The clear and complete guide to a Digitised QHSE Organisation

The Clear and Complete Guide to a Digitised QHSE Organisation

Table of Contents 1 0. Intro of Didier Cartage (ADEB) & TGO copy ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 1. Key Stats and Facts on HSE in Europe and the Construction Industry ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5 2. Why Digitize Your QHSE Today .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 3. People, Tools and Processes Explained ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.1 People Engagement Approach ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 13 3.2 Process Improvement Approach ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 17 0.0 Preface .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

3.3 Tool Selection Approach ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 4. Why OKR / KPI Are Important in HSE .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 24 5. Six Steps to a Digitised HSE .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 28 BONUS: How to Convince Your Colleagues to Go Digital with Your QHSE .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 32

0.0 Preface

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0.0 Preface This ebook is a product of a collaboration with ADEB-VBA, the Association of Belgian Contractors of Large Buildings.

The organisation, formerly titled the Association of Belgian Contractors for Civil Engineering, was founded in 1936 by a handful of contractors who were concerned about standardising specific characteristics of large civil engineering firms. One of their earliest goals was to set up a Disciplinary Board to enforce professional standards among its members. Through ADEBVBA’s initiative over the years, Belgium equipped itself with extensive infrastructure and high-tech civil engineering works. Currently, the organisation has set its eyes on digitising and standardising all construction processes in the Belgian construction sector.

ADEB-VBA members carry out construction work in Belgium with a commitment for better mobility, better designed industrial buildings, more pleasant offices and better-equipped hospitals, without forgetting an environmental obligation and contribution to sustainable growth. ADEB-VBA members are significant financial and organisational entities that carry out high-standard construction works of notable high technological capacities. In this way, they have all the required skills for carrying out sophisticated and essential projects on behalf of public clients.

ADEB-VBA is part of the Confederation Construction, which groups all federations of the construction sector. They are also affiliated with various international organisations, including the International Navigation Association «PIANC», the Permanent International Association of Road Congresses «PIARC», the European Construction Industry Federation «FIEC» and the International Road Federation «IRF».

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0. Intro of Didier Cartage (ADEB) & TGO copy

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0. Intro of Didier Cartage (ADEB) & TGO copy One of my dreams has always been to standardise and digitise construction processes on the job site to eliminate health and safety risks in construction once and for all.

Year after year, many construction site workers end up killed or injured as a result of their jobs while some suffer ill health from lung diseases, back and limb disorders, and hearing problems.

The risks and hazards, however, are not limited to those on the construction sites. The public is also at risk especially when construction activities are not adequately controlled.

Although the industry has shown a steady improvement when it comes to quality, health, safety and environmental performance, there should be no room for complacency.

It is easy to imagine accidents happening but we never really think that they will happen to us. Unless we recognise vulnerabilities that put anyone and everyone at risk on-site, we will continue to hear about accidental injuries that tragically ail the construction industry.

Additionally, accidents and ill health have a substantial financial cost - the business case for QHSE performance speaks for itself.

Construction health and safety improvement would only happen when construction risks are viewed as results of inefficient processes of a

complete system - a system that includes the management of dynamic inputs of materials, equipment, budget, and people. Having developed an app over the last six years that would be central to fixing that system, I started advocating for the digitalisation of processes to implement strict compliance that would lead to a standardised construction practice.

In December 2016, my team and I were lucky to have formally sat down with ADEB-VBA, the association of major Belgian contractors. They had the same idea - to professionalise and standardise the construction sector by the year 2017. Following the use of our app by many of its members, we decided to work tightly together to digitise and standardise all construction processes in the construction field to increase the productivity of the Belgian construction sector and minimise risks.

After almost two years of partnership, ADEBVBA has reached the status of being the first professional organisation to digitise their construction processes. Its member companies are the first in the Belgian construction sector to go fully digital. Together, we have enabled ADEB-VBA members to digitally comply with various ISO and industry regulations and prepare their systems to interface relevant information with other systems such as BIM, ERP, and others. During this process of 4

digital transformation, we have perfected a responsible corporate management approach with assured compliance with quality, health, safety and environment (QHSE) regulations.

