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The UK labour market is at an interesting juncture.

After a ferocious post-Covid jobs boom that sent demand for workers into overdrive, we’re now seeing signs that employers have taken their foot off the hiring pedal.  

That’s not to say demand has dried up. Far from it. Britain still has more than 1.1m vacancies according to the ONS and Indeed’s real-time data shows job postings today are one quarter above their pre-pandemic level.

Employers, who in many cases fought to survive the pandemic, were immediately confronted with another challenge: hiring people. But while the world around us had changed, hiring had not and too many organisations are now stuck using practices that are too complex, deeply inefficient and waste too much time. That must change and Indeed is leading the transformation.

Barriers to hiring

As the world’s largest job site with more than 300m monthly visitors*, we know all too well the barriers employers face when it comes to finding workers but the biggest is finding quality candidates.

A recent Indeed survey of employers found more than half (52%) said a lack of quality applicants was the biggest hurdle followed by the time it takes to hire (43%) and competition from other companies (38%). Receiving either not enough or too many candidates were also two of the most cited barriers.

Experiences such as these are a drain on employers and cause poor experiences for jobseekers, who are sometimes left in a communications black hole while their application is processed – or even don’t hear back at all.

These broken experiences are why Indeed has evolved to a hiring and matching platform: to simplify and humanise hiring. Our vision is to make the hiring experience as easy as pushing a button which is why we’re on a journey of evolving into a comprehensive matching and hiring marketplace.

Qualified candidates

The hiring experience clearly needs to be better for everyone. That starts with how candidates and employers connect.

We’re convinced that a shortlist of quality candidates is of far greater value to employers than just a list of everyone who’s clicked on your job post. That’s why we’re transforming into a matching and hiring platform that humanises the hiring process.

By providing a specific range of only those candidates relevant to the employer’s needs, jobseekers are more likely to hear back on their application while the organisation can be happy in the knowledge that the applications they receive are the most suitable for the role. Everybody wins.

Simplifying hiring saves time

According to the OECD, almost 40% of households across its member states would fall below the poverty line if they were to lose income for three months. Having a system in place to make the hiring process more efficient can quite literally be the difference between falling into poverty or securing the income you need to support your family.

Employers benefit too. If hiring professionals can free up the time they would usually spend trying to bring all the tools they need together, and instead spend it on interviewing applicants, meeting with and onboarding new joiners, they could see much quicker time to hire which will create financial savings too.

Given our research shows 57% of UK businesses say they’ve suffered financial loss from open roles, anything we can do to mitigate that impact is a positive outcome for all.

Prioritising value

As the process of hiring changes, it makes sense to evolve how that investment is paid for.

Employers have generally used the pay-per-click method – where they’re billed each time anyone clicks on the job. But that may not always lead to the jobseeker applying – or if they do, they might not be relevant to the role. In fact, 68% of businesses we surveyed said they don’t think that method is cost effective for them.

So we’ve introduced an alternative that we believe is well suited for a more efficient way of budgeting: paying for results.

Paying for results focuses on value over volume by only charging for those high quality and higher intent candidates who are genuinely interested in the position.

With Pay for Results pricing, employers are able to review how much they want to spend, set an application limit, automatically reject unqualified candidates by setting predetermined requirements, and have 72 hours to manually turn down applications before they are charged. It can effectively make it a cheaper option than pay-per-click, giving employers assurance that their budget is being used wisely.

Innovating the future of work

Matching jobseekers and employers successfully is the foundation of Indeed.

That’s why we’re introducing these new innovations that can help relevant candidates and organisations connect faster, disrupting inefficient hiring practices and ultimately lead to more people finding jobs they love.

And, by broadening our pricing structure to offer greater choice and the ability to only pay for results, we hope to enable employers to focus on finding – and only paying for – engaged, motivated and compatible candidates who can make a difference to your business.

If we can make a future of work that’s simpler, more efficient and and valuable to all, it will help to create a more innovative, engaged and human workforce.

For more information about Indeed’s global matching and hiring platform, please visit: https://uk.indeed.com/employers/matching-hiring-platform?hl=en