After the pledge and prayer, every meeting at the ABC Pelican Chapter begins with a safety moment. The advice, wisdom or tip is read aloud by a member and then discussed in practical application by the group. It's a powerful thing to witness local business leaders, who have been in the industry for decades, set aside time in their day to discuss safety. Safety is a pillar of our chapter and national trade association. Since ABC's founding in 1950, we have always made a strong commitment to safety and held the belief that safety knowledge is a vital tool in an industry that is filled with potential hazards.
In fact, each ABC chapter must have a safety committee in place before receiving a charter from ABC's national office. We have a duty to educate and train the construction industry and our local communities about the techniques, resources, tools and materials that protect our nation's workplace.
Weather, heights, traffic, heavy equipment, uncertain landscape, loud noise and electrical voltage are just a handful of the unpredictable conditions that our members encounter daily in their workplaces. Just look at a handful of these statistics around jobsite safety:
- OSHA found that in 2017, one in five worker fatalities were in construction.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that a U.S. worker is injured once every 11 minutes by a falling object.
- Daily, an estimated 2,000 U.S. workers sustain a job-related eye injury, per the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
- According to OSHA, falls are the leading cause of death in the construction industry.
In addition to safety knowledge, ABC believes in safety benchmarks and measurements because, as Peter Drucker put it, "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." ABC created the Safety Training Evaluation Process (STEP) program to provide guidance for creating a better safety program. Established in 1989, STEP's benchmarks help our members monitor and adjust their companies' efforts in the present to build a safer work environment.
ABC STEP members measure their safety processes and policies via 20 management components with the goal of implementing or enhancing safety programs that reduce jobsite incident rates. These excellent processes have dramatically improved safety performance among our member companies, no matter the size of the organization or the type of work they do.
Need proof? STEP Diamond Members are 670-percent safer than the BLS industry average, with an 85-percent reduction in the BLS average total recordable incident rate (TRIR). STEP Platinum Members are 400-percent safer, with a 75-percent reduction in TRIR, and STEP participants are 130-percent safer, with a 23-percent reduction in TRIR.
Commitment to achieving these types of results is a difficult process, involving leadership commitment, employee engagement, company culture transformation and implementation of processes. However, I guarantee that commitment to this world-class safety program is worth it, because there is no greater duty for employers than to keep our employees safe.
I would strongly encourage you to research the STEP program at www.abcstep.org and apply. ABC Pelican recently honored more than 30 STEP recipient members at our Excellence in Construction gala for their worldclass safety efforts and committing to the STEP process. These ABC Pelican Members chose to transform and to create work conditions without incident, and we are proud to celebrate these tremendous milestones. Transforming a company, let alone an industry like ours, can be daunting, but the benefits outweigh the challenges.
"Safety first, last and always" resounds even more loudly today for ABC members than it did nearly 70 years ago. My hope is that this remains the watchword for our members and any workplace across the nation for generations to come.
No matter the time of day, week or year, no priority is higher than safety on a jobsite, because every employee deserves to return home safely and without injury at the end of the work day.
For more information, contact David Helveston, president and CEO of the ABC Pelican Chapter, at (225) 753-2590 or dhelveston@abcpelican.com, or contact Russell Hamley at (713) 523-6ABC [6222] or r.hamley@abchouston.org.
