Joseph Tommasi started his career clearing trees around utility lines and trained as an arborist in the early 1970s. He worked his way up as a crew leader, then a supervisor, and has been with The Davey Tree Expert Company since 1994.

Based in Kent, Ohio, Davey is employee-owned and was established more than 100 years ago.

From the office to the field, safety is an expectation that employees, managers, businesses and even clients expect when they do business with Davey. “There is an expectation that many of our clients — particularly our larger ones, but certainly individual homeowners — want nothing but a quality job executed well, and that there's been no harm done to anyone in the course of that work,” Joseph says on this episode of No Accident. 

 Joseph sees OSHA best practices as a starting point. “You can’t manage your safety program by regulation alone. Your program has to start off with communication and valuing your people, and your people need to know that.” 

As the U.S. and Canada’s third-largest landscaping company, according to Lawn & Landscape — Davey has undergone significant expansion, but not without giving safety considerations a hard look first. 

“Whether it’s new locations or entities, safety is a key factor that the acquisition team weighs early on during the due diligence process, even before we make any commitments.”

When Joseph started his career in safety, many industries viewed safety as the role of the safety department alone. Today, he sees a shift to safety as a holistic and integrated system that requires ongoing improvement across divisions. Joseph attributes an intensified awareness of safety among consumers and businesses to the events of September 11, 2001. 

“Now it’s a two-way street. The people in the safety departments and the field, but also managers and supervisors, have to share the message of their safety programs and ownership of the process with each other.” 

Featured Guest

👉 Name: Joseph Tomassi

👉 What he does: As the Vice President of Corporate Safety at the Davey Tree Expert Company, Joseph draws upon nearly five decades of experience in horticulture, management and safety to protect his workforce and help Davey thrive. 

👉 Company: Davey Tree Expert Company

👉 Key quote: “Good things come from being persistent in trying to achieve safety excellence —  company success, employee success, opportunity and profitability.” 

👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn

Safe Takes

⚠️ Go above and beyond when communicating your expectations to your greatest assets, i.e. your employees and other team members. “Be honest and credible with them. They need to know they're going to be held to a standard of conduct, but that you're there to help them succeed.”

⚠️ Take a behavioral approach to address safety. Davey puts interpersonal relationships and human interaction at the heart of its Personal Excellence Program, which promotes OSHA compliance and ultimately success for its employees, management and customers. 

⚠️ Adopt a continuous improvement mindset. It’s nearly impossible for a large organization to achieve excellence in safety at every single point with every single individual. But nevertheless, companies should aim for it at every opportunity. “Safety excellence is a value that has helped our company grow over time because people recognize how important it is to us and how it informs our work on a daily basis.”

Resources

⛑️ Lawn & Landscape Top 100 — a list based on 2020 revenue from landscape

profit centers. Davey ranks third on the list. 

⛑️ Utility Safety — Page detailing the Davey’s commitment to safety

Top quotes from the episode:

“Doing the work of safety professionally increases productivity.” 

“People today seek more in terms of safety and security than ever before. You can see it in the marketing and advertising on television. The expectations for professional organizations to address safety are high in the eyes of consumers.” 

“[From an organizational perspective], I see that people are much more embracing of and asking for the opportunity to work together on continuous improvement and safety.”

“Safety is a wonderful career with opportunities across industries, and it’s become much more highly regarded as a profession.”