What's included in this guide

• What is Indeed Direct Apply?
• What are the benefits of Indeed Direct Apply?
• SETUP
  • Step 1: Security Roles
    • Enabling Access to the Direct Apply Application Form
    • Enabling access to ECNI Equal Opps App 
  • Step 2: System Customisation
  • Step 3: Building the Application Form 
  • Adding questions
    • Direct Apply Application Questions
    • How do I delete and change the order of the questions within the application form?
    • Direct Apply Equal Opps Application Questions
    • Direct Apply ECNI Equal Opps Application Questions  
    • Can I choose whether the ECNI Equal Opps questions are included on a per job basis?
• Indeed Direct Apply Screening Questions
• Advertising a ‘Direct Apply’ role to Indeed
• The Candidate Process
• Viewing candidates’ applications
  • Candidate Record
    • How will I know which candidates have applied using this method?
    • Viewing Application Questions & CV
    • Viewing Pre-Assessment / Killer Questions
    • Viewing Equal Opps Information
  • 2nd Stage Applications
• Reporting
• FAQs

What is Indeed Direct Apply?

Indeed Direct Apply is a feature which allows candidates to apply for a job from Indeed (where the job was first created in your Jobtrain platform). Candidates' CVs and all their basic details from their Indeed profile will automatically transfer across into Jobtrain and appear as a submitted application.

What are the benefits of Indeed Direct Apply?

Just some of the benefits of using the Indeed Direct Apply method include:

• Reduced disengagement from candidates when they’re asked to register in a separate system (Jobtrain) - as Direct Apply will automatically transfer their basic details to their application form.
• An increase in the volume of applications for advertised roles on Indeed.
• Increase in application conversions - one of our clients saw a 19% increase in just 3 days!

Please note, if you choose to use Indeed Direct Apply, once this has been activated, this will apply to all roles that are posted on Jobtrain.

SETUP

Step 1: Security Roles

Enabling Access to the Direct Apply Application Form

To gain access to the direct apply application form, go to Settings > Security Roles > Select the security role.

Go to the Settings tab and toggle on Application Templates: Direct Apply Application Form.

Enabling access to ECNI Equal Opps App 

This is only relevant for clients utilising the ECNI equal opps functionality

The Settings tab and toggle on ECNI Equal Opps:

This will control access to:

• ‘ECNI Equal Opps’ section of the Direct Apply Application form
• The toggle Include ECNI Equal Opps on the Assessment Form page when adding/editing a Job.

Step 2: System Customisation

Select an acknowledgement email within system customisation. This is to ensure that candidates receive an email once they have submitted their application.

You can choose the email that is sent to the candidate by going to Settings > System Customisation > then the Email tab.

Step 3: Building the Application Form 

Before using the Direct Apply method, you will need to set up a separate application form.

You can do this by going to Settings > Application Templates > Direct Apply Application form.

Here, you will be presented with the option to create one Direct Apply application form.

The first page is called Direct Apply Application Form and this is where you can add up to 10 additional questions to this section of the application template.

The list of questions is pulled from those stored in the Question Bank, found in Settings > Assessment Forms > Question Bank.

When you're creating the Indeed Direct Apply application form, you will only be presented with questions, where the question types are:

• Textbox
• Multi-choice (one answer)
• Multi-choice (More than one answer)
  • When you add a multi-choice question, if you include 5 or fewer options to select from, they will appear as radio buttons.
  • If you include more than 5 options to select from, they will appear as a dropdown.

Adding questions

Direct Apply Application Questions

When you're adding questions to the Direct Apply application form, you also have the option to request a CV from the candidate when they are applying for the role.

The following information will automatically pull from the candidate’s Indeed profile:

• First name
• Surname
• Email address
• Phone number

On the right-hand side is a list of compatible questions from the Assessment Form question bank to add to your application form:

• To add a question from the question bank, simply click the ‘+’ button next to the question you would like to add. Or alternatively, drag and drop the questions into the application form.
• The question will then appear in your questions on the left-hand side of the page which will be displayed to candidates when they’re completing the application form.
  

Exit button:

At the bottom of the page, this button allows you to exit the page without saving any of the information to the application form.

Preview button: 

This button allows you to look at how the application form will be displayed to candidates, before making the job live.

Save button:

This action saves all data that you have selected within the Direct Apply Application Form.

How do I delete and change the order of the questions within the application form?

You can change the order of the questions in the application form by using the drag-and-drop method.

Using the ‘bin’ icon next to the questions allows you to remove any questions you have added.

