MKD Electric has been named the winner of a National Safety Excellence Award from Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). Based in Elgin, Illinois, MKD Electric received the award March 1 during the 27^th annual Excellence in Construction® Awards at Workforce Week ’17 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“Associated Builders and Contractors is thrilled to honor MKD Electric, whose world-class safety processes and safety culture has created an environment 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. “MKD’s impressive safety record shows the clear difference that an uncompromising, top-down commitment to safety makes in a contractor’s performance and we are proud to call them an ABC member.”

The 2016 National Safety Excellence Award winners were selected from ABC member firms that achieved Diamond, Platinum and Gold status in ABC’s Safety Training Evaluation Process (STEP). During the selection process, national safety winners 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.