What if the people your competitors are screening out are actually your best hire?

Marcia Nozick didn't come from the world of HR or corporate recruiting. She came from community economic development — and she built a multi-million dollar staffing company out of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside by betting on the people everyone else wrote off: those with addiction histories, criminal records, and experience with homelessness.

Embers Staffing is a fully self-funded social enterprise that reinvests 100% of its profits back into its workers. And in this episode, Marcia makes a compelling, data-backed case that the traditional staffing model is extractive by design — and that the agencies clinging to it are leaving both talent and margin on the table.

This is real talk about what resilience actually looks like in a workforce, why construction is opening doors that corporate HR won't, and what it takes to build a staffing company around loyalty instead of just labour.

In this episode, we cover:

Why the "unemployable" label is a competitive blind spot — not a hiring signal
The bottom-up financial model that outperforms traditional margins in a downturn
How Embers builds worker loyalty through community, not just compensation
Client reactions to placing workers with criminal records — and where the industry is genuinely open
Removing real barriers: PPE lending libraries, counseling, housing support, and more
Why screening for resiliency beats screening for risk every time
The tech adoption balance — automating without excluding your workforce
Embers' expansion plans from BC into Alberta and Ontario

Key Moments

00:00 Introduction & Sponsor Welcome

00:30 Meet Marcia Nozick & Embers Staffing

01:52 Why Not-For-Profit? The Origin Story

04:25 The Bottom-Up Financial Model

06:57 Building Trust & Community With Workers

09:07 Client Reactions to Non-Traditional Hires

11:09 The Hidden ROI: Embers' Competitive Advantage

14:00 Removing Barriers: PPE, Food & Support Programs

17:46 Is the Staffing Industry Leaving Money on the Table?

20:18 Managing Risk & Overcoming Prejudice

29:51 Hiring Internal Staff & Workplace Safety

33:56 Self-Funding & Technology Adoption

38:33 Expansion Plans: Alberta, Ontario & Beyond

39:53 The Alternative Staffing Association

41:00 Closing Remarks

Connect with Marcia Nozick:

Marcia Nozick founded EMBERS (Eastside Movement for Business and Economic Renewal Society) in 2001 to create economic and employment opportunities for low-income residents in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Over the past 23 years, her leadership has helped thousands overcome barriers through self-employment education, training, job placements, and ongoing support.

In 2008, she launched EMBERS Staffing Solutions (ESS), a self-sustaining social enterprise that reinvests profits into the community. In 2024 alone, ESS paid $10.9 million in wages & benefits and employed more than 1,600 people in flexible, short-term roles.

Marcia's work has earned national recognition, including the Governor General's Innovation Award (2020), the BC CEO Lifetime Achievement Award (2021), and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award (2016). She holds a Master's in City Planning and is the author of No Place Like Home: Building Sustainable Communities, praised by David Suzuki as "a must read."

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcianozick/

Check out more episodes of the Talent Titans Podcast:

Why Contingency Recruiting is Dying: https://youtu.be/BAE9lrl8z74

Master Niche Recruiting: https://youtu.be/RoRWQ5bwPm0

Connect with Suky:

Award-Winning Advisor & Industry Voice | Founder: Canadian Staffing Summit, Talent Titans, Recruitment Professionals Forum | Backing Bold Moves in Staffing, Tech & Investment — No Clickbait, Just Real Talk

Suky doesn't just observe the staffing industry — she helps shape it.

She's built platforms where the industry's most honest conversations happen:

🔹 Canadian Staffing Summit

🔹 Talent Titans Podcast

🔹 Recruitment Professionals Forum

For over two decades, Suky's helped recruitment businesses scale with integrity — from internal team builds to boardroom strategy. She works with agency leaders, tech innovators, and the investors backing the future of staffing.

But here's what Suky doesn't do: copy-paste playbooks, fluff-filled advice, or empty hype.

She believes in smart growth, real talk, and community over competition.

Her work sits at the intersection of:

People + Performance

Tech + Disruption

Strategy + Soul

Whether she's coaching founders, advising SaaS firms, or connecting those quietly rewriting the rules — one thing holds true:

Suky backs those who build.

www.eliteglobalrecruiters.com

Grab of a copy of "How to Launch a Staffing Agency: Plan to Profits in 90 Days or Less"

Talent Titans is sponsored by Ascen. Ascen is an employer of record that helps staffing and recruitment agencies hire employees compliantly throughout the US and Canada. Ascen's all-in-one, white-label platform handles onboarding, timesheets, payroll, benefits, insurance, invoicing, and funding so you can grow quickly in the US and Canada without worrying about back office and paperwork. Visit ascen.com to learn more.