Speaker 1: Welcome to Invest Insights. I'm Abby Maloney. I'm joined today by David Hammond, the CEO of CSI International. David, thank you so much for being here today.

Speaker 2: My pleasure.

Speaker 1: Dive in. Since 1989, CSI has been a family-run business that has grown from 12 employees to over 1,700. As CEO, what challenges do you see in today's labor-strapped market, and how are you personally engaged in retaining your workforce?

Speaker 2: Well, you know, the challenge for us is always, you know, getting employees, right, in today's environment. You know, what we've done in the past is we've treated our employees like employees, like people, not as a commodity. So the longevity of our employees is very rare in our industry. I've got, you know, over 400 employees that have been with me 14-plus years. I've got a management team of about 45 managers that have been with us in excess of 20 years. So, you know, getting good people and getting them to stay because we treat them well, we treat them like people, has not been a problem for us. The problem is getting people in the door the first time. And the biggest way that we do that is word of mouth. We rely on our current employee base to bring us employees. We tell them that we're hiring, you know, in this state and, you know, whether it be, you know, in the same state or, you know, across the country. They tend to, you know, the network's big, and they send us family members or next-door neighbors because they know they're going to get treated well. So as a referral, we know they're not going to have egg on their face because we treat our people very well.

Speaker 1: Great. On the supply chain side, what creative strategies have you employed to ensure that you continue to meet the needs of your clients?

Speaker 2: So we're constantly looking at what's going on. We constantly keep enough supplies on hand. So, you know, when we see flu season coming or when we saw the pandemic coming, we actually stockpiled certain chemicals to know that we could service our clients. The other thing that we don't do is we don't really go out and service non-clients in those kind of emergencies because we've geared our supplies and our stock and our equipment based on our client base and where they're located. We have strategic warehouses around the country, depending on where our footprints are, so that we can always have, you know, emergency equipment and emergency supplies on hand. So, you know, we're very good at maintaining those stock levels to make sure that we can handle any kind of emergency for our client base. So in doing that, you know, we don't fall behind anywhere.

Speaker 1: The pandemic has thrust a light on the office environment like never before. Companies like CSI in particular have played an integral role in ensuring a safe, clean environment. How has that impacted the morale of your staff and the growth of your company? And in what ways is your growth strategy changed over the past year?

Speaker 2: So it really hasn't changed our growth strategy. And what we were able to do is through all this, we're able to maintain our staff and keep them working. We didn't have to really lay people off. We had a few accounts that we had to reduce workforce, but we were able to keep the majority of the workforce working through all conditions. So we've been considered essential workers in the work environment. So our employees were never really, you know, sent home for any length of time. We continually look at the best technologies, whether it be spray sanitation, whether it be installing electronic devices in your air handlers to handle disinfecting of air. And we really work with the clients to figure out what's the best methodology for their environment. So, yes, we had natural growth because of all the extra work, but it really hasn't changed our strategic growth plans. Those are very methodical, very laid out and our growth strategies for growing the company. And we really don't let, you know, deviations like that affect us.

Speaker 1: CSI emphasizes green cleaning in its services and products. Obviously a focus on sustainability is a must for companies in today's landscape. How is CSI innovating in this space and what benefits are your clients seeing as a result?

Speaker 2: So, we started green cleaning before it was the end thing to do. We've been doing green cleaning for almost 30 years. When some of the technology, some materials, some of the chemicals were coming out that were environmentally safe, we automatically adopted those process procedures because it was the right thing to do, not because it was the end thing to do. And we continue to support that. We continue to use the latest green cleaning, green chemicals, especially the equipment. You know, depending on the environment, we look at robotics to reduce the footprint. So we're constantly looking at different methodologies. And then, as I mentioned before, like bio-ionization is another process of putting a device in your air handlers, air systems to help disinfect the air. You know, that's one of the latest technologies. It's the most effective, more effective than spray sanitation. So constantly looking at how we can look at different technologies like that to help our growth and help our clients. You know, number one is always our clients and knowing what's best for them. And that will continue to be the focus of our employees and our management team knows, you know, clients come first and what is it that we got to do to, you know, to make their environment a safe, healthy, clean environment.

Speaker 1: As we round out today's discussion, what are some unique ways you are fostering creative thinking across CSI?

Speaker 2: So, you know, when we talk about creative thinking, what we're really doing is empowering the employees, employing the managers to really be, you know, their own boss in a sense. You know, they've got their portfolio or their buildings or their clients, and it's really up to them to really look at that as, you know, as an extension of who they are. So they really treat, you know, all the other clients, you know, as top priority. So the creative thinking comes from working with the clients and working with, you know, the teams to make sure we're doing what's in the best interest and the most effective way. You know, we like to sit down with our clients on a semi-annual to annual basis, depending on the client, to review their procedures and what's going on in the facilities and are there things that we can change, working with the client, looking at specifications. How do we modify this specification to make the environment cleaner and safer and healthier without increasing staff? You know, in some cases it's a reduction in staff, in some cases it's an increase in staff. But we try and figure out methodologies of how we can move things around so that it's least amount of impact, you know, as a cost perspective for our clients, but provides the cleanest, safest environment for their facilities.

Speaker 1: Great. Well, thank you again, David. That was David Hammond, the CEO of CSI International. If you enjoyed this video, don't forget to like and subscribe to our channel to hear more CEOs and thought leaders share their opinions and advice on the current business climate. Until next time, I'm Abby Maloney, and this has been Invest Insights. Thank you for tuning in. Invest Insights www.investinsights.com