At Day & Zimmermann, our values, our innovation, and our collaboration are the foundation for our success. They guide us in achieving milestones, fostering innovation, and building a brighter future. Below, we highlight some of the year’s key achievements that defined 2024.
Our Values
Our values are more than just words on a page. They guide our work every day and shape how we collaborate and serve our customers and our communities. Here’s a closer look at some examples of our values in action over the last year.
Safety: A Core Value, Not Just a Goal
Safety is embedded in every action we take. This year, we saw remarkable achievements. This August, American Ordnance's 4B-22 line underwent its safety inspection and received an incredible, almost-perfect score of 99%. This was an excellent example of leading from the front when it comes to safety.
At Day & Zimmermann, our focus on safety also encompasses how we treat each other and stay healthy. Earlier this year, Crystal Thaxton shared a blog about her health journey, embracing support, and how her manager prioritized her safety and well-being, and Noah Saveall shared a blog detailing how employee voices play a crucial role in ensuring workplace safety.
We also continued to foster a meaningful safety culture. Case in point: Maintenance and Construction has re-launched their Why Not Zero?® initiative focused on the idea that all injuries are preventable — at all of our sites, in all of our markets. This is about more than achieving zero incidents; it’s about fostering a culture where safety is a deeply held value for each of us.
We must take ownership and responsibility for creating a culture of accountability, transparency, and care. Over the next few months, the DZMC team will be sharing key safety messages, videos, and other resources on Accelerate, D&Z's intranet, on the weekly Safety Ops calls, and via the Safety Betterment Report.
Integrity: Leading with Ethics
Integrity is about more than following rules—it’s about creating a culture of trust and ethical leadership.
We continued to advance trust in everything we do. Our Ethics and Compliance program is designed to encourage ethical conduct and compliance with our Code of Ethics and the law. Our mission is to promote an organizational culture that encourages ethical conduct and to support the Company and its operating leaders in their commitment to comply with applicable laws and regulations. Bruce Tumolo shared a blog about the power of recognizing unethical behavior, which details the value of integrity and leadership within our organization.
Diversity: Strength in Inclusion
Our focus on diversity was on clear display over the last year. Day & Zimmermann’s commitment to diversity earned us a spot on Forbes' 2024 list of America's Best Employers for Diversity. This recognition showcases our strong commitment to workforce development and employee engagement practices that promote diversity.
At the same time, we’ve continued our efforts to foster an inclusive environment where employees feel empowered to share their unique perspectives. As a result, we’ve had many diversity blogs around important topics like:
- Accountability for Accessibility Is Everyone’s Responsibility
- Wellness in the Workplace – 4 Tips for Prioritizing Self-Care & Mental Health as a Young Professional
- Pride in Policy - Supporting LGBTQ+ Employees and their Families Through Comprehensive Benefits
- Understanding Developmental Disabilities: Challenges, Support, and Inclusion
- Why Intersectionality Matters: The Overlapping Identities of LGBTQ+ Employees
- Enhancing Digital Diversity: How D&Z is Driving the Change Towards Content Accessibility
- Four Strategies to Bridge Generational Gaps: Perspectives of Young Professionals
- Unlocking Inclusivity & The Vital Role of Digital Accessibility
Success: A Year of Achievements
We work to be successful in everything we do. It’s those winning outcomes for customers, employees, and communities that sets us apart. We’ve had significant successes in 2024:
- American Ordnance and Day & Zimmermann Munitions Group are achieving new production heights, the monthly production record is the largest quantity American Ordnance has produced since World War II.
- DZMC has secured a new, three-year $25 million contract with longstanding customer Entergy. DZMC has been an integral partner contractor for seven years and routinely wins awards for safety achievements and continuous innovations.
- Mason & Hanger was awarded two contracts with the Army National Guard Bureau and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mason & Hanger proudly continues their work with the USACE Savannah District, having partnered to support them for more than 25 years.
- Yoh had another record year with industry awards! Yoh has been honored with spots on five Staffing Industry Analysts’ 2024 lists.
