Recent News

EDSI was just announced as one of the 2020 Cool Places to Work in Michigan, as recognized by Crain’s Detroit Business, making this the 7th consecutive year of winning this award. Thank you to our amazing team for making EDSI a cool place to work.

This statewide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Michigan, benefiting the state's economy, its workforce and businesses. The 2020 Cool Places to Work in Michigan list is made up of 100 companies in three size categories: small (15-49 U.S. employees), medium (50-249 U.S. employees) and large (250+ U.S. employees).

Companies from across the state entered the two-part process to determine the Cool Places to Work in Michigan. The first part consisted of evaluating each nominated company's workplace policies, practices, and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 25% of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. This part of the process was worth approximately 75% of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final rankings. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process in Michigan and also analyzed the data and used their expertise to determine the final rankings.

EDSI was recognized during an Aug. 14 virtual event produced by Crain’s Detroit Business that revealed the 100 companies.

EDSI is committed to serving communities and citizens in need, and now in Delaware County, those struggling with addiction will receive help thanks to a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. Through the grant, EDSI will partner with The Community Action Agency of Delaware County, Inc. (CAADC) Inc. to help those suffering from Opioid Use Disorder finds jobs and rebuild their lives.

EDSI and the CAADC will join with Delaware County residents in recovery through the Employment Bound Program where program participants will be provided with intensive case management, job readiness training, life skills workshops, assistance with employment search and counseling after employment has been achieved.

The Daily News article can be found here.

EDSI is proud to announce the unveiling of its first book, published by the Society for Human Resource Management. Unquittable was a team effort between Jim Bitterle, Managing Partner for EDSI’s Consulting Division and Kathy Wilson-Peacock, Proposal Writer.

The book offers a from-the-trenches guide to the most effective tools, strategies, and processes for attracting, developing and retaining talent. Unquittable appeals to small and medium-sized organizations by addressing a crucial issue in American business: Companies are struggling to find and keep great talent.

The unique book format presents humorous stories of how to implement and how NOT to implement talent strategies, bringing to life some of the personalities and issues faced by CEOs, human resources professionals, and managers.

Excited to read it? Unquittable is now available to buy on Amazon and the SHRM website!

Great work is happening in our community and EDSI is proud to be a part of it! Detroit’s summer youth jobs program - Grow Detroit's Young Talent – is going virtual and EDSI is providing an online software program that will help simulate real-world work for the participants. EDSI’s strong commitment to training and education led to the company being selected as a partner.

EDSI's innovative training platform will allow 17-24 year-olds to engage with employers in high-growth industries digitally through projects and workshops. Participants will be able to enroll in occupational training in manufacturing, IT, health care, construction and customer service.

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, this summer students will be at home working on laptops, tablets or smartphones instead of an onsite educational and training experience as in past years. EDSI and all the program partners are committed to collaborating and ensuring as many youth as possible have access to work-readiness training and learning experiences as well as online paid training and job opportunities.

EDSI is thrilled to be helping make a positive difference in the lives of Detroit youth and looks forward to other partnership opportunities.

What is the value of a hand-written card? Take a moment to think about the cheerful feeling of finding a greeting card in your mailbox or a surprise note of appreciation on your desk. I know I’m not the only one who gets that warm, fuzzy feeling knowing someone took the time to reach out in a personal way. In fact, a study by Quora proves that even in the age of the Internet, people still love receiving greeting cards!

Fun Fact: Up to 90% of people still prefer to get an old fashioned greeting card vs an email card.

So, are greeting cards extinct? The answer is a resounding no! Greeting cards are here to stay and our Chief Servant Leader, Kevin Schnieders can prove it. This is the man who has an endless to-do list, with a team of over 800, yet he still makes it a priority to write personal messages in cards to each person in the company. Nope, Kevin doesn’t believe in signature stamps or generic messages.

Did you know that he signs and sends a birthday, anniversary and holiday card to each employee every single year? Plus he takes time to send welcome, sympathy and congratulations cards to employees, as well as other special occasion and thank-you notes. Take a look at last year’s card calculations:

2019 Cards Sent
3 Birthday, Holiday & Anniversary cards/year x 800 employees = 2,400+780 special occasion cards/year = 3,180 cards per year!

Now, you might think that’s all there is to the story, but it doesn’t stop there. See, there are others behind the scenes who help guide the card effort across the finish line. Check out the step-by-step process and photos below that illustrate the chain of events, start to finish.

Executive Assistant to the CEO, Jen Sarkisian, orders and receives a huge shipment of birthday, anniversary and special occasion cards each year. To ensure that no one receives the same card twice, she keeps a list of what card is given to each employee every month. The cards are labeled and then given to Kevin to sign. Once he signs them, they are handed off to Robin Redmer, Administrative Assistant, who adds postage and prepares them for mailing.

Typically, cards are mailed to team members’ offices, but temporarily they are being re-routed to their homes, as shown below. Also pictured below is Brian Gilbertson, HR Consultant, happily retrieving his April birthday card from the mailbox last month.

At the Dearborn office, there is a wall that has our values spelled out over and over again. We call it the Show Up, Smile and Support wall. This area is dedicated to featured employees who started at EDSI as participants and were later hired as team members. Our valued colleagues fought through challenging and uncertain situations in order to live better lives and we are so proud to have them as part of our EDSI family. Below is one of four featured team members who now appear on our inspirational wall.

Ashley Moring, Livonia, MI – Determination Leads to Rewarding Career

Ashley was stressed, scared and nervous as she entered the Work First program at Michigan Works! She had fallen on hard times amidst a divorce. As a stay-at-home mother, she found herself without recent job skills or transportation. Unable to support herself and her daughter, she applied for cash assistance and temporarily moved in with her mother and brother.

Although she was feeling distraught and discouraged due to her lack of recent work experience, she was determined to seek out resources that would help her gain self-sufficiency. It didn’t take long for her skills and confidence to grow.

After attending some workshops and updating her resume, she began to apply for jobs. Soon, a 90-day file clerk internship position was posted in the very EDSI office where she was a customer, so she applied and was hired.

During her internship, she filled in at the front desk. She remembers saying to her coworkers that out of all the jobs in the office, the front desk position was most intimidating because of the fast pace and extensive amount of information you had to know.

As fate would have it, the front desk receptionist changed jobs and the position became available. Ashley, despite her initial reservations, ended up accepting a full-time job offer to be the office administrative assistant.

“I couldn’t believe that the one position in the entire office that I said I didn’t want, is what I ended up doing. I actually love the variety that comes with this job and I enjoy welcoming customers into the center and providing encouragement and help. This is the perfect job for me.”