Our partnership resulted in the expertise of digitalising QHSE processes in an organisation.

Together with ADEB-VBA, we have written this ebook to guide you and your company to transition and adapt to a digitised QHSE approach that is accurate and responsible. It is a simple but comprehensive guide with very straightforward solutions that are easy to adopt.

Have a read and turn these guides into action, and you may well provide a safe construction work environment for your workers and the public. Join us in revolutionising the QHSE approach in construction.

Thomas Goubau Founder and CEO, APROPLAN with Marc Peeters President, ADEB-VBA

1. Key Stats and Facts on HSE in Europe and the Construction Industry

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1. Key Stats and Facts on HSE in Europe and the Construction Industry Most frequently, accidental death and injury in construction are caused by:

FALLS: People fall because access to and from the workplace is not adequate, or the workplace itself is not safe.

MOBILE PLANT: Construction plant can be cumbersome. It often operates on a ground which is muddy and uneven, and where driver visibility is poor. People walking on site are injured or killed by moving vehicles, especially reversing ones.

FALLING MATERIAL AND COLLAPSES: Materials falling or structural collapses strike people.

ELECTRICAL ACCIDENTS: People suffer from electric shock and burns when there is unsafe equipment.

ASBESTOS: Exposure can cause severe respiratory diseases such as asbestosis and cancer.

MANUAL HANDLING: Lifting heavy and awkward loads causes back and other injuries.

NOISE AND VIBRATION: Loud construction noise can cause hearing loss, and repeated use of vibrating tools can cause hand-arm vibration syndrome.

CHEMICALS: Exposure to materials such as cement and solvents can cause skin problems such as dermatitis.

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2. Why Digitize Your QHSE Today

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2. Why Digitise Your QHSE Today 5. Predictive Analytics Once processes are digitised, data collected can be analysed to identify safety-related trends.

Quality, health, safety and the environment (QHSE) are a crucial aspect of any construction project. They must be controlled and managed in collaboration with all project stakeholders - clients, contractors, subcontractors, and other partners.

Depending on a company’s corporate policy on QHSE and policies on good governance, we have customised digitised system processes according to the following international standards:

With our QHSE implementation on ADEB-VBA construction sites, we took QHSE very seriously and worked together really hard to meet these objectives: • To provide safe, secure and healthy working conditions for all ADEBVBA workers • To deliver safe, high quality and environmentally responsible products and services • To stimulate the accountable use of resources • To achieve zero incidents on all construction sites

ISO9001 ISO14001 OHSA18001 Following integration of QHSE checklists into ADEB-VBA projects, we met all our objectives while seeing the following additional benefits:

5 Ways Digitisation Can Improve Construction Safety:

Increase in Productivity Streamlining QHSE checklists into every construction project from day one and consecutively monitoring them throughout the entire project cycle result to performance and KPI tracking at all times. This leads to regular reviews and audits that further benchmark QHSE performance at all construction sites. Ultimately, the only end scenario for you would be an overall increase in productivity.

1. Streamlined Processes Cloud-based mobile applications allow companies to digitise and streamline all safety processes fully.

2. Sharing Best Practices Reporting and sharing best practices on mobile devices impart safety knowledge and increase safety awareness.

Solution to Manpower Shortage Managing QHSE processes and the whole job site digitally is a grand strategy to overcome the strain from construction labour shortage. Mobile devices allow for all information to be collected on site. That means all tasks and events will be centralised in one universal plan that allows real-time monitoring of all workers and activities. You end up managing your workers efficiently while eliminating unnecessary administrative time back in the office.

3. Monitoring Safety Wearables Allowing the digital monitoring of safety wear and equipment could prove invaluable especially for workers carrying out hazardous jobs.

4. Managing Crisis Informing site supervisors and management immediately through devices once an accident has occurred saves time during critical situations.

