Humans of Staffing

Healthcare has a turnover problem that placement alone cannot fix. Milissa Ales-Barnicoat, CEO of AlliedUP Cooperative, built a talent incubator and co-op model that reduced attrition in allied healthcare roles from over 50% to less than 20% by wrapping coaching, job readiness assessment, and community around every placement. Milissa breaks down how the co-op structure works, why radiology technic...

Most staffing founders learn the business from the inside out. Cary Daniel learned it from the outside in, and that gap became the entire blueprint for Nextaff. After launching his own agency in 1998 and opening 10 locations in 18 months, he discovered that staffing experience alone does not prepare you for back office operations, payroll financing, compliance, or technology. When he sold that com...

What if the most overlooked talent pool in staffing also happened to have four times better retention than traditional hires? Lisa Doyle , President and CEO of Galt , brings 30 years in the Human Capital space, including senior leadership at ManpowerGroup and Kelly, to a mission she spent her whole career preparing for without knowing it. She tells hosts TJ Sehmi and Mindy Gulledge that disability...

After 23 years as a CVS Health executive, Jennifer Chavez bought a recruiting franchise. No warm pipeline, no corporate brand behind her. What got her first clients and candidates? She kept reaching out with messages intentionally written to make people laugh, and kept going back to the same people until they picked up. When they finally did, the most common response was: "I wanted to reply,...

Shane Glavin built PowerCFO after serving as CFO at LaborMAX Staffing, where he watched small agency owners at conferences celebrate rate wins that were actually bad deals. His profitability pyramid framework took one client from $4M in revenue operating in the red down to $3M in revenue with over $400K profit by strategically cutting unprofitable clients and fixing margin leakage most owners don&...

What does it take to place temporary workers on billion-dollar naval vessels where internet connectivity doesn't exist, credentials expire weekly, and a falling piece of metal from 80 feet can be fatal? Jay Prock runs Tidewater Staffing, a family operation that deliberately fights growth for growth's sake to maintain the quality and safety standards that keep 3,000-4,000 people working annually in...

Instant Teams maintains 18% annualized attrition in customer experience roles where the industry averages 40-60%. The difference isn't compensation structure or benefits packages. It's building around military spouses who treat remote work as their career identity anchor while relocating every two to three years. Liza Rodewald, a former software engineer turned CEO, explains how she built a custom...

RPO sales cycles run upwards of 18 months because these deals require buy-in from the top down,not the transactional "I need 10 temps, sign a contract tomorrow" motion of traditional staffing. The primary failure point: nine times out of 10, clients aren't prepared for the recruiting methodology and process that sits way outside the comfort zone of most hiring managers. After building an RPO pract...

When your job vanishes with two hours' notice and your computer gets shut off mid-pandemic, you discover what you're really made of. Gary E. Benedik transformed that June 2020 gut punch into Arch Advisory Group, then sold it to Avenica; where he's now slashing headcount by 50% while scaling operations through behavioral assessment technology. Gary walks Sammy and TJ through Avenica's data-driven a...

Former Microsoft and Yahoo executive David Windley explains how his AI sourcing startup maintains trust through architectural design choices that keep humans in control of hiring decisions. His approach addresses the core challenge facing staffing leaders: deploying AI that accelerates sourcing without introducing bias or losing candidate quality control. Topics discussed: Human-in-the-loop archit...

In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Jeremy Langevin, CEO of Horizontal Talent, demonstrates how his nearly $200 million firm successfully implements AI at scale while preserving the human elements that drive recruitment success. He reveals the tactical framework for "human-in-the-loop" AI deployment, where voice agents handle 20,000 candidate pre-screens simultaneously while recruiters focus on...

In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Jay Mattern , CEO of TerraFirma Marketing , dissects his cautionary tale of selling to William E. Simon's private equity fund in 1999, watching outside investors destroy operational excellence, and executing a strategic buyback through bankruptcy court. After building a staffing empire from a house-based startup to $250+ million over 32 years, Mattern reveals...

Most staffing agencies hit an invisible wall when trying to expand geographically because the compliance complexity of managing workers compensation, payroll regulations, and state-specific requirements across multiple jurisdictions becomes overwhelming. Stu Churchill , General Manager at Peoplease , however, has spent nearly two decades perfecting a co-employment model that eliminates these barri...

The staffing industry has undergone significant transformation, but few have approached it with the unique perspective of Cory Pinegar , Founder of Teem . In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Cory shares how a chance opportunity to clean out a closet for $500 led to acquiring a struggling dental service division for just $1. From those humble beginnings — where making payroll sometimes depended...

Staffing industry margins are under unprecedented pressure, and Brad Beach , Founder & CEO of Jobvious & Tailored Management , has responded by creating a platform that fundamentally reimagines the economics of talent acquisition. After 30 years witnessing staffing agencies squeezed between MSP fees, shrinking markups, and intensifying competition, Brad launched a referral-based platform t...

The precarious balance in staffing can shift in an instant — a single unexpected order for 100 workers by tomorrow morning could spell either tremendous opportunity or financial disaster. In this eye-opening episode of Humans of Staffing, Sammy and TJ dive deep with Adam Forbes , SVP of Strategic Partnerships at Meritus Capital , who reveals the financial machinery that powers successful staffing...

Juliana Bojorquez , CEO, transformed from a receptionist in a staffing agency to building First Staffing Group into a thriving enterprise, with five locations serving Southern California and Texas in just five years. In this episode of Humans of Staffing, she reveals how reaching a career ceiling at previous employers sparked her entrepreneurial journey, the specific methodologies behind her rigor...

Edgar Mota , Owner of MDRN Staffing immediately fell in love with staffing because he was helping people. A sense of being in service to others was something he yearned for from his time in the US Army.  In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Edgar takes Sammy and TJ through his full journey, from hitting rock bottom after his deployment to discovering his passion for staffing, and an angel invest...

How can a staffing agency steady itself in a Wild-West-type situation? In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Sammy and TJ dive deep with a rapidly growing staffing firm specializing in light industrial workforce management in California's challenging regulatory environment. Daniel reveals how Voyage differentiates itself in the Wild West of staffing through superior compliance protocols and workf...

In this episode of Humans of Staffing, Miguel Angel Estrada Valencia , President of Dynasty Employment Solutions , provides a fresh Gen-Z perspective on modernizing the staffing industry through technology and transparency. As a tech-native leader who built his career through innovative approaches to sales and operations, Angel shares how he's leveraging social media, AI, and digital transformatio...