Cutting the cost of compliance in construction 

For Safety, Health, Environment, and Quality assurance (SHEQ) managers in the sector, this means that compliance can be time consuming and expensive. Too often, the data needed for audits is distributed across the company in a mixture of spreadsheets, documents and sometimes also manual systems. Accessing can take hours if not date, adding to audit costs and damaging productivity. 

In construction, training records for staff are particularly important. Managers need a view of the range of skills they have available at any one time and be able to identify which team members are qualified for a particular job. Immediate access to training certificates and accreditations is also needed when spot checks occur on site – if a manual system is in place this can mean workers carrying a sheaf of cards with them to confirm their qualifications.  

A single compliance solution can bring all these elements together in one place. Most importantly, it should include the following features:

• A legal register to keep SHEQ managers up to date with the latest regulatory requirements
• Training records management to ensure that certifications and accreditations are stored in one place for all individuals
• Remote incident reporting capabilities
• Remote access to all compliance documentation

AMS Trenchless is the largest privately-owned horizontal directional drilling and pipe ramming contractor in the UK. The company is subject to a dense web of compliance requirements, from CDM regulations to COSHH.   

The challenge 

Almost all of AMS Trenchless’s work comes via competitive tender so clients conduct strict due diligence on its compliance status before signing a contract. In addition, the company faces regular SSIP assessments.    

Bringing together the evidence needed for these audits and assessments was a manual and time-consuming exercise. Training records lived in Excel spreadsheets and other documents were scattered across a variety of repositories in a range of different formats. With a constant stream of requests, the company’s SHEQ manager, Wayne Halsall, was struggling to keep up.  

As an additional challenge, many of AMS Trenchless’s staff operate offshore. This meant that incident reports could take several days to reach the main office, making it difficult for managers to respond quickly.   

The solution  

MY Compliance Management (MCM) became the central home for everything compliance-related for AMS Trenchless. MCM’s legal register has ensured that relevant regulations are directly available, while the training management module allows directors to view the workforce according to skillset and training status. This means that they can build site teams in the confidence that each individual has the right accreditation before work begins.  

Offshore incident reporting has been transformed. Mobile scanning means that a report that previously took several days to reach the office can be logged in minutes. The information is delivered to the right people so action can be taken at once.  

Finally, personal QR codes mean that each employee has instant access to their qualifications and tickets on their phone, replacing the wallet full of cards that they used to rely on. QR codes on site also provide access to the COSHH substance inventory .   

“We get audited quite regularly, not just by clients but by SSIPSi… we’ve got everything centralised, so if somebody asks a question ‘Where do you keep this?’ or ‘Where’s the calibration for that?’ we’ve got it all in one place.” - Wayne Halsall, SHEQ Manager, AMS Trenchless