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Lower Operating Costs One of the more obvious effects of digitising is that it reduces cost and time overruns. With an active QHSE system, construction companies, whether big or small, can quickly make project changes while avoiding huge risks. Tasks are monitored and completed in phases resulting in big projects simplified into manageable sets of functions. Projects become easier to handle, which eliminates risks and reduces errors and results in lower operating costs and improvement in project quality and delivery.

Stay Competitive In an industry where productivity remains a considerable challenge, digitising your processes and digitalising your business are your options to stay competitive. The move to digital transformation is inevitable as it will be the only road to take to solve construction’s productivity problems and labour shortage.

The question is not why you should digitise your QHSE processes, the benefits of digitising speak for that. The question now is, “What are you waiting for?”

Revenue Growth A digitised QHSE system translates to proper planning, better communication, improved safety and increased productivity. The better you are at these things, the better your construction revenue.

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY

BY UP TO

MACHINE DOWNTIME REDUCED

BY UP TO

5%

REDUCES PARTS INVENTORY

BY UP TO

30%

BENEFIT TO SUPPLIERS

40%

BENEFIT TO VEHICHLE MANUFACTURERS

TIME TO MARKET REDUCED

BY UP TO

30%

BENEFIT TO WIDER ECONOMY

TOTAL CUMULATIVE ECONOMIC BENEFIT BY 2015

£ 2.6 billion £ 4.3 billion £ 1.7 billion £ 74 billion 9

Section review: • • • • • •

QHSE are a crucial aspect of any construction project.

Streamlining QHSE checklists into your construction project increases your productivity.

Digitising reduces cost and time overruns.

A digitised QHSE system translates to better revenues.

Digitising your processes and digitalising your business are your options to stay competitive.

Digitisation solves the construction industry’s productivity problems and labour shortage.

3. People, Tools and Processes Explained

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3. People, Processes and Tools Explained Process digitisation put simply, is the moving away from the pen-and-paper method of doing things towards an online, real-time way of sharing information to ensure transparent collaboration, timely updated progress and risk assessment, quality control, and ultimately, more reliable outcomes.

People, Processes and Tools illustration

Implementing this specifically to QHSE processes goes beyond just replacing your pen and paper with a mobile gadget. It would involve retraining your QHSE people and redefining your processes around how your team would be using a specific tool or a combination of instruments. This would lead to a new and better way of doing your company’s QHSE with a daily impact on the work of your managers and people working in the field.

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3.1 People Engagement Approach

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3.1 People Engagement Approach Getting the entire company to adopt a digitalisation mindset is very crucial and tends to be the most challenging part. Even if it’s just Quality and HSE digitisation, it is still an organisation-wide tweak. It would affect the company’s culture and require many people to change their thinking and relationships with technology. Prioritising your employees’ experience would be the primary key to breaking through an old culture changing their minds to welcome a new one.

You Have to Reshape the Individual Mindsets to Determine a Successful Organisational Digitisation Culture: 1.

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4.

5.

The Challenge of HSE Digitisation is not Technology

That’s not how we do things here.

We are comfortable with how we do things already.

It’s not broken, why fix it?

It’s not my problem.

We tried that before and it didn’t work!

The most challenging part of introducing technology in the workplace or the construction site is not the software or the hardware; it is the people who will use the technology. The resistance in embracing a new Quality and HSE initiative depends on how your people will adapt to change.

Pitfalls to Avoid:

Successful digitisation begins with strong leadership that embraces technology - this is a robust embodiment of how serious the company is about implementing change. Digitisation done correctly starts at the top and moves down throughout the company. A digitised and digitalised business requires revolutionary leadership skills that can connect people, processes, data and things.

1. Entangling commitment to change management.

2. Demanding results without demonstrating involvement and leadership.

3. Rolling out new processes without a clear explanation and set direction.

4. Failure to engage staff and excluding them in the digital change.

5. Letting employees be ignorant of their safety and the safety of others.

6. Being vague in what is expected of users.

7. Not giving proper training, instruction or incentive to appropriate employees.

8. Targeting unreasonable goals and demanding absurd results.

Involve Your Employees in the Digital Change Remind your employees of your company values and communicate how a digital transformation aligns with them. Having a clear company vision speaks to your employees’ own sets of values and creates a smoother transition. This alignment of values increases productivity and sparks innovation, which are very important especially when organisational change is involved. When your employees are connected to your values, they grow invested in their work. They are more likely to cross over personal barriers to change and would be inclined to commit your company’s decision to digitalise.

