The Saskatchewan Roughriders, one of the Canadian Football League’s most iconic and deeply community-rooted franchises, have significantly transformed their talent acquisition processes through the strategic implementation of Workable, an advanced HR platform. This overhaul has not only streamlined recruitment operations but has also elevated the Human Resources function to a more strategic position within the organization, enabling data-driven decision-making and enhancing candidate experience. The move marks a pivotal moment for the Roughriders, particularly following their 2025 Grey Cup championship, which brought an unprecedented surge in organizational activity and hiring demands.
The Unique Identity of the Saskatchewan Roughriders: A Community-Owned Legacy
The Saskatchewan Roughriders stand apart in the landscape of professional sports. Unlike most privately owned or corporate franchises, the Roughriders are a community-owned entity, a distinction that fundamentally intertwines the team with the fabric of its province. This unique structure fosters an unparalleled level of fan loyalty and engagement, making the team not just a sports club, but a vital cultural institution for Saskatchewan’s one million residents. This profound connection was vividly demonstrated following their triumphant 2025 Grey Cup victory, which alone generated an astounding $13 million in merchandise revenue. This figure underscores the fervent dedication of their fanbase, a loyalty that extends far beyond the provincial borders, creating a vibrant ecosystem around the team.
Managing the intricate human resources and people operations for this beloved institution is Kim Gallagher, the Director of Talent Management and People Operations. Gallagher holds a pioneering position, being the first dedicated HR professional in the entire history of the CFL. With 15 years of experience within the organization and leading a lean two-person team, she oversees a comprehensive spectrum of responsibilities, from executive-level hiring to the meticulous management of a large-scale annual internship program. The organization typically employs around 80 salaried, year-round staff, a number that swells significantly with approximately 100 additional hourly roles during the football season. These roles span diverse departments, including accounting, marketing, creative services, and digital production, with the internship program introducing a substantial layer of high-volume recruiting each year. The operational precision demanded by such a varied and dynamic workforce necessitates robust, efficient HR systems.
Navigating the Pre-Workable Landscape: The Challenges of Legacy Recruitment Systems
Before the integration of Workable, the Roughriders’ recruitment efforts were hampered by a system that, while functional at a basic level, introduced considerable friction and inefficiency into the hiring process. For two years, the team relied on Teamworks Online, which itself was an upgrade from an even earlier era of entirely inbox-based hiring. However, Teamworks Online proved inadequate for the evolving needs of a growing, community-focused organization.
Kim Gallagher candidly described the previous system as "really chunky," highlighting the difficulties it presented in managing the recruitment workflow. This clunky nature translated into significant operational challenges, particularly for hiring managers who struggled to effectively utilize the system and gain a clear, visual understanding of where candidates stood in the pipeline. The lack of an intuitive interface meant that valuable time was spent navigating cumbersome processes rather than focusing on talent evaluation.
For a small HR team, the consequences of this friction were profound and far-reaching. A core inefficiency was the manual effort required to post job roles across multiple platforms. Each job board, including Saskatchewan-specific portals like SAS Jobs, demanded individual attention and manual entry. This repetitive, time-consuming task quickly compounded, especially for a team of just one or two individuals, diverting precious resources from more strategic HR initiatives. Without a centralized, visual pipeline, tracking candidate progress became an arduous task, making it difficult to ascertain where applicants were in the hiring funnel. This opacity also made it challenging to ensure that hiring managers were maintaining pace with candidate reviews and feedback, potentially leading to delays and a less-than-optimal candidate experience. The Roughriders recognized an urgent need for a solution specifically designed to support their operational ethos: lean, fast, and intuitive enough to be seamlessly adopted by hiring managers without the need for extensive training or constant HR support.
The Strategic Pivot: Why Workable Emerged as the Ideal Solution
The decision to transition to Workable was not an impulsive one but rather a carefully considered strategic move, initiated through discussions at the Canadian Football League level. These conversations prompted Kim Gallagher to explore Workable’s capabilities, and what she discovered was a platform that perfectly aligned with the organization’s scale and operational philosophy. Crucially, Workable offered sophisticated features without the prohibitive overhead and unnecessary complexities often associated with larger, enterprise-level systems that would introduce "bells and whistles we weren’t even going to utilize." This fit-for-purpose approach was a significant differentiator for a small, agile team.
