Indeed for employers: How to hire efficiently

Indeed is one of the most popular job sites in the world, making it one of the best places to go hire someone. It's free to all job seekers, receives more than 250 million visitors each month, and helps Indeed employers in more than 50 countries find top talent. Because of the reputation Indeed has built, many hourly workers do an Indeed resume search to find their next job, which makes it a perfect place for you to list and promote your open role. If you want to hire in today’s competitive landscape, you need to use Indeed—and optimize each of your job postings within it. 

Before we dive deeper, let’s cover a few things around Indeed costs to help you get started with Indeed.

Indeed plans

How much is Indeed for employers? Well, Indeed offers a variety of plans to help hiring managers meet their specific hiring needs. With Indeed, you have access to tools that can help you improve the visibility of your job listings. With  Indeed for employers, you can opt for sponsored listings, which give your job openings premium positions in the job search results. You might be wondering how much Indeed plans cost and what each plan includes. 

Indeed Resume plan

With Indeed for employers, you can conduct unlimited resume searches under the Indeed Resume Plan. Employers pay $15 per prospective candidate they contact. This option is perfect for hiring managers who work in industries with low turnover rates.

Indeed Standard and Indeed Professional Standard Subscriptions

Many employers choose a subscription to get more value out of Indeed. The Standard Subscription Fee ($100/month) allows you to contact up to 30 candidates, and the Professional Standard ($250/month/user) allows up to 100 candidates.

Indeed Advanced Plan 

Indeed also provides the Advanced Plan with a pay-per-click model. You only pay when prospective job seekers click on your sponsored job listing. The cost of this Indeed Sponsored job listing is $0.20 - $1.20 per click so this could be more friendly on the daily budget.

Indeed Simple Plan

The question how much is Indeed definitely changes depending on what you want. There's the Indeed Simple Plan, which allows employers to specify how much they are willing to spend daily or monthly for each job posting.

How to post a job listing on Indeed

1. Go to Indeed.com and create a free employer account using your company email

2. Add details about your job posting

3. Fill out the application questions

4. Review and publish the job posting

5. Add your account information

6. Select "Sponsor job" or "Post job without sponsoring" to the right of "Continue"

Tips to get the best results out of your Indeed job posting

Writing a highly detailed and professional job posting helps attract qualified applicants. When writing a job posting, there are three key points to focus on: job title, job description, and applicant qualifications.

Job title

The job title should be specific and short (keep it under 80 characters) so it’s easy for job seekers to spot a role that they’re suited for. While the title should be brief enough to convey what the position is, it should also be creative. After all, this top-line real estate is your chance to help catch a job seeker’s attention—and stand out above all the other job postings they might see. 

Take an assessment of the job titles that appear when you search for similar roles. Do they include certain terms? Do they mention salary? Do they include emojis? See what your competitors are doing, not so you can copy them but rather so you can learn what’s working. From there, add your brand twist to it so you can stand out and, ultimately, win more applicants.

Here are a few examples of what a stand-out title could look like:

• Restaurant General Manager Chicago—Never Work Sundays

• Team Member—Daily Pay Available with Instant Pay!

• Crew Member Evening Shift—$18/hr

Job description

Job descriptions should be engaging, easy to read, and include terms related to the role and industry. This is an opportunity for you to sell the potential applicant on why they should work for you. Take this time to clearly and concisely outline not only the job responsibilities (shift hours, daily duties, etc.) and qualifications (experience, language proficiency, etc.), but also to highlight the benefits you offer and your restaurant’s culture. This can also include business values and mission statement. 

As you write job descriptions, make sure your job postings are optimized for search engines, by including SEO-rich keywords whenever possible. This will help your postings rank higher and drive more traffic to your open role. And remember, most applicants today are searching and applying for jobs on their phones. Listing the job description in short paragraphs and/or bullet form is ideal.

Applicants' qualifications

Let’s dive a little deeper into qualifications. In your job description, it’s important that you make a distinction between what's required and what's preferred but not mandatory. Most often, the qualifications that need explicit parameters include:

• Education 

• Experience 

• Certifications 

• Language proficiency

• Skills

Providing this level of clarity around qualifications helps applicants see whether or not they would be a great fit for the role before they invest any of their time (and yours!) pursuing the role.

Bonus tip: Watch your budget

With Indeed for employers, you have the option to sponsor job posts to maximize their exposure and reach. It’s a great feature to use. Make sure to track your job posting via Indeed's performance reports so you can make sure your investment is producing the results you need. You can modify or cancel sponsored posts anytime by selecting "Edit Job" in the employer dashboard. Pricing is always a big factor for anyone looking to post on Indeed so if you want more than free job postings, sponsored job postings will be a great solution.

Indeed is a great place to find a candidate for hire. That's why it's one of 25,000 job boards Workstream integrates with to make it easy for employers to source candidates. Want to learn how you can post to Indeed—and thousands of other job boards—through a single click and a  streamlined experience? Learn more about Workstream's hiring and onboarding platform for the hourly workforce.