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Common Causes of Unsuccessful Implementations

How to engage your employees and influence digitalisation from the bottom up:

1. Don’t try to do this on your own.

Digital transformation involves all your employees and all your departments.

You can’t just do this as an individual. You have to communicate that every single department has to be part of it. In doing so, you have to be patient, be prepared and able to engage the whole organisation on this journey.

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2.

3.

4.

2. Don’t try to do everything at once.

The digitalisation journey is a complicated one. Most employees may lose interest before you even begin. That’s why training and educating your employees about the long-term benefits of going digital is a critical part of creating excitement.

3. Don’t move too fast.

Expect to face constant pressures. It is natural to want to cut corners or push ahead, but these can be costly mistakes. Instead, challenge yourself and your team. Put a plan together that has measurable goals and make sure to hold yourself and your teams accountable. If you have to make changes, revise purposefully. Avoid isolating issues and decisions but instead, inspire and implement 360-degree feedback. You and your teams will be on your way to fresh and cohesive thinking and collaboration.

The Impact of Employee Engagement in Digitisation Getting your employees to adapt to process digitisation is critical to your company’s digital transformation. Regardless of how many hours you have invested in planning, if your employees are not in it 100%, you will fail at execution and put all your efforts to waste. Make sure to invest in employee engagement and get your employees to adjust to the changes you’re rolling out as they are your most valuable asset in digitalisation. Don’t forget to remind them that digitisation would make their work easier.

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Align Your Vision and Values with Your Employees Promote a Narrative for Adoption Grow with Your Learning Curve Start Slow and Finish Strong

Section review: • • • • • • • • • •

The most challenging part of introducing technology in the workplace is the people who will use the technology.

Successful digitisation begins with strong leadership that embraces technology.

Digitisation done correctly starts at the top and moves down throughout the company.

Involve your employees in your digital transformation.

Don’t try to do the digital shift on your own.

Don’t try to do everything at once.

Don’t move too fast.

Try to avoid the common pitfalls.

Employee engagement is crucial to a company’s digital transformation.

Remember: digitisation makes work easier for everyone.

3.2 Process Improvement Approach

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3.2 Process Improvement Approach Digitising your processes is all about creating new operating models that make you more efficient. Digitising a process without optimising it is a waste of time and money. Digitisation is always about improving processes.

Once you have optimised and digitised, you can proceed to standardise and make a benchmark for your operations wherein your only option is to develop further.

• Inspections take much time to accomplish, affecting productivity negatively.

• Some checks can be missed, and results can be falsified.

• Records are difficult and time-consuming to analyse.

• Data has to be manually transcribed into different compliance systems.

• Tracking of activities is impossible to carry out - there is no guarantee that policies are correctly followed.

Applying this approach to Quality and HSE standards and implementing their requirements in the process solutions, allows for a customised management practice that would comply with ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, and many other EU standards relevant to an optimised and standardised QHSE system.

Having digital forms instead of the old school pen and paper, Excel spreadsheets and long emails give way for a purely digital QHSE management system. Imagine your teams collecting information directly from the field and on to an easy-to-use app on their smartphones or tablets and immediately solving constraints on the field. Imagine all the time you can save from filling out paper forms and doing audits and inventories if your documents are up to date.

The Cost of HSE Compliance The average cost of compliance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was €45,000. However, in 2017, SMEs averaged €112,000 in fines for breaching health and safety regulations. If the company fails to pay, each day beyond the abatement date could cost another €11,200 depending on the extent of the breach. The breach can be as minor as missing a fire extinguisher on site during an inspection. Investing in HSE could save your business up to €67,000 on fines alone.

