FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 2– Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) today announced the winners of the 2016 National Safety Awards at Workforce Week ’17 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. A total of 44 ABC member companies were recognized for their safety performance on March 1 during the 27th annual Excellence in Construction® Awards.

“Associated Builders and Contractors is proud to honor members who have created world-class safety processes and a safety culture where every employee understands that the wellbeing of those around them is everyone’s responsibility,” said 2017 ABC National Chair Chuck Goodrich, president of Gaylor Electric Inc., Indianapolis. “These leading merit shop contractors have shown a top-down, uncompromising commitment to safety and share ABC’s goal of achieving zero-incident construction jobsites.”

The 2016 National Safety Awards were selected from ABC member firms that achieved Diamond, Platinum and Gold status in ABC's Safety Training Evaluation Process (STEP) in 2016. During the selection process, they were judged on self-evaluation scores, lost workday case rates, total recordable incident rates, leading indicator use, process and program innovations and video interviews conducted by members of ABC’s National Environment, Health and Safety Committee.

STEP is the standard for developing world-class safety programs in construction and is designed to help both large and small contractors evaluate every aspect of their corporate safety and health program and identify opportunities for improvement. In February 2017, ABC published its annual Safety Performance Report, which documented that the average STEP Diamond company is 770 percent safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ average for the entire industry based on their total recordable incident rate.

The National Safety Awards are presented in three major North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code categories: NAICS 236 – Construction of Buildings; NAICS 237 – Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction; and NAICS 238 – Specialty Trade Contractors. See a complete list of winners on ABC’s website.