As the pandemic forced business closures and disruption across the world, the job market was flooded with people needing to find work. 

Misty Gaither, Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Indeed says that every jobseeker has their own reason for looking: 

“A person that is on a job search for any reason they’re looking to either do something different, expand their skill set or they’ve had an unfortunate experience. So it can be very dehumanizing  when you’ve been on a job search. There are a lot of emotional ups and downs that job seekers experience.” 

Indeed is a job seeking platform through which opportunities can be filtered by several relevant criteria, including salary, industry, job title and location.  

Ellen Hawes Durbin, Senior Director, Global Product Commercialization, Inclusive Hiring at Indeed says that doing the right thing by candidates is a key part of the success of Indeed as a preferred option or millions of people looking for work:

“The recent high unemployment number has resulted in a larger pool of candidates making it even harder for jobseekers with barriers to gain employment. Our mission is to help people get jobs and by that we mean all people. We put jobseekers first.”

Graham Davis, Group Manager of Product Management at Indeed agrees: 

“Our ethos is to champion a world of work where people can realize their potential. This is not just a feel-good idea, one of our core values is being data driven – so we like to measure everything to make sure we are having the impact that we intend.”

One of those data points includes diversity and inclusion - a growing trend for businesses as they realize that talent is being squandered by excluding candidates based on prejudice. Gaither describes the situation:

“With the pandemic, with the racial reckoning, with a lot of the rise of hate crimes to different groups across the world, we have seen that belonging is more and more of a priority and it’s not just something that is adjacent to the business. It definitely has to be integral to the culture.”

Indeed, which with partner Glassdoor delivers 3.5 times more hires than all other branded job websites combined, clearly has a part to play in changing things for the better. 

Hawes Durbin gives an example of how Indeed is achieving this: 

“We have a great partnership with Goodwill Industries International, the largest workforce development non-profit in North America. To help connect the jobseekers to our Indeed clients. It’s been a powerful experience helping our clients see the value connecting with the talent pool that they may have otherwise overlooked.”

Maggie Hulce SVP GM Enterprise at Indeed says that the pandemic has caused a huge shift in the way that jobseekers are assessed by potential employers and that technology is being embraced more comprehensively than ever before: 

“Before the pandemic, less than 1 percent of interview requests were virtual and by April 2020, that number had shut up more than 1,000 percent. Indeed is the first job site to essentially offer a free experience that automates all the steps from hosting to interview.”

This hiring platform, which replaces many of the tools enterprise recruiters use to hire by automating sourcing, screening and scheduling interviews of quality candidates, is one example of the innovations that Indeed has fostered from within. Graham Davis says that part of the success of the company is a willingness to nurture ideas: 

“Indeed Incubator is an innovation hub we run like a venture capitalist fund. We invite anyone at the company to pitch their idea for funding in the form of time and resources. We’ve launched many of our successful products this way. Those that gain traction get additional funding and eventually launch into the marketplace at full-scale.” 

The Incubator acknowledges what the company has always put into practice: that talent and ideas need to be looked after and grown if it is going to be put to work.

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