The Saskatchewan Roughriders, one of the Canadian Football League’s most storied franchises and the reigning 2025 Grey Cup champions, have fundamentally transformed their talent acquisition and people operations through the strategic implementation of Workable, an advanced applicant tracking system. This move has yielded immediate and significant results, including a substantial increase in candidate volume managed efficiently, unparalleled communication reliability with over 900 candidate messages sent without a single spam issue, and the standardization of nuanced evaluation processes across all hiring managers. Furthermore, Workable’s mobile capabilities have ensured recruiting continuity from anywhere, at any time, while robust reporting features have allowed the organization to quantify the impactful return on investment (ROI) of critical initiatives like their annual internship program, solidifying HR’s strategic value within the club.
The Green and White: A Unique Sporting Institution
The Saskatchewan Roughriders stand apart in the landscape of professional sports. Unlike the vast majority of teams globally, the Roughriders operate under a unique community-owned model. This distinction imbues the franchise with a profound connection to its home province, making it not merely a cultural icon but a structural extension of the community itself. In a province with a population of just over one million people, the fervent loyalty of their fan base is legendary, extending far beyond Saskatchewan’s borders. Following their triumphant 2025 Grey Cup victory, the organization generated an astonishing $13 million in merchandise revenue alone, a testament to the unparalleled devotion of their supporters. This deep-seated connection translates into significant operational demands, as the team is not just a sports entity but a community pillar, requiring robust and efficient internal operations to match its external prominence.
Managing the entirety of the club’s people operations falls under the purview of Kim Gallagher, the Director of Talent Management and People Operations. With 15 years of dedicated service to the organization, Gallagher holds a unique position as the first dedicated HR professional in the history of the CFL. Heading a lean, two-person team, she oversees a broad spectrum of HR functions, from executive-level hiring to the meticulous coordination of an extensive annual internship program. This demanding role requires exceptional operational precision and strategic foresight. The organization maintains a core staff of approximately 80 salaried, year-round employees, a number that swells to include roughly 100 additional hourly roles during the intense football season. These positions span diverse departments including accounting, marketing, creative services, and digital production. The internship program, a cornerstone of the Roughriders’ community engagement, adds an annual layer of high-volume recruiting, posing a significant challenge for a small HR team.
Navigating the Pre-Workable Landscape: A History of Friction
Prior to the adoption of Workable, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ recruiting efforts were managed through Teamworks Online, a system they had utilized for two years. This followed an even earlier era characterized by ad-hoc, inbox-based hiring processes, which, while basic, presented considerable limitations. While Teamworks Online offered a degree of functionality, it was far from ideal, creating palpable friction at virtually every stage of the recruitment lifecycle.
Kim Gallagher candidly described the previous system as "really chunky," emphasizing the inherent difficulties in process management. A particular pain point was its lack of user-friendliness for hiring managers, who struggled to effectively utilize the system and gain a clear visual understanding of where candidates stood in the pipeline. This friction had tangible consequences for a small HR team supporting a growing, dynamic organization. The manual effort required to post job openings across multiple disparate job boards — a necessity to reach a wide talent pool — became a significant time sink. Each platform, including Saskatchewan-specific job sites like SAS Jobs, demanded individual attention, a compounding time cost for a team of one or two people. The absence of a visual pipeline further exacerbated these issues, making it exceedingly difficult to track candidate progress or ensure that hiring managers were maintaining the required pace of evaluation and feedback. The Roughriders recognized an urgent need for a system purpose-built for their operational realities: lean, fast, and intuitive enough to be seamlessly adopted by hiring managers without the need for extensive training or tutorials.
The Strategic Decision for Workable: A Tailored Solution
The impetus to transition to Workable emerged from discussions at the league level, prompting Kim Gallagher to explore the platform’s capabilities. What she discovered was a recruiting solution that perfectly matched the organization’s scale and operational philosophy. Crucially, Workable offered advanced features without the prohibitive overhead and unnecessary complexities often associated with enterprise-level systems, which typically come laden with functionalities that a smaller team would never utilize.
Gallagher articulated this critical alignment: "With being a small organization, it was tough to find a system that matched our size as opposed to implementing a massive program with all the bells and whistles we weren’t even going to utilize." This sentiment underscored the Roughriders’ need for efficiency and targeted functionality over feature bloat.