Two specific features were instrumental in sealing the decision to adopt Workable. First and foremost was the visual pipeline. The ability to visualize candidates moving through clearly defined stages of the hiring process represented a transformative upgrade from their previous, opaque system. This clarity not only simplified tracking but also provided an immediate, intuitive overview for all stakeholders. The second critical factor was Workable’s multi-board job posting capability. For a small HR team, the cumulative time spent manually posting roles across various national and provincial job boards, including crucial local platforms like SAS Jobs, was a substantial drain on resources. Workable’s ability to consolidate this effort into a single, efficient action was a massive time-saver and a "big decision maker," as Gallagher noted. This functionality ensured maximum reach for job advertisements with minimal administrative burden, allowing the team to "spread our ad as far as possible from one place." The platform’s ability to automate and simplify these formerly laborious tasks was key to unlocking efficiency for the Roughriders’ lean HR department.
Seamless Implementation and Rapid User Adoption
The transition to Workable for the Saskatchewan Roughriders was remarkably smooth, described by Kim Gallagher as akin to "flipping a switch." This seamless rollout addressed a primary concern: how Workable would integrate with the Roughriders’ existing website to ensure candidates were directed smoothly into the new hiring pipeline. This critical transition was handled without any disruption to ongoing recruitment efforts. The team strategically maintained the old system briefly to finalize existing postings, while all new roles were immediately launched through Workable from day one. This phased yet rapid approach ensured continuity and minimized any potential impact on applicants or hiring managers.
What truly impressed Gallagher and her team was the minimal onboarding required for Workable. The platform’s intuitive design meant that hiring managers could navigate and utilize its features independently, largely "figuring it out" on their own because "everything was right there on the screen." This ease of use extended even to the highest levels of the organization. During a recent executive search, the CEO himself acted as a hiring manager and required no additional instruction from HR. He was simply granted access to the job within Workable and participated fully in the recruitment process without needing any direct support or tutorials from the HR team. This level of self-sufficiency among diverse users underscores Workable’s user-friendly interface and robust design, proving its adaptability across various levels of technical proficiency within an organization.
Elevating Candidate Evaluation and Collaborative Hiring
With Workable firmly in place, the Saskatchewan Roughriders have achieved a significant milestone in standardizing their candidate evaluation process, a level of consistency previously unattainable. A cornerstone of this improvement is the universal adoption of scorecards across all recruitment searches. Hiring managers are now mandated to score every candidate, ensuring a structured and objective assessment. A particularly impactful enhancement came with the upgrade from a binary "thumbs up/thumbs down" rating system to a more nuanced five-star rating scale. This improvement, strategically suggested by their Workable account executive, Nick, made an immediate and profound difference. Gallagher highlighted its "life-changing" impact, noting that hiring managers "loved having that nuance" when evaluating candidates, moving beyond simplistic approvals or rejections to capture a more detailed perspective on each applicant’s suitability.
The integration of AI screening capabilities also proved to be an invaluable asset, especially when the volume of applications surged dramatically following the Grey Cup victory. This feature allowed Kim Gallagher to efficiently triage a large applicant pool by sorting candidates based on their "match percentage." This enabled her to prioritize "100% ones first — almost like a warm lead," ensuring that even with high volume and tight deadlines, top matches were identified and engaged without missing a single qualified candidate. This strategic use of AI not only saved time but also optimized the initial screening phase, allowing the HR team to focus their efforts on the most promising applicants.
Furthermore, customized application questions added another layer of precision to the screening process. The team strategically uses these questions to address critical prerequisites, such as clarifying 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 requirements, questions are also deployed to solicit specific assets, like portfolio links for creative roles, or in a more unique application, audition tape links from mascot candidates. These targeted questions are not designed to "screen people out" unfairly but rather to "tell us a lot about who’s serious and who’s mass applying," ensuring that the team invests its time in genuinely interested and qualified candidates. This multi-faceted approach to evaluation and screening has significantly enhanced the quality and efficiency of the Roughriders’ hiring pipeline.
Data-Driven Reporting: Securing HR’s Strategic Seat at the Table
One of the most profound operational transformations since the adoption of Workable has been Kim Gallagher’s enhanced ability to quantify and communicate the tangible impact of her team’s work to the executive leadership. Workable’s robust reporting features have made this process remarkably straightforward, with Gallagher noting that "the reporting is so easy. You click and the stuff shows up." A key advantage is the platform’s reliance on "prepopulated" reports, eliminating the need to build them from scratch or risk generating empty data sets due to incorrect criteria selection. This reliability and ease of access have empowered the HR team with credible, actionable insights.
The candidate pipeline report has emerged as a particular favorite, providing a clear and comprehensive overview of recruitment activities. This report details metrics such as the total number of interviews conducted, messages exchanged with candidates, and the overall movement of applicants through the hiring pipeline over specific periods. Earlier this year, Gallagher utilized this report to reveal that her team had exchanged over 900 messages with candidates within a defined timeframe. This compelling figure effectively communicates the sheer volume and meticulous care involved in the HR team’s work, presenting a quantifiable demonstration of their efforts in terms that executive leadership can immediately appreciate and understand.
