Applewood Residential Development Care Case Study

“LinkSafe have brought consistency to all of our contractors and how they operate. LinkSafe’s support team has been outstanding from sales to right across the board!”
– Sophie Lewis, Procurement Manager Applewood.

Applewood Residential Development is a premium retirement development offering diverse accommodation options for independent retirement living.

Located in Melbourne’s outer eastern and northern suburbs of Doncaster and Avondale Heights, Applewood has multiple residential options, from single-story villas to spacious apartments.

Prior to engaging LinkSafe’s Contractor and Incident Management Systems, paper-based contracts were what Applewood relied on as a means of managing the maintenance of their residential facilities.

Now they use LinkSafe’s systems for all of their safety response and building, engineering and maintenance needs.

The Challenge

It took COVID and a pandemic to rethink how we could improve managing our paper-based contract systems and create greater visibility around our contractors and the services we provide. Enter LinkSafe!

The commitment of Applewood’s management team to improve operational procedures meant it needed a contractor management system that could with ease manage large numbers of contractors and replace an existing paper-based system.

Operations like Applewood means its needs can be greater than other businesses because the sensitivity and nature of care administered dictates the safety of residents and is paramount.

Keeping residents safe required a solution for monitoring who signed in and out of the site. Society has changed dramatically in the past 30 years!

The Solution

Solutions to resolve a problem often require a little more consideration, meticulous thought and research before coming up with a fix, and that’s exactly the approach Applewood took before engaging LinkSafe.

Six months of scanning the market saw LinkSafe beating all comers because of its proximity and its offerings.

According to Applewood’s Sophie Lewis, “LinkSafe offered what very few companies did – incident management as well as contract management“.

Incident Management and Contractor Management solutions were implemented, enabling Applewood to get their contractors to complete the registration process and inductions online prior to arrival on site.

“LinkSafe’s software systems were easy to learn, staff were able to adapt quickly and learn how to use the systems. Having the system store the permits electronically means contractors can’t just work unless they have been authorised and we know where they are and what they’re doing at all times.”

– Sophie Lewis, Procurement Manager Applewood

The Results

Sophie Lewis says not only was LinkSafe’s software easy to learn for staff and contractors to adapt to, but it was the emails and how they were sent through that allowed the onboarding of contractors to become an easy step by step process to follow and implement.

What we have discovered is contractor compliance has increased dramatically at Applewood because of LinkSafe’s Contractor and Incident Management systems.

No longer is there the laborious and tedious need to manually wade through paper-based documents. However, the system automatically issues reminders to all contractors with a follow-up prompt. The simplicity of the system’s use is amazing.

“What has become evident is not only how well the system works and its ease of use, but the level of visibility it provides. We have discovered a small portion of our contractors unfamiliar with our systems have found it slightly challenging to adapt to – a reflection of the contractors more than LinkSafe’s systems.”

Like anything, Lewis says, no company can ever offer a perfect operational system that doesn’t have its challenges.

“The incident management component we absolutely love. LinkSafe have been positive for the business.

It has delivered consistency across our contractors and its ease of use is phenomenal. Everybody has adapted to it in a way we didn’t anticipate. Their support team is excellent and any issues we’ve had they’ve worked quickly to resolve – that’s worth its weight in gold.”