Two key features ultimately sealed the decision for Workable. Foremost was the visual pipeline, which presented a clear, intuitive representation of candidates moving through defined stages of the hiring process. This offered a monumental upgrade from their previous opaque experience, providing immediate clarity and control. Secondly, the multi-board job posting capability proved to be a decisive factor. For a small team, the sheer volume of time consumed by manually posting roles across every relevant job board, including vital provincial platforms like SAS Jobs, was immense. Workable’s ability to consolidate this into a single, streamlined action promised substantial time savings and expanded reach. Gallagher emphasized the strategic value, stating, "The time it takes to go to each one of those boards as a one-to-two person team is massive. Being able to spread our ad as far as possible from one place was a big decision maker." This efficiency gain was not just about saving time; it was about optimizing talent attraction and ensuring the Roughriders could reach the widest possible candidate pool with minimal administrative burden.
Seamless Implementation and Widespread Adoption
The transition to Workable was remarkably smooth, described by Kim Gallagher as akin to "flipping a switch." She recalled the implementation process as being "so smooth. It just kind of flicked over." A primary concern ahead of the rollout was ensuring seamless integration with the Roughriders’ existing website, allowing candidates to transition effortlessly into the new hiring pipeline. This critical aspect was managed without any disruption. The legacy system remained active for a brief period to finalize existing postings, while all new roles were launched exclusively through Workable from day one.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the adoption process was the minimal onboarding required. The platform’s intuitive design meant that hiring managers could navigate it independently, requiring virtually no assistance from the HR team. Gallagher noted, "It was so user friendly that you could just figure it out. Everything was right there on the screen." This ease of use extended even to the highest levels of the organization. When the CEO served as a hiring manager for a recent search, they required no additional instruction. They were simply granted access to the job within the platform and participated fully in the recruitment process without needing any support from HR, a testament to Workable’s accessibility and user-centric design. This high level of independent adoption freed the lean HR team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than system training.
Elevating Evaluation and Fostering Collaboration
With Workable firmly in place, the Roughriders were able to standardize their candidate evaluation processes in ways that were previously unattainable. Scorecards are now a mandatory component of all searches, with hiring managers required to provide a minimum score for every candidate. A recent upgrade from a binary "thumbs up/thumbs down" system to a more nuanced five-star rating scale – a suggestion from their dedicated Workable account executive, Nick – made an immediate and profound difference. Gallagher hailed this change as "life-changing," noting, "Sometimes you’re just not quite sure. Our hiring managers loved having that nuance." This enhanced granularity in feedback has led to more consistent, objective, and ultimately, better hiring decisions.
The platform’s AI screening capability also quickly became an invaluable tool, particularly in the wake of the Grey Cup victory, which triggered a significant surge in application volume. Gallagher leveraged this feature to streamline the initial review process: "I would sort by match percentage and start with the 100% ones first – almost like a warm lead. I got through all the applicants, but when you’re tight for time and the volume is that high, it helps to know where to start." This intelligent prioritization allowed the HR team to efficiently identify top matches without the risk of overlooking any qualified candidates amidst a deluge of applications, proving critical during peak hiring periods.
Customized application questions further enhanced the precision of the screening process. The team strategically employs these questions to clarify essential requirements, such as work authorization for Canadian roles. This is a vital filter, given the frequent misconception among applicants that a U.S. passport automatically grants the right to work in Canada. Beyond legal compliance, questions are also utilized to request portfolio links for creative roles or, in one of the more distinctive use cases, audition tape links from mascot candidates. Gallagher explained the philosophy behind this: "We don’t use questions to screen people out, but they tell us a lot about who’s serious and who’s mass applying." These targeted questions provide valuable insights into candidate commitment and suitability, further refining the talent pool.
Strategic Reporting: Earning a Seat at the Executive Table
One of the most significant operational shifts since the implementation of Workable has been Kim Gallagher’s enhanced ability to quantify and communicate the tangible impact of her team’s work to executive leadership. The platform’s reporting features have proven instrumental in this regard. "The reporting is so easy. You click and the stuff shows up. What I like is that it’s already prepopulated – you don’t have to build it from scratch or risk selecting one wrong criterion and getting an empty report," Gallagher highlighted. This ease of access to accurate, pre-formatted data has transformed how HR’s contributions are perceived.
