Barrick Gold’s Mission Impossible

Ubidy’s Specialist Agency Panel

A short story about the specialised sourcing capability of Ubidy’s agency partners.

by Paul O’Loughlin, Global Director of Agencies of Ubidy

Barrick Gold had a unique sourcing issue. They had been searching for 6 highly specialised geologists in the USA, a search that had run for 6 months without any of the vacancies being filled. Ubidy reached out to Barrick Gold who had no previous operational interaction with Ubidy at that stage, as they had a dedicated preferred supplier arrangement in place which precluded any third-party recruiters being able to engage with Barrick Gold.

Out of frustration with the panel’s inability to satisfy this existing talent requirement, Barrick Gold enlisted Ubidy to provide a dedicated solution. The brief was not easy as the skills being sought were so uniquely specialised, Barrick had identified only 10 geologists in the US capable of satisfying their requirements. To date, none had been interested!

By launching the talent request for 6 geologists on the platform, Barrick were able to step outside their preferred supplier arrangement, negating the need for their internal procurement team to induct a new panel of agencies. This had already been performed through Ubidy who provided a single point of reference sourcing protocol with legal frameworks already in place to allow a fresh agency panel immediate access to the client’s talent request. Ubidy became the client’s single point of reference for this recruitment process.

Within minutes of the client launching the talent request on the platform an agency partner in Albuquerque New Mexico was identified and was invited to participate by reviewing the job description and determining their suitability to work with Barrick Gold. This was completely automated through the Ubidy platform with an automated invitation sent out in real-time to specific agencies from Ubidy’s closed panel, whose capability matched the unique sourcing requirements of the client. It just so happened that this “mum’s and dad’s” agency who were three employees strong, had specialised in geological recruitment for some 20 years. They applied through the platform and were accepted, something that would have never happened previously as Barrick Gold had been a closed shop to external recruiters. The company had always satisfied its talent requirements through their preferred supplier agreement, which in this case had failed.

The agency made their first placement within 6 weeks, with all remaining 5 vacancies filled within a further 6 weeks. The client was delighted as was the agency. The vacancies had been satisfied by an agency that Barrick Gold had never encountered and who would never have engaged with, due to existing preferred supplier arrangement. Similarly, the client would never have had access to the sourcing capability of a little known agency based in a remote part of North America, who had built their specialised market position over a 20 year period.

Pure Gold!

Ubidy | Global Talent on Demand