I recently attended the webinar " making the most of Inbound Recruiting techniques to attract the best candidates " offered by Indeed, the famous job search meta engine. 

This presentation particularly resonated with me, not least because... almost everything said during the presentation is wrong !

Here's what you might have thought at the end of the webinar hosted by Indeed!

Indeed mischievously uses a terminology which is of interest to more and more recruiters to promote its services, which are nothing like the Inbound Recruiting.

And this communication makes them say quite a few untruths about the subject!

Truth #1 : (make) people believe that Inbound Recruiting is recruitment !

L'Inbound Recruiting est avant tout une approche marketing

This might seem logical, given the literal translation " incoming ".

In reality, the name " Inbound Recruiting " was coined by marketers, with the aim of helping HR sourcing specialists. This was previously mentioned in a Wiley Online Library study released in April 2015.

So, on this first point Indeed is double wrong:

• L ’Inbound Recruiting comes from empirical approaches of Inbound Marketing on specific personas (As the specialist Hannah Fleishman reminds us here). It is therefore an approach essentially related to Digital Marketing.
• The inbound recruiting comes from empirical Inbound Marketing approaches on specific personas (as specialist Hannah Fleishman reminds here). It is therefore an approach essentially related to Digital Marketing.
• Inbound Recruiting addresses the field of sourcing which is the upstream phase of recruiting, not THE recruiting as a whole.

In short, the goal of Inbound Recruiting, is to identify potential candidates very early on to build a pipeline of talent (as Jibe already indicated in 2015), and then increase their engagement with the employer brand.

The decision to apply is therefore the last act in the process, not the first as Indeed suggests.

Contrary #2 : presenting Inbound Recruiting as a " fast "

Inbound Recruiting has many benefits, but not speed!

Inbound Recruiting is an approach that is part of the so-called " slow recruiting " i.e., it takes into account that a talent needs time to consider joining a company.

By coaching him through quality content, he comes to a decision, but rarely does it come quickly as Indeed claims.

Contrary #3: talking about " Free Inbound "

There is no such thing as free inbound!

There are very few things on the Internet that are free - and that's certainly not the case with Inbound, nor with SEO.

To implement an Inbound Recruiting strategy, you need to define Candidate Personas, define an editorial strategy, produce content, animate social networks, create automation scenarios, calculate lead scoring, analyze tracking indicators, etc.

All of this requires tools as well as high-level skills, which you will need to acquire by hiring or by outsourcing.

Contrary #4: Claiming that Inbound Recruiting is for active candidates

Inbound Recruiting is specifically aimed at passive candidates

In reality, the exact opposite is true, as the experts at Jibe or of Thrive.

The principle of Inbound Recruiting is to bring prospective candidates to your website who are interested in the quality of your content before your brand.

Truth #5 : describing an Inbound Recruiting process as a simple job search

Indeed describes here a simple job search on job board

If Inbound Recruiting corresponded to these 4 steps, it would frankly not be revolutionary !

From a candidate's perspective, the first step in an Inbound Recruiting search is to search in a search engine for keywords corresponding to a job, not to search directly by ad.

Contrary #6 : include job boards in Inbound Recruiting tools

Inbound Recruiting starts with the recruiter's own digital spaces

Inbound methodology prefers to use its own spaces (career site, blog, social networks) to showcase its content and generate traffic and then leads. This is explained in this article from Core HR.

Job boards generate flow to a third-party space, and therefore do not participate (or participate only slightly) in an Inbound Recruiting strategy.

Contrary #7: Presenting the act of applying as the goal of Inbound Recruiting

While Inbound Recruiting can indeed refer to offers, that's not the only goal

As mentioned above, the primary goal of Inbound Recruiting is to nurture a talent pipeline, exchanging an offer of valuable content (a white paper, for example) for data to recontact the prospective candidate.

However, sometimes, by the time you get conversion tools in place, you can use the attractiveness of the blog's content to direct potential candidates to targeted offers. This is more the exception than the rule.

Truth #8: Defining the job posting as the content to optimize for Inbound Recruiting

While content optimization is necessary in Inbound Recruiting, it is not directly relevant to job listings.

The masterpiece of Inbound Recruiting is the blog.

Content optimization is for content that is published on the blog area of the career site, not outside of this site.

Remember that one of the principles of Inbound is to be your own media, which was not missed by the first speaker of the webinar.

Good point from the first webinar speaker!

Untruth #9: integrate the application process into Inbound Recruiting

In general, the application is not a step in Inbound Recruiting

The length of the application process is not a component of Inbound Recruiting - which instead focuses on converting traffic to landing pages dedicated to generating leads.

Conclusion :

Indeed has likely understood the interest that Inbound Recruiting is generating in the HR world and is looking to capitalize on what is truly a new way to approach candidates.

As can be seen in this diagram, there is indeed a boundary between the scope of job boards and Inbound Recruiting.

But, through the proposed vision of " its " Inbound Recruiting, Indeed is more likely to twist reality to present things in a way that suits them rather than truly integrate a new methodology.

In the end, the purpose of this article is not to criticize Indeed but to (re)clarify the rules of the art of a still young and relatively unknown discipline.

Inbound Recruiting, in the words ofThomas Chardin of Let's Talk HR, is " an exceptional method that allows you to achieve unsuspected results, when delivered with the necessary expertise and efficiency!" ".

And there we are in good agreement!