, but you won’t receive matches. To view full resumes and get candidates matched to your job description, as well as contact them, you’ll need an Indeed account and an active Indeed Smart Sourcing subscription or free trial.

How much does a Smart Sourcing subscription cost?

You can choose from the following Indeed Smart Sourcing subscription options:

• The Standard subscription is CAD $150 per month (or CAD $1,440 per year) and grants you 30 new contacts per month.
• The Professional subscription is CAD $500 per month (or CAD $4,800 per year) and grants you 100 new contacts a month.

The Standard subscription is best if you plan on making 1–11 hires per year, while the Professional subscription is recommended if you plan on making 12 or more hires per year. Learn more about Indeed Smart Sourcing subscription options, including how to sign up for a free trial.

How many candidates can I contact with Smart Sourcing?

A Smart Sourcing subscription gives you a set number of contacts each month depending on the package you select (Standard = 30 per month, Professional = 100 per month). Contacts represent the number of times you can reach out to a new candidate via Smart Sourcing each month. These contacts are deducted from your subscription each time you contact a candidate. You can also purchase additional resume contacts.

Check the number of contacts remaining on your account in your Subscription management dashboard.

Do contacts expire?

Yes. All contacts expire six months after the date the contacts were granted. 

How many times can I contact a particular candidate?

You can contact the same candidate once in a 30-day period. After 30 days, you can contact the candidate again.

Learn more about Smart Sourcing.

1 Indeed data (CA), August 2023