Contractors to Congress: ABC Safety System Demonstrates Cultural Transformation in Construction

WASHINGTON, July 16—Kevin Sell, senior manager of corporate development at Kwest Group, Perrysburg, Ohio, today testified on behalf of Associated Builders and Contractors before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections on the role that programs like ABC’s STEP® Health and Safety Management System play in creating meaningful pathways between the construction industry and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Speaking at the hearing, “Safe Workplaces, Stronger Partnerships: The Future of OSHA Compliance Assistance,” Sell conveyed the importance of collaborative partnerships between the contractor community and OSHA. He pointed to STEP, which enables top-performing participants to achieve incident rates nearly seven times safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics construction industry average, as a way for those partnerships to create cultural transformation.

Sell began his career as a firefighter and shift commander, which enhanced his ability to make quick and complex executive decisions throughout his 35-year career in construction. In construction, Sell worked in safety and quality, workforce development and relationship management roles. He also held leadership roles on both the Kentucky Workers’ Compensation Funding Commission and the Kentucky Occupational Safety & Health Review Commission.

“The area offices of OSHA have provided employees and employers with valuable expertise and support through Compliance Assistance Specialists and their Challenge Program, which serves as a pathway to the Voluntary Protection Program,” said Sell. “By fostering a relationship—or better yet, a partnership—with the area office, employers gain nonenforcement support, allowing them to work collaboratively with OSHA to improve workplace safety and reduce risk for their teams. This is especially important in construction, as many of us have a mobile workforce that presents a unique set of challenges far different and more complex than most general industry sites.

Kevin Sell, senior manager of corporate development at Kwest Group, testified on behalf of Associated Builders and Contractors before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections

“In 1999, we met with then-Region 5 Administrator Mike Connors, who challenged us to adapt ABC’s STEP and Challenge Program into a construction version of the Voluntary Protection Program,” said Sell. “We began a demonstration program in 2001. VPP, across all industries, allows employers, employees and labor to apply for an audit that can lead to their VPP designation. Many of us refer to the VPP as OSHA’s ‘seal of approval.’”

Sell went on to explain that STEP, which was founded in 1989 as a safety benchmarking and improvement tool, has evolved into an industry-leading health and safety management system that demonstrates leadership and cultural transformation among its members, regardless of company size or type of work.

“When I mentor construction companies applying for VPP, I always ask for their STEP level or encourage them to start this process because any company can participate in STEP,” said Sell. “STEP was a key factor in creating the VPP for construction, and I continue to find it highly valuable in the application process. STEP has also evolved to include something critically important to all of us in every industry: mental health and suicide prevention.”

Watch the hearing and read Sell’s full testimony.

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. Any company can participate in STEP. Visit abc.org/step to begin or continue your safety journey.

Celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2025, Associated Builders and Contractors is a national construction industry trade association established in 1950 with 67 chapters and more than 23,000 members. Founded on the merit shop philosophy, ABC helps members develop people, win work and deliver that work safely, ethically and profitably for the betterment of the communities in which ABC and its members work. Visit us at abc.org.