Last week, Associated Builders and Contractors released its 2025 Health and Safety Performance Report, which is a guide to construction jobsite health and safety best practices.
The report notes that companies that participate in ABC’s STEP Health and Safety Management System achieve incident rates 658% safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics construction industry average, reducing total recordable incident rates by 85%.
Established in 1989, STEP provides contractors and suppliers with a robust, no-cost framework for measuring health and safety data and benchmarking with peers in the industry.
“Transforming the status quo to set the expectation that all incidents are preventable creates a culture where health and safety are elevated to core values, a moral obligation for employers and employees,” said Greg Sizemore, ABC vice president of health, safety, environment, and workforce development, in a statement. “Priorities change frequently, but values remain consistent. The tools in ABC’s safety report draw the blueprint for industry leaders and workers to create a culture of health and safety, win and deliver work to communities without incident, and protect the construction industry’s most valuable resource: its workforce.”
ABC’s research on more than 1 billion work hours completed by participants in the construction, heavy construction, civil engineering, and specialty trades in 2024 identified the following foundations of industry-leading safety best practices:
- New hire safety orientation: Companies that conduct an in-depth indoctrination of new employees into health and safety culture, systems, and processes experience Total Recordable Incident Rates, or TRIR, 52% lower than companies that limit their orientations to basic health and safety compliance topics. Additionally, Days Away, Restricted or Transferred, or DART, rates are reduced by 56%.
- Substance abuse prevention programs: Robust substance abuse prevention programs and policies with provisions for drug and alcohol testing, where permitted, lead to a 52% reduction in TRIR and a 55% reduction in DART rates.
- Frequency of toolbox talks: Companies that conduct daily, 15-to-30-minute toolbox talks reduce TRIR rates by 78% and DART rates by 79% compared to companies that hold them monthly.
- Top management engagement: Employer involvement at the highest level of company management in safety best practices produces a 49% reduction in TRIR and a 52% reduction in DART rates.
- Leading indicators: Tracking and reviewing activities carried out to prevent and control injuries, such as safety training, new hire safety orientation, and substance abuse prevention, leads to a 59% reduction in TRIR and a 60% reduction in DART rates.
“If we choose to lead, if we choose to commit and if we choose to transform, together we can ensure every construction worker goes home safer, happier, healthier and more fulfilled every single day,” said Sizemore.