Enbridge’s Journey to Successful Contingent Direct Sourcing
Company Overview
Enbridge Inc. is a multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids, and also generates renewable energy.
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Key results
Annual cost savings of $1 million and growing (average of 21% savings against market rates)
38% of contingent hires are directly sourced through the program
11,000 candidates in the Enbridge talent community
The Opportunity
Enbridge has more than 13,000 employees, including temporary employees and contractors. Eric Osterhout is the Senior Specialist, Category Management – Contingent Labor at Enbridge. As part of the SCM Contingent Labor Category Team, he has harmonized contingent programs, optimized the supply base, and successfully scaled their direct sourcing program.
‘Direct Sourcing’ is when a company leverages its employer brand to attract and engage a pipeline of qualified contingent workers, resulting in substantial cost savings, an improved experience for your candidates and better-quality talent.
"Getting started is relatively easy. The investment required to add direct sourcing to your existing contingent workforce program is minimal, along with the risk to do so."
Eric Osterhout
Senior Specialist, Category Management - Contingent Labor, Enbridge.
By launching a direct sourcing program at Enbridge, Eric recognized the opportunity to leverage the strength of its brand to enhance the quality and speed of hires, while also reducing costs and delivering world-class outcomes for hiring managers.
According to Eric, “Getting started is relatively easy. The investment required to add direct sourcing to your existing contingent workforce program is minimal, along with the risk to do so. You should not only obtain better talent, but also achieve higher manager satisfaction. This is because you’re bringing in superior resources, deploying them swiftly, and simultaneously saving money.”
Eric and his team realized that the project needed to start with finding the right partners that could collaborate effectively to deliver a turnkey solution for Enbridge.
“Since launching, 38% of our placements on sourced requisitions have been made through the Enbridge Contingent Talent Community. I don’t see any reason why we can’t hit 50%.”
Eric Osterhout
Senior Specialist, Category Management - Contingent Labor, Enbridge.
Many managed direct sourcing programs combine candidate centered technology with an experienced curation partner and an effective employer of record (EOR) payroll provider to achieve success.
“Our outsourced curation team has hit the ground running, utilizing LiveHire and creating a huge candidate pool. It’s been very successful and the numbers have been astounding. Since launching, 38% of our placements on sourced requisitions have been made through the Enbridge Contingent Talent Community. I don’t see any reason why we can’t hit 50%.”
To drive program efficiency, the team at Enbridge decided to integrate LiveHire with their vendor management system (VMS), SAP Fieldglass. The curation team at Enbridge uses the integrated solution to facilitate the rapid exchange of job requisitions from SAP Fieldglass and candidate submissions from LiveHire.
Market Leading Results
With LiveHire, the curation team is able to achieve market-leading results by leveraging multi-channel sourcing, dynamic talent pooling, candidate
communication and engagement, and robust reporting and analytics capabilities.
“In today’s best managed contingent labor programs, efficiency and speed to identify and deploy talent is ‘job one’. To accomplish that, it’s paramount to have a technology platform that enables agility in integrating with our VMS, is quick to adapt to various market conditions we face, and provides the data points we need to effectively manage our next generation contingent direct sourcing initiative. LiveHire has delivered that excellently!” Eric said.
"In today’s best managed contingent labor programs, efficiency and speed to identify and deploy talent is job one."
Eric Osterhout
Senior Specialist, Category Management - Contingent Labor, Enbridge.
Building the Business Case
In his approach to building the business case for the direct sourcing program at Enbridge, Eric challenged the
conventional belief that an extensive business case was a prerequisite for success.
His focus was on crafting a well-organized plan that established a robust and synergistic combination of payrolling, technology and curation. This strategy has proven effective, reinforcing Eric’s belief that the triumph of direct sourcing programs lies more in well-managed fundamentals than in an elaborate business case.
Comprehensive Deployment
One of the aspects he advocated for was a ‘big bang’ approach rather than a cautious, small-scale deployment. Eric believed in embracing a more substantial rollout, particularly in low-risk scenarios. He pushed for a more comprehensive implementation, aiming to create momentum and excitement through volume and success.
Embracing an agile approach, Enbridge prioritized flexibility, learning from failures, and making swift adjustments, likening the process to building a plane while rolling down the runway.
Eric advocated for experimentation, adaptation, and agility in program management. This dynamic, flexible mindset allowed him to fine-tune their program for optimal results.
“To me, it’s about getting out there, getting it deployed, failing fast, and pivoting if something doesn’t work. In the context of direct sourcing, there’s really no downside,” Eric said. “We release sourcing requirements to the direct sourcing program in a ‘Tier-0’ manner, meaning that the direct sourcing program gets a head start to source talent for a requisition. If the direct sourcing program team is unable to fill that role within their head start timeframe, the requisition can then move to the approved ‘Tier-1’ sourcing supplier base to then fill the requirement. Therefore, there is no operational risk in deploying a direct sourcing program.”
"Our outsourced curation team has hit the ground running, utilizing LiveHire and creating a huge candidate pool. It’s been very successful and the numbers have been astounding."
Eric Osterhout
Senior Specialist, Category Management - Contingent Labor, Enbridge.
Outcomes
Leveraging Employer Brand
Enbridge’s private talent community boasts more than 11,000 candidates.
What makes this even more intriguing is that 8,000 of these candidates joined organically, having discovered Enbridge’s name and contingent job offerings.
This demonstrates the strength of their brand and the company’s notable success in attracting talent
Building a Talent Community
While building the talent community at Enbridge, the implementation of the LiveHire tool through the curation team has been a game-changer.
Since going live with this initiative, they’ve witnessed impressive results, with the team hitting the ground running to rapidly expand the candidate base and source 38% of their placements.
This level of success underscores the strength of branded talent communities as a source of quality hires.
What’s particularly noteworthy is that a significant portion of requisitions are now being filled before they even reach Enbridge’s Tier 1 supply base, showcasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the direct sourcing strategy.
LiveHire has played a pivotal role in this success, providing a robust platform for talent curation and engagement.
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"To me, it’s about getting out there, getting it deployed, failing fast, and pivoting if something doesn’t work. In the context of direct sourcing, there’s really no downside."
Eric Osterhout
Senior Specialist, Category Management - Contingent Labor, Enbridge.
