2010 Gary E. Bird Horizon Award Bestowed for Loss Prevention and Incident Reduction Program

Release Date: November 17, 2010
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ORLANDO—Shawn Helmer and Kristin Heizman, on behalf of the APi Group Safety and Risk Management Professionals, were honored with the Gary E. Bird Horizon Award at the 30th IRMI Construction Risk Conference. The award recognized the group for their Striving Towards Excellence and Professionalism in Safety, or STEPS Program.

The STEPS Program is a compilation of industry best practices that focuses on loss prevention and incident reduction through measurable objectives. The initial intent of the program was to provide the company’s subsidiaries with a program focused on incident reduction and mitigation of losses. Since the inception of this program, the EMR has been reduced from .75 to .60 (a reduction of 20 percent). Every OSHA record-keeping statistic has had significant reductions as well. Most notably, the OSHA Frequency Rate has gone from 1.6 to .4 (a 75 percent reduction), and the OSHA Total Recordable Incident Rate has been reduced from 5.9 to 3.1 (a 47 percent reduction). The total number of losses has significantly reduced as well, from 602 losses in 2005 to 399 losses in 2009 (a 34 percent reduction). It is exceptional to note that all of this improvement occurred as the risk base increased from 9 million hours worked to just under 14 million hours worked (a 56 percent exposure base increase).  

The Gary E. Bird Horizon Award, sponsored by Marsh, is presented annually by IRMI to recognize a demonstrated commitment to improving construction risk management through the implementation of innovative, cost-effective, and efficient risk management techniques.

The panel of industry experts that judged the award submissions made insightful comments about the winning submission. "I am impressed with this firm’s relentless effort to strive for excellence and professionalism in their loss control program. It proves that when people are challenged they can deliver a great result," offered one judge. Another judge remarked that "To make this program successful, the team took innovative measures to convince everyone that the program was worth the effort." A third judge commented, "All companies should employ a similar top to bottom measured and monitored program."

The other finalists for the award were David L. Stoepker, Director of Risk Management, Hampton Roads Transit; The Risk/Safety Management Department of CF Jordan LP; Allan M. Yokoyama, Safety Administrator, on behalf of Albert C. Kobayashi, Inc.; and Cynthia Garcia and Ed Marquez on behalf of the Risk Management Department of Morley Builders.