Perseverance

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Perseverance

Creating Solutions to Overcome Problems

Throughout our 140+ year history, Davey employees have consistently faced challenges head-on with creativity, teamwork, and perseverance.

As one of our core company values, perseverance is what pushes us to meet new goals, explore new ways of doing business, and solve problems. Perseverance is also the common thread that’s guided us as we’ve weathered the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Great Recession of the 2000s; become employee-owned – and thrived; eradicated pests that threaten the trees we care for; and safely maintained operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We look back at the ways Davey employees have persevered – and how we’ve come out stronger on the other side.

The Triumph of Employee-Ownership

In 1977, the Davey family announced that the company was for sale – an announcement that sparked nearly a year-and-a-half of perseverance and culminated in one of the brightest moments of our 140+ year history: the employee acquisition.

Throughout the sale, the family saw Davey employees as the preferred buyers; however, they competed with several outside companies, and the path was not certain or easy. Some of the original employee-owners made personal sacrifices to make the acquisition a reality; they cashed in on their savings to buy stock, secured second mortgages on their homes, and took out personal bank loans. In addition, the acquisition centered around a concept that was somewhat unproven at the time – the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), which had just been formally recognized by Congress in the 1974 Retirement Income Security Act.

Their perseverance paid off, and when ownership officially transferred to the employees in March 1979, it was a new dawn. Employee-ownership preserved the Davey company culture, and employees now had the chance to have immediate financial stake in their work. Nearly a half-century later, Davey has thrived under the employee-ownership model, and it remains a cornerstone of our culture.

Learn More About Employee Ownership

Navigating a Once-in-a-Generation Pandemic

As the coronavirus gripped the world in 2020, Davey leadership leaned into the company's values – with empathy for employees and safe business practices at the center of it all. Amid more than a year of disruption to typical routines and business practices, Davey experienced low employee turnover rates, reduced workplace virus exposure rates, high revenue, and strong earnings.

Clients consistently praised Davey employees’ focus on safety and limiting the virus’s spread: maintaining safe social distances, wearing appropriate PPE, thorough communication about scheduled work, and beyond.

Maintaining Safe Operations

Staggered shifts and remote work
Personal vehicle usage, plexiglass in trucks
Company-provided PPE, including face coverings, hand sanitizer, thermometers, masks, and materials to clean and sanitize equipment, sent to offices across North America

Transparency and Communication

Monthly virtual townhalls with CEO
Internal employee communication platform launched

Employee Care

Paid administrative and protected job leave
More than $100,000 distributed through employee assistance program
Flat healthcare premiums and expanded telehealth availability

During the pandemic, it was a lot of thinking outside the box, and we were coached from the top. There was some positivity in every message, and you had operations managers and vice presidents wanting to get down in the trenches and help out teams all across the country.

Josh Piquette

Commercial Landscape Services, Gaithersburg, Maryland

Multi-Year Effort to Eradicate Pests

A 23-year campaign to eradicate the Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) in the five boroughs of New York City was declared a success thanks, in part, to the final ground and climbing survey work of Davey Resource Group in late 2019. Similar work took place in Chicago in the early 2000s when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) worked with Davey to find an environmentally friendly approach to manage the pest.

Pests like the ALB, the Emerald Ash Borer, and more recently, the Spotted Lanternfly, have threatened North America’s trees since the early 2000s. Davey employees’ work to eradicate the pests and care for infested trees through thorough inspections, studying the damage, innovative treatment plans, and strategic removal and replanting strategies, have been a shining example of teamwork and perseverance.

Blog: Emerald Ash Borer 101

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News: Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradicated in NYC

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Podcast: Spotted Lanternfly and Other Pests to Watch For

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