How Marra Construction ditched paper inductions to save 30 hours/week

How Marra Construction ditched paper inductions to save 30 hours/week

Marra Construction digitized their paper inductions and sign-ins to improve safety and save time.

Rosemary Scott

Sharing real world user stories

Challenges:

  • In-person paper inductions put pressure on time-poor Site Managers
  • Chasing contractors to sign-in and lack of visibility into who is on-site.

Solution:

  • Rolled out digital inductions for each site
  • QR code sign-in records who is on-site.

Results:

  • Saves 30 hours/week. Site Managers main winner
  • Improved sign-in compliance
  • Better visibility of who is where.

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How Marra Construction ditched paper inductions to save 30 hours/week

When Site Managers say they love your software, you know you've made the right choice. EVA Check-in's sign-in and safety tools have freed up about 30 work hours each week across our business whilst improving safety.

Bradley Debnam, Health & Safety Manager, Marra Construction

THE CHALLENGE

In-person, time-consuming contractor inductions

Commercial construction company, Marra Construction, is known for its solutions-focused approach to project management. With ten projects underway at any time, Marra has a team of 50 permanent staff supported by a large contractor workforce.

For Health and Safety Manager Bradley Debnam, a strong safety culture is a big part of what sets Marra Construction apart. Shortly after joining Marra, Bradley asked all the Site Managers about the biggest constraint in managing site safety. Bradley discovered that Site Managers ran two 40-minute inductions each day. These necessary tasks were not only time-consuming, but they were also a barrier to contractors being able to start their work when they were ready, as they had tobe on-site for either the early morning induction or one later in the day.

To keep their sites safe, Marra Construction had well-established health and safety processes, such as signing into sites on arrival and hazard reporting. Still, being paper-based meant they couldn't easily see who was on-site at any point. Additionally, delays in managing paperwork for hazards and near-misses prevented immediate visibility of issues which then slowed down rolling out remedies or training.

Marra Construction needed a better system for managing inductions, site sign-ins, and hazard and near-miss reporting – to save time, provide better visibility, and deliver on daily health and safety commitments expected by their contractors, staff, and business leaders.

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How Marra Construction ditched paper inductions to save 30 hours/week

THE SOLUTION

Doubling down with digital H&S tools to immediately improve safety

How Marra Construction ditched paper inductions to save 30 hours/week

"Most of our contractors come to our sites frequently – around 85% have downloaded the EVA Check-in app mainly to report hazards. For those with older style phones, they report any near-misses and hazards on the web portal too - so no one misses out."

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Bradley Debnam, Health & Safety Manager, Marra Construction

‍When Bradley joined Marra, the team at the head office was already using EVA Check-in for visitor sign-in, and he could see how useful it’s health and safety tools would be for the team. Once the decision was made to extend the usage, Bradley spearheaded the rollout across the business.

EVA Check-in made life much easier for Site Managers.

Now, contractors complete inductions online upon arrival leaving Site Managers to get involved only when there is an issue or question; contractors sign-in on arrival and easily self-report hazards and near misses. This means Site Managers no longer need to manage daily inductions and the associated paperwork, chase contractors to sign-into site, and complete yellow cards for hazard reporting.

Contractors are signing-in and out of sites, with most contractors opting to use QR codes rather than the site kiosks due to how quick it is to use a QR code posters located on exit gates. A geofence trial is underway to test the contractors take-up and see if Marra can improve sign-in compliance further.

The combination of digital inductions and sign-ins gives contractors a friction-free way to come onto site as needed and easily report hazards without losing precious time.

Bradley comments: "Most of our contractors come to our sites frequently – around 85% have downloaded the EVA Check-in app mainly to report hazards. For those with older style phones, they report any near-misses and hazards on the web portal too - so no one misses out."

Bradley's work life has also improved. He gets a notification as soon as a hazard or near-miss is reported in real time, enabling him to be more responsive, review hazards and make changes more quickly.

Evacuation drill records are stored in EVA Check-in by site and easily referenced when needed. Site Managers use air horns primarily to signal an evacuation alongside EVA Check-in's evacuation tool to cross check that everyone is safe.

There are unintended benefits of using EVA Check-in too.

Project Managers are often office-based and use the "Who's here report" to see whether the scheduled contractor has arrived. This saves them from ringing or texting the Site Managers to check who has arrived.

Bradley also prepares reports for some clients outlining how many hours contractors have been on-site for their projects. He now exports the information from EVA Check-in as an Excel file, before sending it on. This is much easier and quicker than collating data from paper-based records.

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THE RESULTS

Saving 30 hours/week with improved safety and compliance

Since implementing EVA Check-in, savings of 3 hours per site per week have been reported - with the greatest proportion of time savings belonging to Site Managers. With ten projects underway, these 30 hours are now available forother tasks across the business.

That's not all.

EVA Check-in has enabled Marra Construction to be far more responsive to near-misses and hazards. Now Bradley can raise any near misses with the team within minutes of it happening improving the ability to keep their people, contractors,and sites safe.

Bradley comments:

"Previously, we had a massive reporting disconnect for near-misses and hazards as contractors had to fill in a yellow card on-site to report it – and then we re-entered it separately in our H&S system at head office, some times weeks after the event. Due to licensing restrictions, we couldn't roll out our H&S system to all our contractors. Now with EVA Check-in, anyone can report as the EVA Check-in app is free. Without a doubt, we're a safer business now."

Bradley wraps up his experience:

"For me, running EVA Check-in for safety and sign-in is a huge plus. The EVA Check-in team is responsive and very helpful, and the software is super easy for everyone to use. When you roll out new software in this sector, it must bring a step change in results – we have seen that with digital inductions, faster, more complete contractor sign-ins and self-reporting of hazards. We’re a safer business now and the icing on the cake, is saving time too.”

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How Marra Construction ditched paper inductions to save 30 hours/week

"Looking at how our sites run today compared to pre-EVA Check-in, we're just so much better off. When Site Managers say they love your software, you know you've made the right choice. EVA Check-in's sign-in and safety tools have freed up about 30 work hours each week across our business whilst improving safety. That's almost a full-time employee!"

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Bradley Debnam, Health & Safety Manager, Marra Construction

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