- SOC is a member of the team that was awarded a $30 billion contract to continue their vital role in maintaining the security and safeguards of the Pantex Plant, ensuring this critical infrastructure remains a cornerstone in our nation's Nuclear Security Enterprise.
Innovation: Driving Progress Forward
In addition to our values, our pursuit of innovation is a defining part of our work and our culture. The last year was no exception. Our quarterly Finance, IT/BSO, and HR Innovation Awards serve as a platform to celebrate and recognize the ingenuity and creativity driving D&Z forward.
These awards highlight innovative solutions developed across the organization that result in tangible benefits such as significant time and cost savings, streamlined processes and procedures, and enhanced operational efficiency.
From automating manual workflows to implementing tools that boost productivity or improve employee experiences, these initiatives exemplify how a culture of continuous improvement can yield remarkable results.
By sharing these successes, we not only acknowledge the hard work of our teams but also inspire others to think outside the box and contribute to our ongoing innovation journey.
During our 2024 Shark Tank event: Driving Innovation with GenAI, our winning team, Team D&Z Daily Grind, tackled inefficiencies in managing non-technical Tier 1 ServiceNow tickets. They addressed challenges such as excessive time spent researching and resolving tickets, misrouted requests, and navigating multiple tools for simple answers. Their innovative solution was a self-service tool that streamlines operations by providing instant answers to Tier 1 issues, "smart routing" tickets based on descriptions, and addressing common employment or company-related inquiries. This tool not only saves time but also enhances accuracy and user experience, embodying the spirit of innovation at Day & Zimmermann.
Collaboration: Achieving More Together
Despite unique businesses, a large geographic footprint, and a wide range of roles and responsibilities, we find meaningful ways to collaborate and work together whenever we can.
The collaboration in our work extends to our communities and our focus on supporting each other and giving back.
We are very proud of our fundraising success this year. We exceeded our $20,000 goal for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, raising a total of $24,318. Over the past four years, we’ve raised a total of $90,440 for the American Cancer Society. We’ve also more than doubled our fundraising goal in our first year participating in the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk, reaching $8,583.
Other collaborative highlights include the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, Girl Scouts Take the Lead, our Heritage Day Celebration, Wellness Day, Take Our Children to Work Day, the YPRG’s game night and city stroll, charity golf outings, car washes and dodgeball, leadership events, networking breakfasts, potlucks, ice cream socials, and so many more.
A special shoutout to the collaborative efforts on our yearly holiday initiatives like Wreaths Across America, Toys for Tots, Salvation Army Angel Tree, food and clothing drives across the U.S., and sending holiday cards to deployed employees.
Our many webinars have been an incredible source of collaboration, where unique perspectives thrive – CARES’ Compassion Fatigue: Helping Those Who Help Others and Finding the Time & Energy to be Both a Parent and a Professional, ADAPT’s Accountability for Accessibility, Ages & Stages of ADHD, Transitioning Back to School, along with their many coffee chats, the YPRG’s Networking Speaker Series and Empowering Professionals for Long-term Success, True Colors’ Coffee & Conversation, and the dozens of health and wellbeing webinars offered by our Benefits team.
As we reflect on 2024, it’s clear that our collective efforts have brought Day & Zimmermann’s values to life in remarkable ways. From record safety milestones and fostering innovative solutions to celebrating diversity and securing major contracts, our teams demonstrated unwavering commitment and achieved major success. Through integrity and teamwork, we exceeded fundraising goals, hosted meaningful events, and strengthened our culture of inclusion and support.
Looking Ahead
These accomplishments reflect the collective dedication of our employees and reinforce the foundation of our success—the D&Z Way. Together, we continue to build a brighter, more impactful future.
Thanks for a fantastic 2024 and we look forward to continuing the Our Values in Action blog series in 2025, along with some new campaigns. As we look to the new year, let’s carry this momentum forward, guided by our values, and continue to achieve success in every action.