Coffey Testing

Coffey Testing

It’s not often that you think about the nature of materials you build with or the land you stand on. But these aspects are critical to get right before kicking off construction. Coffey Testing are experts in assessing ground conditions and the properties of construction materials — Geotechnical and Civil Construction Materials Testing. 

With over 25 laboratories across Australia, they dig deep with aggregate, concrete, and soil testing services. An average day for a Coffey Testing technician is very hands-on, with lots of travel, liaising with clients, field and laboratory work. 

Their services assist in laying the foundation of every building project and for them, visibility is key. Here’s how they ensure everything goes smoothly from the field to the labs with SafetyCulture platform. 

Laying the groundwork for digital transformation

As engineering gets more complicated, so do the demands of construction materials testing. There’s little room for error.

One of the biggest challenges Coffey Testing faced was visibility. Since their workforce were out in the field collecting samples, it was often difficult and time consuming to supervise and ensure tasks were going smoothly. Not only that, frontline workers were having to complete paper audits, scan and convert into PDF forms before sending it to their supervisors. It was a time-consuming process, adding up to 10-12 hours per week just spent processing paperwork.

Once SafetyCulture platform came into the picture, all that changed. Inspections went digital and became quicker and far more efficient.

“Walking around with a tablet for SafetyCulture platform was a game-changer. We converted virtually every part of our safety reporting into it,” Scott said. They didn’t stop there, using SafetyCulture platform for inspections beyond their initial limits including vehicle checks, hygiene checks, radiation checks and monthly and yearly audits. 

Powerful tools for collaboration

The next thing Coffey Testing tackled was the question of communication. They were in frequent contact with their frontline teams, supporting operations, getting feedback and maintaining compliance. This meant about 70-80 emails landing in their inbox per day. 

Important information was getting lost in the noise — things like reporting hazards or near misses would take two weeks on average to get resolved. Then, Coffey Testing discovered the Issues feature in SafetyCulture platform. 

With it, frontline workers could report an issue and send an immediate notification to those who needed to know. It also kick-starts a chat log within SafetyCulture platform, so teams can converse in real-time on their mobile device, asking questions and capturing critical information quicker. This allowed teams to start resolving problems immediately, reducing the likelihood of delayed outcomes.

The blueprint for simplicity

Simplicity is key to driving immediate action. Coffey Testing mastered the balance of simplicity and detail, so there is enough ease in the process for frontline workers and enough information for management. How? They’ve tailored their issues reporting process in SafetyCulture platform to capture the most critical information. It starts with three key questions.

• What happened? 
• What can we do to fix it? 
• And how can you prevent it from happening again?

From observations, hazards and near misses, to incidents and traffic violations, Coffey Testing customised their issues categories and workflows to be as seamless as possible. Managers can work through reports based on priority and triage accordingly.

They’ve also simplified access to issues. It’s a human habit to whip out a phone the moment something happens — it’s likely already in your pocket. Now with SafetyCulture platform’s QR code function, teams can scan the code and report an issue in under a minute. No more waiting till the end of a shift or fumbling with paperwork. It’s an instant, easy process. Now the manager back in the lab knows about the report before teams return from the field. 

Everyone who starts at Coffey Testing can open their phone and find a QR code and report something. QR code posters are in the hallways, labs workstations, front foyer and the front door. Even contractors, visitors and customers can walk up to the QR codes and report something that’s happened.

According to Scott, it’s not just a win in terms of speed to resolution, but it also helps win contracts.  “It is a competitive advantage if you can report an incident/hazard/near loss immediately so these issues can be resolved in a timely manner which assists the client as well as Coffey Testing” said Scott.

A lasting impact

Since these processes were implemented with SafetyCulture platform, Coffey Testing has seen a huge uplift in issues reporting. In hazards alone, they’ve seen a +213% increase compared to the last financial year. Why is this a good thing?

More issues reported means teams are better equipped to act and resolve things quickly — before they cause incidents and lost time injuries (LTIs). With better visibility and traceability, Coffey Testing can get to the crux of workplace trends and continually work to improve them over time. Today, 68% of their reports are coming through QR codes.

Now that they know about issues immediately, they can address issues promptly and effectively.