Social Impact
Halving the time to get hired
Help 30M get hired

Background

Almost 40% of people worldwide would fall into poverty if they had no income for three months^*4

Source: OECD, "How's life? 2020"

Work is the foundation of people's lives, and it is also the foundation of Recruit Group's business. As a global industry leader in HR matching, we want to help eliminate poverty and economic vulnerability by reducing the time it takes job seekers to get hired. In order to achieve this goal, we aspire to make the job-matching process significantly faster and simpler.

All too often, traditional hiring practices have the unfortunate potential to reinforce systemic labor market biases and barriers. In addition to significantly cutting job search duration through technology to halve the time to get hired for all job seekers, we will support their employment through partnerships with NPOs and NGOs.

Halving the Time to Get Hired

Progress in FY2021

Job search duration found to be 15 weeks^*5

In FY2021, we conducted a proprietary global labor force survey to better understand the difficulties job seekers face and identify those who need the most support. Simultaneously, we calculated the data from Indeed users to define our FY2021 baseline duration for our commitment to halve the time it currently takes to get hired by FY2030, and found it to be approximately 15 weeks^*5.

When does a job search begin, and when does it end?

With no established measurement methods available to capture exactly how long it takes for job seekers to get jobs on a jobs platform, our journey started from developing a methodology to enable us to answer this question. Based on years of accumulated data on Indeed, today we can identify the hiring signal, which shows when a job seeker receives a job offer. However, it is much more complex to identify the starting point of a job search based on historic data alone. Usage patterns of job seekers on jobs platforms are extremely diverse. Some may spend months casually visiting and searching for jobs, while others may intend to find a job that day. In order for us to be able to shorten job search duration, we must be able to capture the entire journey, not just from the point when an application is submitted or interviewing starts. To take on this challenge, we formed a cross-functional team, including data scientists and researchers, to work together to pinpoint the starting point of a job search.

FY2021 baseline duration: approximately 15 weeks^*5

Firstly, we captured the actual data for how long it currently takes for Indeed users to get hired on Indeed. The analysis of users' feedback indicated that — for those who got hired on Indeed — the median time was about three weeks, with an average of about seven weeks. However, it took approximately 15 weeks until most of them got jobs^*5. We took the 90th percentile data point as a statistically significant value, representing the most job seekers hired on Indeed. We set this 15 weeks period as the baseline duration of FY2021 to be cut in half by FY2030, to ensure that we capture users who may be struggling and require assistance.

15 weeks until 90% got jobs on Indeed

Duration of hired Indeed users' job search (as of FY2021)

50% said the job search duration was longer than they could cover their living expenses without income^*6

To gain a broader insight into the time it takes to get jobs and the needs of job seekers, we conducted a proprietary global labor force survey in 17 languages across 30 of the countries and regions in which we operate. Nearly 50% of survey respondents reported that their job search duration was longer than the amount of time they could cover their personal expenses if they had no income^*6. Regarding how they felt about their job search duration, about two-thirds of respondents said that their job search took longer than they wanted, and nearly half of them said it was considerably longer^*6. The results suggest that it is important for us to be able to quickly identify and provide support to those job seekers most in need of assistance.

Approx. 50% experienced a job search duration longer than their personal financial runway

By the number of months able to cover expenses without income:

% of respondents who had a duration longer than the time they could cover expenses without income

About 2 out of 3 said that their job search took "longer than they wanted"

What we aim for in FY2022

As we enter the second year of our journey, in FY2022, we plan to conduct deeper research as well as analysis of users' data to better understand the pain points of job seekers and factors that are making job searches longer, and identify job seekers who need more help than others, for example, those who are more urgently seeking a job. In parallel, we will continue gathering more data to increase the accuracy of our measurement of job search duration. We will also work to implement some solutions that improve the job search and hiring experience through product advancement to help people get jobs faster and easier.

