diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/views/mixins.py b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/views/mixins.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6b1bd6e925
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/views/mixins.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
+
+from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
+
+from wagtail.wagtailadmin.forms import SearchForm
+from wagtail.wagtailsearch.backends import get_search_backend
+from wagtail.wagtailsearch.index import class_is_indexed
+
+
+class SearchableListMixin(object):
+    search_box_placeholder = _("Search")
+    search_fields = None
+
+    def get_search_form(self):
+        return SearchForm(self.request.GET if self.request.GET.get('q') else None, placeholder=self.search_box_placeholder)
+
+    def get_queryset(self):
+        queryset = super(SearchableListMixin, self).get_queryset()
+        search_form = self.get_search_form()
+
+        if search_form.is_valid():
+            q = search_form.cleaned_data['q']
+
+            if class_is_indexed(queryset.model):
+                search_backend = get_search_backend()
+                queryset = search_backend.search(q, queryset, fields=self.search_fields)
+            else:
+                filters = {
+                    field + '__icontains': q
+                    for field in self.search_fields or []
+                }
+
+                queryset = queryset.filter(**filters)
+
+        return queryset
+
+    def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
+        if 'search_form' not in kwargs:
+            kwargs['search_form'] = self.get_search_form()
+            kwargs['is_searching'] = bool(self.request.GET.get('q'))
+
+        return super(SearchableListMixin, self).get_context_data(**kwargs)
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailusers/views/groups.py b/wagtail/wagtailusers/views/groups.py
index f400c5b792..06cb7b1951 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailusers/views/groups.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailusers/views/groups.py
@@ -3,8 +3,7 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
 from django.contrib.auth.models import Group
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _
 
-from wagtail.wagtailadmin.forms import SearchForm
-from wagtail.wagtailadmin.views import generic
+from wagtail.wagtailadmin.views import generic, mixins
 from wagtail.wagtailadmin.viewsets.model import ModelViewSet
 from wagtail.wagtailcore import hooks
 from wagtail.wagtailusers.forms import GroupForm, GroupPagePermissionFormSet
@@ -50,41 +49,7 @@ class PermissionPanelFormsMixin(object):
         return super(PermissionPanelFormsMixin, self).get_context_data(**kwargs)
 
 
-class SearchableListMixin(object):
-    search_box_placeholder = _("Search")
-    search_fields = []
-
-    def get_search_form(self):
-        if self.request.GET.get('q'):
-            return SearchForm(self.request.GET, placeholder=self.search_box_placeholder)
-        else:
-            return SearchForm(placeholder=self.search_box_placeholder)
-
-    def get_queryset(self):
-        queryset = super(SearchableListMixin, self).get_queryset()
-        search_form = self.get_search_form()
-
-        if search_form.is_valid():
-            q = search_form.cleaned_data['q']
-
-            filters = {
-                field + '__icontains': q
-                for field in self.search_fields
-            }
-
-            queryset = queryset.filter(**filters)
-
-        return queryset
-
-    def get_context_data(self, **kwargs):
-        if 'search_form' not in kwargs:
-            kwargs['search_form'] = self.get_search_form()
-            kwargs['is_searching'] = bool(self.request.GET.get('q'))
-
-        return super(SearchableListMixin, self).get_context_data(**kwargs)
-
-
-class IndexView(SearchableListMixin, generic.IndexView):
+class IndexView(mixins.SearchableListMixin, generic.IndexView):
     page_title = _("Groups")
     add_item_label = _("Add a group")
     search_box_placeholder = _("Search groups")