Digitising your QHSE cuts down errors and increases productivity and leaves you with more time to focus on strategising and improving your processes.

Digitising your QHSE:

The Impact of a Standardised and Digital HSE System

• • • •

A digitised HSE solution increases a company’s savings while increasing employee engagement. Giving your employees and site workers access to a standardised and digital HSE system that is easy-to-use would spread a QHSE culture that in unprecedented.

Goodbye Paper, Goodbye Excel, Goodbye Emails QHSE monitoring is mostly paper-based with standard checklists and forms to record regulation compliance, what has been done and when it was performed. This paper-based process poses a couple of risks: 18

Ensures compliance Gives real-time control Enables faster and accurate reporting Increases workforce efficiency and productivity

Section review: • •

• • •

Digitising your processes is all about creating new operating models that make you more efficient.

The average cost of compliance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) was €45,000. SMEs averaged €112,000 in fines for breaching health and safety regulations.

A digitised HSE solution increases a company’s savings while increasing employee engagement.

Digitising your QHSE cuts down errors and increases productivity.

Digitising your QHSE leaves you with more time to focus on strategising and improving your processes.

3.3 Tool Selection Approach

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3.3 Tool Selection Approach As the construction industry welcomes an era of change, aside from the tech-driven drive for it, a flurry of regulations has been updated to demand more from the construction industry. Getting software to assist you with your project and QHSE compliance is not an easy task. Finding the perfect QHSE tool requires a thorough and structured process. Here are three longterm concepts to keep in mind:

automatically analysed to ensure accuracy, to know if anything needs to be fixed immediately or to study data for better decision making.

Is there a difference if I use a SaaS versus an On-Premise software?

Traditional software installation is coming to an end. The integration of technology into everyone’s daily lives has put a demand on businesses to provide quick and uninterrupted service across all industries. Hence, companies are switching to the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Since SaaS software run on the cloud and powerful remote servers, they provide unlimited storage and processing capacity not offered by locally installed software and programs. Using a SaaS app simplifies your company’s IT budgets by calculating your cost based on your chosen monthly SaaS subscription. You don’t have to deal with unexpected expenses that come with hardware and software add-ons or failures.

Find a partner, not just a software When you select a QHSE system for your company, that selected software will be used for some years. Your QHSE software vendor will have a significant role in your QHSE processes. If you find an app that offers SaaS mobility and if your tool selection becomes successful, you will not only get a software system that fits your needs. You also get a software provider who will be your company’s QHSE partner for many years. Here are a few questions to ask:

Do I need my software to work on mobile devices?

Is my information secure when using cloudbased QHSE solutions?

When you implement the use of a QHSE software solution, that software system will become central to your QHSE management program. Many or most of your workers will interact with this software system, which means it will become a part of their work. As a construction business, you will have many people in the field. It would be very ideal to have a solution that can be accessed both from a computer and a mobile device.

The initial shift to SaaS can pose some integration challenges, but once your data is ported over to a cloud-based service, your data will be backed up and securely stored in a format that will be continuously compatible with other SaaS products and services. In fact, SaaS vendors must comply with a few auditing standards namely SAS 70, SOC 2, SOC 3, and SSAE 16, and with the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to make sure that user data is always stored and transmitted to government-level security. Cloud-based platforms, to stay relevant, make their software able to work seamlessly with the typical digital tools. They also make sure that your data remains compatible with the latest versions of the more popular programs. Your office IT department cannot make that same level of security guarantee for you.

How will a mobile app help improve my processes?

Mobile apps can collect the same information in a fraction of the time that pen and paper, Excel, and email required. With a mobile app, customised drop-down checklists and templates can be standardised with required value fields to ensure that your field people collect the data you need.

GPS features prove that a safety and compliance inspection takes place in the correct location. As cloud-based mobile solutions provide greater transparency and visibility of workforce activities, data collected can be 21

Find a tool that encourages user adoption

10 criteria for selecting the best HSE tool for you:

A successful QHSE tool selection process encourages user adoption, which is critical in positively impacting software implementation and of the rollout that would follow. The ideal QHSE software should help you save time and costs by laying down the groundwork for adoption.

