What would be more valuable to you: Hundreds, if not thousands, of people who’ve clicked on your job posting? Or a shortlist of qualified, interested candidates?

At Indeed, we’re convinced that a quality candidate shortlist is of far greater value — both to employers and to job seekers. In fact, we’re so convinced of it, we’re transforming our business model. 

Applying for roles — and never hearing back — can feel cold to a job seeker. And it’s frustrating when an employer combs through piles of resumes but can’t seem to find the right candidate for the job. Simply put, the job seeker experience is broken for everyone. That’s why we believe the future of work is about dramatically simplifying and humanizing the hiring process. 

With that goal in mind, Indeed is ramping up its ongoing transformation to a comprehensive matching and hiring platform. As part of the transformation, we continue to raise the industry bar by evolving from a pay-per-click (PPC) model to Pay for Results pricing. This includes pay per application (PPA) and pay per started application (PPSA), supporting employers big and small to deliver quality candidates. We’re excited to share that even more Canadian employers have access to these new pricing options, with plans to roll it out to employers globally later this year and beyond.

Our mission — to help people get jobs – hasn’t changed. If anything, that mission is even more critical today than it was yesterday. With our evolution to Pay for Results, we believe we can deliver even more effectively on our mission by only receiving payment when we send you a qualified applicant or a started application that’s more likely to lead to a hire. In short: You’ll only pay us when we’ve delivered results.

The pain points we want to address

Over time, we’ve continually heard employer feedback that it’s frustrating to pay for clicks that don't help achieve their goals, which are applications and hires. At the same time, one of the major problems job seekers face is the “black hole,” where they apply for jobs and never hear back.

In an Indeed Canadian Employer Survey during May 2023, employers reported the following top five barriers to hiring:

  • Poor quality of candidates (47%)
  • Time it takes to hire (42%)
  • Competition from other companies (40%)
  • Not enough applicants (38%)
  • Too many applications (24%)

Our vision, ultimately, is to help people get hired much faster and in a much simpler way, which essentially means knowing both employer and job seeker preferences.

To get there, Indeed has expanded our data collection to improve our matching algorithms through Indeed Apply. This includes ensuring job seekers are logged in before they start an application, which gives us much clearer data — from their search history and resumes — about which jobs they’re qualified for and interested in.

Indeed began as a search-based site where a job seeker would type in a job title and location and receive a search results page. But now, whenever a job seeker comes back to Indeed, they’re instantly shown a feed with jobs that match the qualifications and interests on their resumes without even having to do a search.

Through our technology and experiences, we’re able to price our services in a more meaningful way. In fact, 78% believe they should only pay when they receive a quality candidate from an online job site.

Simplifying the Hiring Process

As Indeed can help employers with more of their hiring process, it makes sense for us to evolve our pricing to charge farther along in that process. In the past, you could pay for a click that may not lead to an application; now, you pay for a higher intent candidate and more quality and qualified application.

In the course of this change, you’ll likely see a higher cost per application than what you may be accustomed to when paying per click. But that’s because we’re aligning more value of the candidate quality and hiring experience with that higher price.

When paying for results, you’re receiving a more refined group of applications. Plus, with fewer to sort through at this higher value, the cost of an application or a started application is typically similar to what it would have been with PPC, which could often result in an overwhelming amount of applications. 

YesWeWork, an Italian employment agency specialising in the administration, research, selection, training and management of human resources, was one of the first companies in the world to begin using our PPSA model. Francesco de Gennaro, HR operations and IT manager at YesWeWork, said, “I feel like I know exactly where my money is going and have more control over the recruitment process now that we’re paying per started application.” 

And delivering a better customer experience and value for clients becomes so much more important to us now. In hard economic times, people examine every single dollar they spend and whether it’s being spent wisely. We want employers to have full control over their budget and only pay for results.

Expanding the human side of hiring

As we expand the scope of our capabilities, we’re working to make Indeed an end-to-end matching and hiring platform where the hiring is much more humancentric. We understand that this is the ultimate goal for any human resources technology provider. In matching job seekers to jobs for a more qualified application, and then delivering fewer but more quality applications to employers, the time to hire is faster and simpler for everyone.

What do I mean by humancentric? If hiring professionals can free up the time that’s often spent trying to tie together all the tools available to them and spend that time instead on interviewing, meeting with and onboarding candidates, both employers and job seekers will likely enjoy better outcomes.

Matching is the foundation of our business that brings both employers and job seekers to our platform. Together, in one place, both sides can engage on our platform and find value by connecting with each other and making that human connection.

Laying the foundation for the future of work

We’re proud to continue our history of changing the HR and employment industry by being the first to shift to a Pay for Results pricing model. This change may feel like a disruption. But you can’t have innovation without disruption. And we believe the time is right for this change.

As mentioned earlier, employers have clearly told us that poor candidate quality is a top barrier to hiring. And in this uncertain economy, more than half (43%) of employers report their company has experienced financial loss as a result of unfilled jobs.

We’re still in the early stages of this transition. And there’s a journey ahead. But by going on this journey together, we can deliver to you a shortlist of qualified job seekers. Our hope is that the shortlist will in turn free you from being overwhelmed by — and paying for — job seekers who you don’t find to be the right match for your roles or company. And that you’ll be able to spend more time interacting with interested, motivated candidates. Because through these interactions, we can create a future of work that’s simpler, faster and more human — for all.