Construction Company Achieves DART & TRIR of 0.0
Heavy Industrial Construction | Multi-division | 1,600 Employees
Positive reinforcement wasn't new to this crew, but finding a program that was effective and sustainable had proved challenging. With the Bill Sims Company, Inc., they created a long-term plan for strong employee engagement and a strategic recognition program that's enhanced their culture and performance.
The Challenge
The company was experiencing the kinds of injuries common across the construction industry, like hand injuries, slips, trips, falls, and strains. Many incidents were linked to inconsistent use of personal protective equipment (PPE), poor housekeeping, and employees working under tight deadlines that led to rushing and cutting corners on safety practices.
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At one time, the company relied on a lagging-indicator incentive program that rewarded employees with a "safety jacket" if no one was injured on the job. While using that program, the site experienced 20 lost-time accidents and one fatality. Leadership became concerned that this approach wasn't helping– especially wehn they saw everyone wearing the jackets on-site despite ongoing risks. They then tried a scratch-off points program to boost engagement. It worked at first, but faded once workers realized it would take months to earn enough points to even get a hat.
Language was another barrier. The company operated in the southwestern U.S. and had a large number of Spanish-speaking workers. While leadership was committed to communicating expectations clearly, the safety team struggled to translate training and guidance into the specific dialect and informal language their crews actually used in the field. As a result, safety messages were not consistently understood, reducing their impact on day-to-day behavior and increasing exposure to preventable incidents.
SmartCard® Focus: Reinforcement & Recognition
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Working alongside leadership, we helped identify the specific field behaviors most associated with preventing slips, trips, falls, hand injuries, and PPE/housekeeping-related incidents, and aligned the program around those priorities.
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Supervisors were coached on using SmartCard® to deliver consistent, face-to-face recognition in the field, reinforcing safe actions in real time rather than reacting to lagging indicators.​​
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To ensure training, quizzes, and recognition made sense to their Spanish-speaking workers, we found a native speaker familiar with regional dialects and workplace nuances to translate materials on the AOE Rewards platform.
Positive Reinforcement in Action
Together, this approach reduced reliance on lagging indicators, improved PPE compliance and housekeeping, strengthened safety culture, and supported clearer, more effective communication across bilingual teams.​
After 1 year with SmartCard®, their costs dropped from $2.1 million to $437,000– a 79% decrease in costs.
Recordable incidents decreased from 20 lost-time injuries and 1 fatality to 0 lost time injuries & fatalities.
Their experience modification rate dropped from 1.00 to 0.64, a 36% decrease.
Employee engagement rose from 28% to 98%. Teamwork and communication greatly improved.
Why It Worked
SmartCard® moved the company from a lagging-indicator approach to a proactive, behavior-based safety system that reinforces the actions that prevent incidents. Face-to-face recognition from supervisors, combined with high-quality rewards employees value, created consistent positive reinforcement in the field rather than pressure after accidents occurred.
Visibility through AOE Rewards helped leaders track engagement and coach teams more effectively, while Spanish-language content ensured the entire workforce could participate. Together, these elements strengthened peer accountability, improved hazard awareness, and produced lasting safety culture improvement.