• • • • •

Can I integrate QHSE tool with my existing systems?

To have an attractive ROI on your QHSE system and to generate value from it, you should choose a tool that allows it to easily integrate with your already existing systems.

• • • • •

How do I roll out the implementation of the potential QHSE software successfully?

As mentioned earlier, successful implementation and rollout start with educating your employees about the value of your potential QHSE software to encourage them to use it. You must lead an organisational change that would convince your employees that the software will bring a positive difference to their work. Then you proceed with improving and transforming some of your processes. Adoption of these new processes should consolidate your QHSE with your disparate systems, data management, reporting, and employee productivity. Successful implementation and roll out should allow you to generate value from your new system and give you an attractive ROI.

User interface quality Software implementation costs Software license and subscription costs Platform covers HSE workflows Ability to configure the application without using outside consultants Software hosting costs Mobile app and works offline Industry specific content and workflow Customer references from your industry Potential to customise the software with consultants

This guideline is referenced from Verdantix’s EHS Software Purchasing Criteria. Verdantix is an independent research and consulting firm focused on innovative technologies that optimise business operations.

Find a tool that would support ongoing improvements of your business processes over the long-term Remember, a QHSE software is not just a data management tool to help you capture data. It should be a software solution to help you improve your existing system. Your chosen QHSE software should be used to support your business processes better. It should not completely change them, but instead, be used to help your processes through better automation and to make your methods more effective and more efficient. Ultimately, it will be a solution that provides ongoing improvements of your business processes over the long term.

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Section review • • • •

• • • •

Finding the perfect QHSE tool requires a thorough and structured process.

When selecting a QHSE system for your company, find a partner and not just a software.

It’s very ideal to have a solution that can be accessed both from a computer and a mobile device.

Cloud-based mobile solutions provide greater transparency and visibility of workforce activities. They also make sure your data remains compatible with the latest versions of the more popular programs.

SaaS software provide unlimited storage and processing capacity not offered by locally installed software and programs.

The ideal QHSE software should help you save time and costs by laying down the groundwork for adoption.

Choose a tool that allows integration with your already existing systems.

Your chosen QHSE software should provide ongoing improvements of your business processes over the long term.

4. Why OKR / KPI Are Important in HSE

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4. Objective & Key Results and Key Performance Indicators Are Important in HSE At the heart of any successful business lies a strong safety and compliance culture. And a successful and smart company makes use of the data available to continuously work to drive up standards in quality, health, safety and environment.

A good HSE KPI must be SMART: • • • •

Specific - it should be clear what should be measured Measurable - it can be measured against set standards Achievable - it should have a realistic goal Relevant - it should offer valuable insight into overall QHSE performance • Timely - it should follow a set time frame

Your OKRs tell you where to go and whether you’re there or not, while your KPIs measure and track your specific objectives. KPIs are a very valuable tool in tracking lagging or leading performance, and tracking them should be a crucial part of the HSE manager. Lagging indicators are used to track your past incidents and help source the root of the problem. Leading indicators, on the other hand, are more predictive and help you prevent and address potential issues and incidents from happening.

or hazards. Failing to record and report near misses and quick-fix solutions that have been implemented messes with the bigger picture.

KPIs provide a good view and real-time tracking of how your people, processes, and tools behave. They help steer the next phase of development into the right direction. Use KPIs for real-time tracking and make your company compliance ready (for ISO certifications and other regulations) at all times.

Developing reliable HSE metrics will largely depend on your company goals and what you want to accomplish. Effectively measuring HSE KPIs will help you shape a healthy quality safety and compliance culture.

Here are essential metrics you should be tracking: 1. Reported incidents and accidents Accidents and incidents are your lagging indicators, and they provide a high-level benchmark for your HSE department. Law also requires them for work-related accidents as “reportable” injuries for most European workplaces.

