By DON SERGENT, Bowling Green Daily News via AP StoryShare
Bowling Green’s growing manufacturing base has spurred a Detroit-based staffing agency to bring its first location outside the Midwest to the city.
Detroit Quality Staffing, or DQS, began operating in December out of offices at 1240 Ashley Circle that now has three employees.
“Bowling Green has been on our radar for a while,” said Josh Morris, the staffing agency’s CEO. “You have a growing manufacturing sector, and it just seemed like an area where we could make an impact.”
DSQ has only been in business for a little over two years, but Morris said it already has a strong foothold in the Detroit area and in the Midwest.
“We have 11 offices across the Midwest now, and we’re looking to expand,” he said. “We serve a total of about 3,000 employees now.”
Many of those workers are in the automotive industry, and Morris believes that experience will translate well to a city that is home to the General Motors Corvette Assembly Plant, and will soon be home to the Envision AESC plant that will make batteries for electric vehicles.
The company spells out that strength in a blog post on the DQS website, saying: “We are a staffing agency that specializes in finding and placing top-notch talent in the automotive industry.”
Morris said DQS has another specialty that he thinks will translate to Bowling Green: working with homeless individuals or those with obstacles to finding employment.
In the Detroit area, DQS developed what’s called “Pop’s Program” aimed at helping homeless or less-fortunate people obtain the tools and support they need to find long-term employment.
“My grandpa served in Vietnam and then he struggled with homelessness,” Morris said. “So now we try to help not only those who are homeless but anybody who is less fortunate.
“We help them find employment that is sustainable. We’ve seen several people break the chain of homelessness, and many have long-term careers now.”
One way that DSQ helps is by removing the barrier of transportation to jobs.
“Transportation might be a hurdle for some people,” Morris said. “We provide buses to help individuals get to work.”
DSQ isn’t yet providing that service in Bowling Green, but Morris said the company will have buses in the area once it grows its local business.
Morris has high hopes for Bowling Green, saying he would like for the city to be a hub that will open up expansion into Southern markets.
He said DSQ already has plans to expand into the Memphis and Chattanooga markets and into Texas.
