Employers’ ideas about candidate quality are evolving as they become “more open minded” about what they look for in potential hires, according to Raj Mukherjee (pictured below), executive vice president and general manager at global job search giant Indeed.

Indeed, which says it aims to be seen as a ‘matching and hiring platform’, is itself evolving as it introduces a ‘pay for results’ (PFR) pricing model for employers to be charged when they hire a candidate through their advertisement.

PFR includes pay-per-application (PPA) and pay-per-started-application (PPSA). Indeed says that PPSA “delivers quality applicants that meet an employer’s preferences and charges them only when they receive an application, rather than when they receive job ad clicks”. PFR supplements but does not replace the long-time ‘pay per click’ pricing method.

In an exclusive interview with Recruiter, Mukherjee was asked how Indeed defined “quality” in terms of charging employers for candidates’ applications. “As they say, quality is in the eye of the beholder,” Mukherjee said. “So, in this case, it’s an employer who has to first give us information on what they mean by ‘quality’. I always believe that quality starts with the job description. Whatever job they post, they will understand ‘here are the things I need to share with the system for me to get qualified or quality candidates’.”

Mukherjee referred to the first tier of ‘need to know’ points as “screener questions”, which help identify key starting points for the role in the employer’s eyes. Location and experience in a niche field could be examples of screener questions, he said. “The employer might think, these two points are really important, so that means we would deliver you applications” that respond with certain answers.

“You could add those as deal breakers as part of your job posting. We respect that, so that’s part one of what we call determining quality. In the second part, you could add specific assessments. We have a series of segment by vertical by occupation assessments that provide for employers to ask questions and validate whether this person has the necessary skills for the job they’re looking for,” Mukherjee went on to explain.

Then the hiring manager may think that a candidate “looks good on paper but doesn’t meet this other criteria that I have. And so we are also learning as you’re doing that, and in fact, the whole PFR system is designed to learn and become more effective for you”, Mukherjee said.

Ultimately, he said, “this is where I think we are putting our money where our mouth is. We’re saying we’re not always going to get this right, so we’re going to let you determine what the quality is and allow you to reject and replace applications”.

The new pay system incorporates machine learning and AI, Mukherjee acknowledged. “Indeed is in this journey of evolution, where we are becoming this matching and hiring platform because employers want us to become that,” he said.

Of employers, he said, “we have seen employers become more open-minded and start relaxing requirements… and evolve their thinking… Their notion of quality has evolved and it’s not really relaxing quality. It’s just about being open-minded about people that may be a great fit for your role.

“It’s not just the people on paper who have the right experience. Maybe this person on paper doesn’t exactly fit the bill, but as I speak to this person, their motivation, their experiences they have had – well, these really put them at the top of my list.

“So,” Mukherjee said, “it’s less about the PPC model or PPA models; it’s much more about employers’ openness and thinking about how to source talent.”

Read more about Indeed in the job boards feature.

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