Your HSE manager should track key metrics that show performance. Just because you are not reporting accidents, this does not necessarily mean that your HSE operations are valid. Past data cannot identify potential issues or hazards. Failing to record and report near misses and quick-fix solutions that have been implemented messes with the bigger picture.

2. Near misses “Near-miss” incidents are usually overlooked, and their data is hugely misrepresented in many companies. Reporting and recording near misses and reviewing mitigating strategies used can go a long way to prevent potential hazards. Employee participation is vital in tracking near misses. Give the same level of priority when reporting near-miss incidents and come up with strategies that encourage or reward your employees upon giving feedbacks.

Developing reliable HSE metrics will largely depend on your company goals and what you want to accomplish. Effectively measuring HSE KPIs will help you shape a healthy quality safety and compliance culture.

Your HSE manager should track key metrics that show performance. Just because you are not reporting accidents, this does not necessarily mean that your HSE operations are valid. Past data cannot identify potential issues 25

3. Routine safety audits and inspections Make sure that you keep track of your reviews and checks on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. Regular auditing of work processes and workflows is a vital part of due diligence in starting a project. File your completed audits and inspections and note who completed them to help you keep track of changes and accountability.

To illustrate OKRs and KPIs, one of the ADEB-VBA members have committed to a zero-incident working environment. To create and maintain a worksite without injury or material damage, they have this specific 10 rule safety policy that they are always vigilant about and which they continually track:

• • • • • • •

Prevent falling from a height Prevent falling of objects Do not walk under suspended loads. Do not lift loads over people.

Follow the lifting plan Ensure separation of people and moving equipment Provide permission for excavation works Provide permission and perform a gas test before entering a confined space • Wear a life jacket when working near water • Provide permission for diving work • Keep to the traffic rules and do not use a telephone while driving a vehicle

4. Corrective actions Any corrective action on any issue, no matter how small, needs to be reported. Identifying, fixing and monitoring problems allow you to spot patterns that may arise from similar incidents or remedy related issues.

5. Employee training Monitoring your employee training records, while an overlooked task, is significant in keeping you compliant and demonstrates leadership and employee involvement that shows a proactive approach to companywide quality and HSE efforts. Keeping your employees updated and aware of all company procedure and policies raises engagement levels and cements a safety culture.

6. Employee well-being Employee well-being is central to a corporate HSE strategy. Track absence rates and days lost due to ill health, and determine sick leave and temporary staffing payouts. Measure also presenteeism (lost productivity occurring from an employee working when ill and performing below standard).

We have included this list as one of their daily safety checks and automated a reporting checklist at the end of each shift so they can track their actual incidents and near misses. Having these KPIs monitored and readily available on their gadgets allow them to easily infer if safety is improving or worsening on the worksite.

7. Spending Don’t forget to track how much you spend on health and safety and related initiatives.

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Section review • • • • • • • •

OKRs means Objective & Key Results and they tell you where to go and whether you’re there or not.

KPIs are Key Performance Indicators that measure and track specific objectives.

KPIs provide a good view and real-time tracking of how your people, processes, and tools behave.

KPIs should be a crucial part of the HSE manager.

A good KPI should be SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely.

Developing reliable HSE metrics will largely depend on your company goals and what you want to accomplish.

Failing to record and report near misses and quick-fix solutions that have been implemented messes your overall picture.

Track reported incidents and accidents, near-misses, routine safety audits and inspections, corrective actions, employee training, employee well-being, and spending.

5. Six Steps to a Digitised HSE

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5. Six Steps to a Digitised HSE Implementing a new digitised process on your Quality and HSE system can be described in six steps.

Step 2. Plan your proposed process.

Develop a plan for the new process including its needed people and tools.

You have to describe how to move from the current HSE system to your original goal. To plan this process implementation, you need to:

6 steps illustration

• Set or revise goals.

• Identify risks.

• Schedule selecting of process and tools.

Step 3. Execute a tool selection process.

Plan a tool selection process and decide whether to run a trial project.