The Roughriders’ highly valued internship program has especially benefited from this newfound data visibility. The program is built on a foundational mission: to address the paradox that students often cannot gain experience without a job, and cannot secure a job without experience. Workable’s reporting capabilities allow Kim Gallagher to document far more than just the number of interns hired. Critically, she can now quantify how many students received invaluable interview experience with a professional sports organization. This metric goes beyond mere recruitment numbers, fully capturing the program’s profound community impact and demonstrating its return on investment (ROI) to executive leadership. As Gallagher articulates, "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." This ability to articulate both direct hiring outcomes and broader community engagement solidifies HR’s strategic value within the organization.
Building Candidate Trust Through Unwavering Communication Reliability
The Saskatchewan Roughriders have made a deliberate and strategic choice to conduct every single stage of the candidate journey through Workable, from the initial outreach and interview scheduling to the final offer letters and beyond. This consistent approach is not merely for convenience; it is fundamentally driven by the platform’s proven reliability in communication delivery. The confidence in Workable’s ability to reliably transmit messages has profoundly shaped the team’s operational protocols.
This trust is so ingrained that when a hiring manager recently expressed a desire to meet two candidates for an informal coffee, Kim Gallagher instinctively routed the outreach through Workable, rather than resorting to a personal email. This decision underscores the importance of centralizing all communications within one platform, which benefits both the HR team—by maintaining a comprehensive record and ensuring consistency—and the candidates themselves.
The impact on candidate experience is palpable. Gallagher observes a distinct sense of relief from candidates when they are informed that official communications, particularly job offers, will be delivered through Workable. "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." This reliability fosters a deeper level of trust, reassuring candidates that their application is being professionally managed and that critical information will reach them without issue. In an age where digital communication can often be fraught with uncertainty, Workable provides a stable and trustworthy channel, enhancing the Roughriders’ employer brand and candidate satisfaction.
Unbounded Recruiting: The Indispensable Role of the Mobile App
As the Saskatchewan Roughriders navigate one of their most intense hiring periods in a decade, Kim Gallagher has increasingly relied on Workable’s robust mobile app to maintain her demanding pace. Managing two significant roles simultaneously, often as a team of one, the mobile app has become an indispensable tool. "We have more jobs open right now than I’ve seen in 10 years," Gallagher states, emphasizing that "the mobile app is allowing me to keep up. It gives me a lot of flexibility and I can work from anywhere." This mobility ensures that recruitment efforts remain continuous and responsive, regardless of Gallagher’s physical location.
The mobile app’s functionalities are crucial for maintaining this agility. Saved templates, for instance, are directly accessible from a mobile device, enabling immediate candidate follow-ups that might otherwise be delayed until the next morning. This real-time capability significantly enhances responsiveness and improves the candidate experience. For high-volume tasks, such as managing intern interviews, Workable’s self-scheduling feature, complete with built-in buffer times between calls, has become an essential tool. This automates the complex logistics of scheduling numerous interviews, ensuring efficiency without compromising the quality or individualized attention given to each conversation. The ability to manage these critical processes on the go has not only boosted productivity but also ensured business continuity, allowing the Roughriders to keep pace with their accelerated hiring demands without sacrificing quality or candidate engagement. The mobile app effectively eliminates geographical and temporal boundaries to recruitment, making the HR function truly agile and always-on.
A Resounding Endorsement: Workable as the Foundation for Future Success
Without hesitation, the Saskatchewan Roughriders unequivocally recommend Workable. For professional sports organizations, which contend with the intricate demands of year-round operations alongside the high-volume nature of seasonal and internship hiring, Workable presents a uniquely powerful solution. It offers a platform that is robust enough to scale seamlessly with organizational growth, yet simultaneously intuitive enough for anyone—from a first-time intern manager to a CEO stepping in as a hiring manager—to utilize effectively from day one. This blend of power and simplicity is a rare find in the realm of HR technology.
For Kim Gallagher, who has dedicated 15 years to meticulously building the HR infrastructure at the Roughriders and has pioneered the establishment of the HR function across the entire CFL, this combination is far more than a mere convenience. It is the fundamental bedrock upon which all other strategic HR initiatives and operational efficiencies are constructed. Workable has not just provided a tool; it has provided the essential infrastructure that empowers the Roughriders to attract, evaluate, and secure top talent, reinforcing their status as a leading sports franchise and a vital community institution. The platform enables the lean HR team to operate with the precision and impact of a much larger department, ensuring that the Roughriders remain competitive in the talent market and continue to thrive both on and off the field. The implications extend beyond the Roughriders, offering a compelling case study for other professional sports teams and lean organizations seeking to optimize their talent acquisition strategies and elevate the strategic role of HR.
