Who Owns Kelly?

William Russell Kelly started the business in Detroit in 1946 under the name Russell Kelly Office Service. His insight was simple: local businesses needed short-term clerical help, and women returning to the workforce after the war wanted flexible office work. The company supplied trained typists and secretaries on assignment, effectively inventing the modern temporary staffing industry.

The firm grew quickly through the 1950s. It was renamed Kelly Girl Service in 1957, and the "Kelly Girls" became a household phrase for temporary office workers. The company opened its first branch in Louisville in 1954 and used a licensed branch model to reach 16 states within its first decade.

Kelly went public in January 1962, initially trading over the counter. It adopted the name Kelly Services, Inc. in 1966 as its services broadened beyond clerical work, opened its first international office in Toronto in 1968, and entered Europe with a Paris office in 1972. Sales passed $1 billion in 1986.

The decades after 1990 brought steady diversification. Kelly added science and engineering staffing, executive search, vendor management services, and recruitment process outsourcing. It acquired Sevenstep, a recruitment process outsourcing specialist, in 2019, and added RocketPower, a California-based RPO firm focused on technology and life sciences, in 2023.

In January 2024 Kelly sold its European staffing business to Italy's Gi Group Holding for 100 million euros plus an earnout, keeping only its global managed service provider and recruitment process outsourcing operations in the region. The divestiture sharpened the company's focus on North American specialty segments. In May 2024 the company completed its $425 million acquisition of Motion Recruitment Partners, adding technology staffing brands MRP and Tech in Motion. It also acquired Children's Therapy Center in November 2024, expanding its education and therapeutic services.

The company dropped "Services" from its public-facing brand in 2021, simplifying the identity to Kelly while keeping Kelly Services, Inc. as the legal name. Fiscal 2025 revenue was approximately $4.3 billion, down 1.9 percent from the prior year as reduced demand from federal government contractors and three large commercial customers weighed on results. Management projected a return to organic growth in the second half of 2026.