Define your objectives, what you want to achieve, what risks you want to reduce, and what parts of the process you want a specific tool implemented. Check how your chosen software fares with the tool selection criteria that you can find on Part 3.3.

Step 4. Define an implementation plan.

Devise a plan for implementing the process and the tools into an HSE system. You need to set goals for the process, people and tools - how is it you want your HSE system to be following process implementation.

Define a calendar of process and tool launching and develop a process implementation guideline that provides help to those who will be responsible for implementing the process and tools.

Step 1. Assess your current processes.

Before you propose any solution, you must understand first the current state of your workflow concerning its processes, people and supporting tools.

Identify the areas you are currently having problems with and the potential areas for improvement. Ideally, collecting information and researching about outside issues like competitors and market trends should be included in this step.

Step 5. Build your digitisation project team.

Digitising your HSE would require people with specific skills and competencies. If your team does not have the specialities, provide training to those who need to raise their levels of competency. Decide what training is required for each member of your team to give them an understanding of the gravity of the change and their level of responsibility.

• Assess your current HSE work processes and workflow.

• Assess the people involved in your HSE system, their level of competence, skills and motivation.

• Assess tools currently used in your HSE system.

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Step 6. Start implementing with precise progress tracking.

Roll out your implementation of the new tool and the corresponding new processes. Do not forget to monitor and track how your new HSE system is affecting your workflow and productivity. Make sure to evaluate the effort, the people, the process, and the tool to understand which areas to focus on for improvement.

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Section review: • • • • • •

Assess your current processes.

Plan your proposed process.

Execute a tool selection process.

Define an implementation plan.

Build your digitisation project team.

Start implementing with precise progress tracking.

Bonus: How to Convince Your Colleagues to Go Digital with Your QHSE

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Bonus: How to Convince Your Colleagues to Go Digital with Your QHSE What’s the best approach to making your colleagues listen To get your co-workers on the same page when it comes to digitising your QHSE processes, it is essential that you know what motivates them and how vital QHSE to them, especially on the construction site. Having the ability to understand the challenges your colleagues face and the possible organisational roadblocks to adopting new technology and processes in the industry, allows you to present to them insights of how exactly digitisation will help overcome what they consider challenges and how digitised operations will add value to their work.

How to avoid resistance from your co-workers Adopting new technology and changing processes would, of course, involve the investment of money and time. To prevent resistance, you have to be honest and straightforward with your colleagues by presenting the possible downsides and delays in seeing the benefits. This allows them to weigh the effort they would be putting in, but also the benefits they would be reaping.

This also displays that you have done thorough research by offering an actual proposal.

As digitising takes teamwork to the organisational level, asking for feedback from the whole workforce is vital. Taking into consideration how new processes and tools would affect everyone means you have considered the bigger picture and shows your co-workers the company-wide need for such changes.

Offering a step-by-step approach to adoption would allow your colleagues to get engaged and excited about adopting new processes and tools.

Implementing small changes in stages gives a chance to test out the differences in real-life scenarios with lower risks. This will allow everyone to find ways to improve outcomes and incorporate improvements in the next stages. Understanding which steps you will face resistance allows you 33

and the whole company to work together to turn them into acceptance. Getting all your colleagues onboard is just the start of an exciting process.

How to sell digital transformation internally Here we have prepared a list of high points you can use to convince your colleagues of digitising your QHSE system: 1. Digitising will reduce your paperwork by more than 50%.

2. Less admin work allows you to spend more time on highvalue activities for the team, project, company.

3. Everyone will be able to share and analyse best practices in a natural way.

4. Reporting will be automated, and ways for improvement can be spotted immediately.

5. The monthly budget for the app license is equivalent to 2 hours of labour costs. This means that in only two days, a return of investment is apparent.

6. The error rate due to inadequate communication is reduced, which results in a positive impact on your project budget in the long run.

7. Construction delays are reduced in the overall lifecycle of the project because communication is four times faster.

No more information delay, which is the primary reason for slowing down construction processes.

8. Change management behind the process is easy. One hour of training per person is enough to master the necessary steps of the new method.

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