Direct Apply Equal Opps Application Questions

There is an additional ‘Equal Opps’ tab available to configure if required.

To access click on Direct Apply Equal Opps:

• Any Equal Opps questions configured here will be included as questions for applicants via Indeed Direct Apply.
• Custom fields will be available to pull into the application form in the same way they can be added to normal application forms, however the questions will be limited to only those question types that are compatible with Indeed Direct Apply.  
• Question types compatible with Indeed Direct Apply:
  • Text
  • Multi-Choice (One Answer)
  • Multi-Choice (More than one answer)
  • Date fields.

Equal opportunities questions remain optional - if you do not need to record equal opportunities information against all applications, you can leave the Equal Opps section of the Direct Apply Application Form blank by not enabling any questions. 

If no questions are activated in the Equal Opps section of the Direct Apply application form, candidates won't be required to provide this information.

Exit button:

This button at the bottom of the page allows you to exit the page without saving any of the information to the application form and will take you back to the Indeed Direct Apply Application Form.

Save button:

This action saves all data that you have selected within the Direct Apply Application Form.

Direct Apply ECNI Equal Opps Application Questions  

This is only relevant for clients utilising the ECNI equal opps functionality.

There is an additional ‘ECNI Equal Opps’ tab which allows configuration of ECNI specific Equal Opportunities questions.

To access click on ECNI Equal Opps:

• Any Equal Opps questions configured here will be included as questions for applicants via Indeed Direct Apply.
• Custom fields will be available to pull into the application form in the same way they can be added to normal application forms, however the questions will be limited to only those question types that are compatible with Indeed Direct Apply. 
• Question types compatible with Indeed Direct Apply:
  • Text
  • Multi-Choice (One Answer)
  • Multi-Choice (More than one answer)
  • Date fields.

Equal opportunities questions remain optional - if you do not need to record equal opportunities information against all applications, you can leave the Equal Opps section of the Direct Apply Application Form blank by not enabling any questions.

If no questions are activated in the Equal Opps section of the Direct Apply application form, candidates won't be required to provide this information.

Can I choose whether the ECNI Equal Opps questions are included on a per job basis?

Yes, this is possible, simply follow the below steps:

1. Ensure that you have added in the relevant questions in the ECNI Equal Opps section of the Direct Apply Application form as detailed above
2. Ensure that the Include ECNI Equal Opps toggle is enabled on the Job Assessment page when adding the job. 

If Include ECNI Equal Opps option is turned off, candidates will be asked to fill out the standard Direct Apply Equal Opps, unless the fields are left blank, in which case they won't need to respond to any equal opportunities questions.

Indeed Direct Apply Screening Questions

As of October 2023, Killer Questions / Pre-Assessment questions can now be included for candidates to complete as part of the application process. 

When you post a job with Killer Questions or Pre-Assessment questions, the job-specific pre-assessment form questions will now be added to the screening questions sent to Indeed. 

The Killer Questions / Pre-Assessment questions can only be Multiple choice questions and will be mandatory for completion.

Please note: The Killer Questions / Pre-Assessment questions can only be multiple choice questions.

There are restrictions in place to prevent any other question type being added to Pre-Assessment Forms as of October 2023.

However, we would recommend checking any existing Killer Questions / Pre-Assessment Forms to ensure that these only include multiple choice questions prior to advertising the role.

Please click here for more information.

Advertising a ‘Direct Apply’ role to Indeed

• Once the job has been made live, the process of sending the role to Indeed will begin.
• The job will be added to the Indeed feed, which will be ready to be consumed by Indeed.
• Indeed consumes the feed and refreshes the job content 4 times each day (every 6 hours from the time of the last request).

Posting a role using the Indeed Direct Apply integration, means that candidates who apply via Indeed will always complete the Indeed Direct Apply application form, not the application template specified on the ‘Assessment’ page.

The Candidate Process

When candidates apply for a role that has been advertised using Direct Apply, they will be presented with the Indeed Direct Apply Application Form that is set-up within Jobtrain and any pre-assessment/killer questions that have been attached to the job.

Below is an example of the Direct Apply Application Form that the candidate is presented with: 

The order in which the questions will display to applicants on Indeed will be:

1. Direct Apply Application Form
2. Any pre-assessment/killer questions
3. Any Equal Opps questions

Once the candidate has submitted their application, this information will then be sent to Jobtrain, and the candidate will receive an acknowledgement email which includes instructions on how to access their account.

