State College-Based ESOP Company Hosts Virtual Pinewood Derby to Engage Employees During the Pandemic

In April 2020 Avail President & CEO Dorsey Houtz announced the company would host a virtual pinewood derby in August.

It’s not something the State College-based technology company typically does, but 2020 wasn’t a typical year.

With the pandemic shutting down the office in March and sending home more than 100 employees to work, Houtz and the company’s F.E.W. Crew — which stands for Fun, Enjoyable Workplace — had to do something to boost morale.

“We were constantly on the lookout for ways to make working from home as fun as it was when we were coming to the office,” Houtz said. “When I first heard about the pinewood derby idea, I knew it would be a lot of fun.”

After the announcement, employees were offered kits to whittle their miniature-wooden racecars and drop them off before race day on Aug. 28, 2020. In addition, Dorsey and his daughter Cassidy Houtz, a corporate event planner, would oversee the races and act as the announcers.

The event was one of many that Avail’s FEW Crew hosted, which also included virtual bingo, trivia night, MTV Cribs Home office edition, Halloween costume contest and a pumpkin carving contest.

Named one of the best places to work in Pennsylvania for 2020 by the Central Penn Business Journal for the second consecutive year, Avail Technologies is an enterprise solutions provider for the public transit industry. The company got its start when it spun off of Raytheon Corporation in 1999.

Since then, the company has grown into a leading technology company working with transit systems all over the country. In State College, its technologies help optimize the local transit industry.

The company is also employee-owned through an employee stock ownership plan.

“This isn’t a surprise. We see this every day. Employee-owned businesses are 8-12% more productive year-over-year than non-employee-owned businesses.” Kevin McPhillips executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership (PaCEO), said. “The average employee in an ESOP company has more than two-and-a-half times more retirement savings than non-employee-owned employees. And they never put a penny into the account.”

Avail is just one of more than 285 Pennsylvania companies who are employee-owned. Other ESOPs based in Central Pennsylvania include Sheetz, Restek and HB McCLure. Nationally, 5,000 other companies have ESOPs.

Mike Shuey, a customer support process controller at Avail, was one of the lucky FEW Crew members that got to oversee the derby.

“I enjoy doing this kind of stuff,” he said. “We weren’t going to let the pandemic stop all the fun.”

Shuey helped set up the track, position the racecars and released them down the track. In the end, there were about 20 racecars, 11 heats and one overall winner— IT Manager Walt Timblin. The Best in Show category winner was awarded to ERP Systems Analysts Christina Navales for best derby car design.

And the strategy seemed to work for business too. In addition to having fun, Avail had a profitable year and did not have to lay off any employees.

“Avail’s continued growth and success is directly attributable to our employee’s efforts. They work hard every day for our customers and partners and each employee’s commitment to excellence and strong work ethic is the reason for our fun work environment,” Houtz said.