Kelly Office Solutions history

In 1952 the rapidly growing Russell Kelly Office Services was reincorporated in Delaware as Personnel Service, Inc., and three years later, Richard Kelly opened the company's first branch office in Louisville, Kentucky.

1953 – Sales exceed $1 million.

By the end of 1955 Kelly boasted 35 offices in cities across the nation, and the company opened a new, larger national headquarters in Highland Park, Michigan.

In 1963 Kelly's New York office reported that 80 British women were employed there, up from 35 the year before.

By 1964 the company had expanded its operation to include 169 offices in 44 states.

In keeping with this goal, a survey in early 1965 indicated that more than one-third of Kelly's temporary employees had a college degree.

To reflect the broader scope of the company's offerings, Kelly Girl Service changed its corporate name to Kelly Services, Inc. in 1966, relegating the reference to "girls" to its office services sector, which became known as the Kelly Girl Division.

In 1968 Kelly opened its first office outside the United States, when it began operations in Toronto, Canada.

1972 – First European office opens in Paris, France.

Kelly still managed to notch records in sales and earnings for 1974.

The recession deepened in the first half of 1975, though, curtailing company growth more sharply and resulting in a decrease in sales and earnings for the year.

In 1977 Kelly again reported record growth, as its sales nearly doubled in just two years.

In 1978 Kelly revenues topped a quarter of a billion dollars for the first time, and the company moved into a new high-rise world headquarters in Troy, Michigan.

1979 – Kelly has offices in all 50 states.

Most of Kelly's healthcare offices obtained Medicare certification in 1982, qualifying them to provide services paid for by the federal healthcare program for the elderly.

Also during 1983, Kelly moved to install in all of its Kelly Girl offices a computer simulation program that could be used to test potential temps on word-processing programs produced by Wang, IBM, and Lanier.

As a follow-up to this effort, Kelly unveiled a new advertising campaign in business publications in January 1984, in an attempt to upgrade the image of temporary help.

1986 – Sales exceed $1 billion.

The program was introduced to customers in early 1987.

Along with its steady expansion through the opening of new branch offices, whose numbers reached 800, Kelly embarked on a stint of acquisitions in 1988.

The downturn continued in 1992; sales rose to $1.7 billion, but earnings stayed flat at $39 million.

In 1995 Kelly expanded into the legal market with its purchase of the Wallace Law Registry, a temporary help service that provided clerks, paralegals, and even lawyers.

1996 – Establishes the industry’s first MSP program; now manages $7.2 billion in MSP spend.

1997 – Kelly opens 1,500th field office, and 500th Partnered Staffing office.

2006 – Kelly acquires the Ayers Group™, a New York-based career management firm.

2015 – One million workers are connected with employment opportunities through our staffing solutions and talent supply chain network of supplier partners.

2017 – Kelly acquires Teachers On Call®, expanding K-12 market presence.

2018 – Aligned with focusing on specialty solutions, Kelly Healthcare Resources is sold to InGenesis® and Kelly Legal Managed Services (KLMS) is sold to Trustpoint.One®.

2019 – Kelly expands engineering and telecom footprint with the acquisitions of Global Technology Associates, LLC and NextGen Global Resources, LLC.

2020 – Kelly acquires Insight®, expanding its education specialty business.

2021 – Kelly celebrates its 75th anniversary as a global workforce solutions company.