BELL Construction Achieves World-Class Safety Performance Through Platinum Associated Builders and Contractors STEP Safety Management Program
Brentwood, Tenn. — July 28, 2023 — BELL Construction today announced it has achieved STEP Platinum in Associated Builders and Contractors’ (ABC) STEP Safety Management System. Founded more than three decades ago, STEP is a proven system that provides the framework to measure, strengthen and build industry-leading safety programs that enable top-performing ABC members to achieve incident rates nearly seven times safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics construction industry average.
“We are honored to earn STEP Platinum in the Associated Builders and Contractors’ STEP Safety Management Program,” said Eric Pyle, president of BELL. “BELL is committed to actively building health and safety into our culture and creating industry-leading safety programs to protect our team and deliver for our clients. Safety is BELL’s first core value and our top priority. It is an essential component of our mission of building better…one relationship at a time.”
BELL’s proactive culture of safety is based on the philosophy that everyone is responsible for safety and should pursue it in all construction activities. The motto “Safety Starts With Me” can be seen throughout BELL’s office and job sites as a reminder to team members, vendors, subcontractors, and other industry partners. BELL’s comprehensive construction safety program teaches employees to take action to protect themselves and others, as well as adopt a mindset of proactively choosing to follow safety rules.
BELL’s safety program and accomplishments have been recognized by several organizations, including American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), Tennessee Road Builders Association (TRBA) and now with STEP Platinum in ABC’s Safety Management Program.
STEP participants measure their safety processes and policies on key components through a detailed questionnaire with the goal of implementing or enhancing health and safety programs that reduce jobsite incidents. BELL Construction has made two key changes that have since become the cornerstone of their safety management system and enabled them to catapult up the ABC STEP rankings. The publication and ratification of their Safety & Health Policy and onboarding of the safety management software, HammerTech. BELL’s Safety & Health Policy documents and continually communicates the company’s, management’s, and team member’s commitment to safety & health. HammerTech has allowed BELL to quantify positive and negative trends, better track leading and lagging indicators, ensure training compliance, and perform effective incident investigations.
“Safety is a journey, and that journey is possible because of systems like STEP, which enables ABC member contractors like BELL Construction to actively build health and safety into their culture, creating industry-leading, holistic safety programs to protect their workers and deliver for their clients,” said Greg Sizemore, ABC vice president of health, safety, environment and workforce development. “STEP measures performance on key components, strengthens and expands best practices and builds safety culture. Our people are our greatest asset, and I commend BELL Construction for consistently fulfilling those commitments to raise the bar of safety performance.”
According to ABC’s annual Safety Performance Report, STEP participants, regardless of company size or type of work, can reduce recordable incidents up to 85%, making the best-performing companies 688% safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics industry average.
To learn more about the STEP program, visit abc.org/step.