The candidate pipeline report, in particular, has become a favorite, offering a clear and comprehensive view of key metrics such as total interviews conducted, messages exchanged, and overall pipeline movement over specific periods. Earlier this year, when Gallagher pulled the data, it revealed over 900 messages exchanged with candidates within a defined timeframe. This compelling figure effectively communicates the immense volume and meticulous care behind the HR team’s efforts, presenting their work in terms that executive leadership can immediately understand and appreciate. Such data-driven insights elevate HR from a purely administrative function to a strategic partner.
The Roughriders’ highly valued internship program has especially benefited from this newfound visibility. The program is built around a powerful mission: addressing the paradox that students often struggle to gain experience without a job, and cannot secure a job without prior experience. Workable’s reporting capabilities allow Kim to meticulously document not only the number of interns hired but, crucially, how many students received invaluable interview experience with a professional sports organization. This metric captures the full scope of the program’s community impact, providing concrete data that can be presented to executive leadership to underscore the program’s broader societal value and return on investment beyond direct hires. "We like to do as many interviews as we can. Even though we can only hire so many students, being interviewed by the Roughriders – that itself is something," Gallagher affirmed, emphasizing the qualitative impact quantified by Workable.
Building Candidate Trust Through Communication Reliability
The Roughriders leverage Workable for every stage of the candidate journey, from initial outreach and interview scheduling to the issuance of offer letters and beyond. This comprehensive and consistent approach is not incidental; it is a deliberate choice driven by the platform’s unwavering reliability. The team’s implicit trust in Workable’s message deliverability has fundamentally shaped their operational procedures. When a hiring manager recently expressed a desire to meet two candidates for an informal coffee, Kim instinctively routed the communication through Workable rather than a personal email. This decision underscores the importance of maintaining all candidate communications within a single, reliable platform, benefiting both the internal team and the candidates themselves.
The impact on candidate experience is profound. Gallagher observed, "When I make an offer and tell a candidate it will come through Workable, you can hear the relief. They know the message is going to arrive. It gives them peace of mind." In an era where spam filters and lost emails can derail crucial communications, Workable’s proven reliability fosters a sense of trust and professionalism, enhancing the Roughriders’ employer brand and ensuring a smooth, transparent experience for prospective employees.
Recruiting Without Boundaries: The Mobile App’s Strategic Advantage
As the Saskatchewan Roughriders embark on one of their busiest hiring periods in over a decade, Kim Gallagher has leaned heavily on Workable’s mobile app to maintain her exceptional pace, especially as a team of one frequently managing two roles simultaneously. The mobile app has emerged as a critical enabler of operational flexibility and continuity. "We have more jobs open right now than I’ve seen in 10 years. The mobile app is allowing me to keep up. It gives me a lot of flexibility and I can work from anywhere," she stated.
The mobile app’s comprehensive functionality means that essential tools, such as saved email templates, are directly accessible. This allows for immediate candidate follow-ups or critical communications that might otherwise be delayed until returning to a desktop, ensuring responsiveness and maintaining momentum in the hiring process. For high-volume tasks like intern interviews, the self-scheduling feature, complete with buffer time automatically built between calls, has become an indispensable tool. This intelligent scheduling capability allows the team to manage a large number of interviews efficiently without compromising the quality or focus of each individual conversation, a critical balance during peak recruitment drives. The mobile app truly empowers the Roughriders’ HR team to operate without geographical or temporal constraints, maintaining peak performance whether in the office, at a game, or on the go.
A Resounding Endorsement for Future Success
Without hesitation, the Saskatchewan Roughriders unequivocally recommend Workable. For sports organizations grappling with the intricate demands of year-round operations, coupled with the high-volume nature of seasonal and internship hiring, Workable offers a rare combination: a platform robust enough to scale with growth, yet intuitive enough that anyone, from a first-time intern manager to a CEO stepping in as a hiring manager, can utilize it effectively from day one.
For Kim Gallagher, whose 15 years at the Roughriders have been dedicated to meticulously building the club’s HR infrastructure and who has pioneered the professional HR function across the entire CFL, this potent combination of power and simplicity is not merely a desirable feature. It is the fundamental bedrock upon which all other strategic HR initiatives are built. Workable has not just streamlined their processes; it has strategically empowered the Roughriders’ HR department, enabling them to attract top talent, enhance candidate experience, and provide data-driven insights that reinforce their crucial role in the organization’s continued success and community impact. The partnership exemplifies how targeted technological adoption can transform core business functions, driving efficiency and strategic value in the dynamic world of professional sports.