It is our mid- to long-term aspiration that the Indeed platform becomes increasingly automated, using advanced technologies to further improve the experience for job seekers. We consider that we are just at the starting line of the process of realizing this vision, and will continue to take steps toward our goal for the benefit of job seekers worldwide.

Breaking Down Job Market Bias & Barriers
to help 30M job seekers get hired

The only requirement to be hired for a job should be that you have the skills and abilities necessary to perform the job. However, job seekers face a myriad of barriers unrelated to a candidate's skills or ability to do the work. Hiring decisions are often based on proxies - such as education levels, years of experience, or criminal record - that can prevent people from getting a job.

Bias and barriers can negatively impact a person before, during and after their job search, making it hard to find, get and keep a job. By increasing access to quality opportunities, we strive to make a positive impact on society by connecting people to better work to create better lives.

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  Race & Ethnicity

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  Disability

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  Age

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  Criminal record

Progress in FY2021

In FY2021, we analyzed data from Indeed and worked with various organizations, professional associations, and community organizations to better understand who is vulnerable to disadvantages in the job market, and the barriers they face.

Focused on severe and significant barriers — e.g. a criminal record^*7

We first focused on and prioritized addressing the barriers associated with a criminal record, as these appear to be particularly severe and significant. For example, in the U.S., more than 70 million people, or about one in three of the adult population, have some type of criminal record^*7.

In the U.S., fair chance legislation is meant to curb discrimination against job seekers with a criminal record, and to promote hiring based on the qualification of an applicant^*8. Despite such efforts having been expanded gradually, the unemployment rate for job seekers with criminal records is about five times higher than the national average^*7. However, research indicates that finding a job that pays more than the minimum wage within two months of release from prison cuts the chances of reincarceration by at least half^*7.

Initiatives at Group Companies

HR Technology SBU

Indeed Initiatives

1. Platform
We are working on a variety of initiatives to improve the UI (user interface) of the Indeed platform to make it easier to find listed jobs where criminal records are not relevant to the hiring process — known as "fair chance hirings."

2. Partnerships
Data suggests that approximately 40% of those with criminal records are eligible to have all or part of their criminal records expunged^*8. In February 2022, along with partners such as the Texas Fair Defense Project and Checkr, Indeed launched a program called "Essentials to Work" to assist in this process.

3. Internal Hiring
We have partnered with Persevere — an NPO that offers coding courses for justice-impacted individuals on parole — and Banyan Labs, a company created out of the need to place Persevere graduates into jobs through an on-the-job training program at Indeed and other companies. This partnership has helped justice-impacted individuals find jobs smoothly after release from prison and has maintained a very low recidivism rate.

A coding education program for inmates and parolees, provided through a partnership

Matching & Solutions SBU

Initiatives at Recruit

"WORK FIT" (in Japanese only) is a Japan-based program run by Recruit that supports employment and career education. The program started in 2011 and has assisted people from various backgrounds, including those in juvenile detention facilities, children's homes, and young people without employment.

Starting in FY2022, aiming to contribute to reducing recidivism, we plan to develop a program for justice-impacted women at a prison to help them prepare for life after release.

Staffing SBU

Staffmark Initiatives

Staffmark — a Recruit temporary staffing company in the U.S. — has been working with major client companies active in fair chance hiring to implement a program that allows employees to begin working as temporary staff and then be directly hired. The program is now in its sixth year and has received extremely high satisfaction ratings from participants, with 95% of those who joined the program continuing to work six months after starting a position.

Our goals for FY2022

As calls for a fairer and more just society grow worldwide, employers are becoming increasingly conscious of the need for inclusive hiring^*9 to level the employment playing field for people from diverse backgrounds. We are working to reduce barriers to employment at all of our Group companies across the globe, tailoring to the needs of each country and region. As we continue striving to bring down these barriers with a sense of urgency, we will utilize technology-based support alongside partnerships to create more opportunities for employment worldwide.