If Indeed cannot send a candidate’s data to us or we cannot receive the data, the candidates will be directed to the job advert on your vacancies site to apply for the role.

It is worth noting however that candidates will not be re-directed to apply on Jobtrain if:

• The candidate's CV is too large for Jobtrain (the CV must be under 1MB).
• The candidate tries to apply for the role after the closing date has passed. This will cause the application to fail. 

These are two limitations to the integration. If a candidate tries to apply after the closing date has passed or uploads a CV that is too large, they will not be notified of this which may lead them to believe they have applied for the role.

If a candidate is moved from a role where they originally applied via the Indeed Direct Apply method, please be aware that this information will be copied to the new role.

It will appear as though the candidate has applied directly using Direct Apply, even if the role does not have Direct Apply enabled.

If a CV was required when setting up the application form, the information from the CV will be parsed, which can be used to assist the candidate if there is a 2nd stage process in the application journey.

Please note: All correct answers in the pre-assessment/killer questions form will be shown in green. If there are multiple correct answers, they will all be highlighted in green as shown in the image below.

If configured, automatic Pass/Fail status updates and candidate emails will be sent upon receiving a Direct Apply application, depending on whether the candidates' have passed or failed.

Existing security role controls will still apply, so only those users with access to view Equal Opps will be able to see the actual candidate responses.

Please note: If custom fields have been used in the Indeed Direct Apply Application form these are not automatically filled in and will need completing again by the candidate.

Are CVs mandatory for this apply method?

No, CVs are not mandatory for this apply method. There is a toggle within the Direct Apply Application form to turn the CV option off.

My Job is not appearing on Indeed, why could this be? 

As Indeed consumes the feed and refreshes the job content 4 times each day (every 6 hours from the time of the last request) your job may not instantly appear on Indeed. Please read our Advertising on Indeed article for further information and tips. 

Why is my question not appearing in the Direct Apply application form? 

If you are adding a new question to the Indeed Direct Apply application form, you will need to add this to the question bank first.

If the question is already added in the question bank and it’s not appearing in the Direct Apply application form, then you may have selected a question type that is invalid. The valid question types are multi-choice (one answer) and Textbox.

Can I build more than one Indeed Direct Apply application form? 

No, only one Indeed Direct Apply application form can be created. This can be controlled and edited by going to Settings > Application Templates > Indeed Direct Apply Application Form.

Are candidates using this apply method asked to complete pre-assessment / killer questions?

Yes, if a job is advertised that includes Killer Questions / Pre-Assessment questions, the job-specific pre-assessment form questions are to be added to the screening questions sent to Indeed and candidates are required to complete these.

Please note: this only applies for any roles advertised on Indeed as of 11th October 2023. Any candidates who applied via this method prior to this date will not have the been asked to complete these questions.

Are Equal opportunities questions mandatory? 

No, Equal opportunities questions remain optional. If you don't wish to capture equal opportunities information for all initial Indeed Direct Apply applications, simply leave the Equal Opps section of the form empty by not activating any questions.

If none of the questions are enabled, then the candidates will not be asked to complete this information.

I have activated the Direct Apply Equal opps section of the Application template but some candidates who have applied via Indeed Direct Apply have this data missing, why is this?  

The equal opps direct apply section of the application form was a new addition as of October 2023. Any candidates who applied prior to this date will not have this information included in their Indeed application.  

Can I track if candidates have come from the Indeed Direct Apply method? 

Yes, the candidate source will automatically be tagged which allows you to report using the Source Tracking Report. This will appear as Indeed-Direct-Apply.

Can I restrict who has access to this functionality?

Absolutely. As with most areas of Jobtrain, this functionality can be restricted in Security Roles within Settings.

If you need support with updating access using Security Roles, please contact your Continuous Improvement Consultant or the Support Team who will be happy to help.

What is disposition data?

Disposition data refers to the status or outcome of a job application after it has been submitted. It shows what happened to each applicant throughout the recruitment process.

For example, disposition data might include statuses like:

• Application received
• Interview scheduled
• Rejected at screening
• Offered
• Hired

When shared with job boards (such as Indeed), disposition data helps them understand how candidates performed after applying. This can improve the quality of future applicants by refining how and where your jobs are advertised.

Note: Sharing disposition data is optional and fully under your organisation’s control.  Please let us know if you would like to opt-out of sharing this information.

I’ve followed the guidance notes and have some further questions.

For any questions about Indeed Direct Apply (or any other Jobtrain functionality), please contact our Support Team on +44(0)161 8502004.