Simonds Builders Case Study

“LinkSafe helped create a professional process of management around how we engaged with contractors. They reinforced how we should approach the supervision of who entered our sites, whether they should be on site and the legitimacy of their presence – eliminating a process of mistakes made by inexperienced staff.”

– Laurel Johnson, National Workplace Health Safety Environment (WHSE) Manager.

Simonds are Australia’s third-largest builder of residential homes by volume. Established in 1949, it is publicly listed. Since 1949, Simonds has built more than 21,000 homes and has seen 50,000 Australians entrust them with their dream. It is the first RESI builder to hold all three certifications in Safety Environment and Equality.

It was a paper-based management system forged through consistent mistakes by Simonds staff and a laborious method used to engage contractors that became the awakening call to seek help in how to improve and manage the management of their contractors. LinkSafe was the answer to their problems – delivering on exactly what Simonds required.

Simonds now are using LinkSafe’s Contract Management Systems for all aspects of their operational needs.

The Challenge

“Prior to LinkSafe’s engagement, our process was to manually engage contractors. Contractors would provide basic information and Simonds weren’t consistent with who checked it. This meant inexperienced staff within Simonds checked off information that was error-ridden. The same with induction records, everything was manual and there was no update to the induction at any point.”

Improving Simonds operational procedures meant its management team had to deploy a system that could manage large numbers of contractors and staff.

What was required? A consistent and well-documented system for permit control. It had to know where its contractors were and if their documents were current. According to Johnson, effective and efficient management of contractor/visitor attendance was critical to managing the expectations of engaging with contractors.

“We had contractors working for us that had supposedly done the induction 8 years prior and where we had changed the information, they had never received any update.”

“LinkSafe have changed all of that. They streamlined and eliminated the errors of contract management due to a paper-based manual system and have been exceptionally responsive, supporting us every step of the way.”

The Solution

Johnson says, “The LinkSafe solution provided us with an opportunity to ensure only designated/trained people could approve the contractor to come on board.

“Now we have trained staff looking at the information presented and working with our contractors to understand who is compliant and who isn’t. We have managed to refine the process with assistance from the LinkSafe team to improve and ensure any changes to legislative requirements are used to update the system as they occur.

“They delivered on all the challenges we faced”.

The Results

According to Johnson, “Simonds now has a better managed contractor workforce, and a better understanding from contractors of the importance of remaining compliant in all areas of their businesses (safety and insurance).”

“We have a far superior ability to communicate with our contractors via LinkSafe which means we can distribute up to date messages regarding safety or quality, or safety alerts from the State Regulator in real time and not have to wait for individual toolbox meetings in each area”.