SAFETY CULTURE

Scott Cam, Host of The Block and SafetyCulture Brand Ambassador. PROFILE

The Building Blocks of Safety and Quality Luke Anear, Founder and CEO, SafetyCulture

Navigating production and construction with SafetyCulture on the set of The Block. The film set for The Block isn’t your typical building site. Picture a jam-packed construction site, chuck in a production crew and the demands of a tight filming schedule and there you have it — an average day on the hit reality TV show.

You see all different walks of life meeting on-site, from contestants and tradies to local celebrities. Not everyone there has a trades background, so making sure everyone is able to work safely together on site is a big priority. This year, all contestants used iAuditor by SafetyCulture to tackle their safety inspections. Our team visited the site to help set them up and were very impressed with the level of communication and collaboration we saw.

The Block has robust safety practices and employs experts in their fields. We spoke to a few of them on set, including their safety leads, site manager, and SafetyCulture Ambassador and Host of The Block, Scott Cam. For them, there’s always more to learn when it comes to improving systems and ways of doing things. Digitisation was a huge opportunity — not just for safety but for efficiency as well. Here’s how we helped make it happen.

Going behind the scenes Early mornings are one of the busiest times on set. They’ve got up to 60 people they need to issue permits to and arrange inductions for. As with any construction activity, there are dangers — lots of cranes, lots of lifting — but with standards being maintained and regular checks being conducted,these are all kept to a minimum.

Working with the safety leads and foremen, we spun up crucial inspection capabilities for contestants in iAuditor, from daily pre-start checks to Safe Work Method Statement reviews. Each house consults with tradesmen on potential safety issues and procedures to make sure their day starts off the right way. It’s a proactive approach to safety. Everyone takes ownership of the tasks at hand.

With data centralized in iAuditor, everyone has visibility over the work occurring that day — not just the tradesmen and crew logging the information. This plays into the judging process as well as their day-today activities. Foremen Keith and

QUANTITY SURVEYING & COST CONSULTANTS ■ Feasibility & Detailed Cost Planning ■ Bills of Quantities/Schedules of Works ■ Pre and Post Contract Construction Cost Advice ■ Assets and Portfolio Valuation Assessments ■ Contract Administration ■ Contract Services and Dispute Management ■ Serving the State of Western Australia ‘‘Providing financial advice on the built environment’’

Aidan O’Shannessy, Site Manager on The Block.

Dan use iAuditor to carry out a weekly defects check on each of the contestant’s properties, snapping photos and taking notes. All this detail feeds into an automated report that gets sent to the judges to help shape the outcomes for the week.

Keeping the pace The one thing that sets The Block apart is the tempo on-site. Every day brings a steady stream of split-second choices. We experienced this while we were there, things moved quickly and processes needed to be flexible enough to match it. This takes great communication and clear consultation with the whole workforce, not just within construction but with production as well.

The pace of the site is something safety leads keep an eye on. They’re the ones making sure that everyone is communicating, keeping in front of the next move, and anticipating the next challenge. Technology like iAuditor helps with this. Digital checks are great when it comes to compliance but it also introduces practical levels of safety that people can get up to speed with quickly. When deadlines are as tight as they are on The Block, speed and ease are both a must for everyone involved.

Bringing two very different industries together makes for a challenging environment but it also helps us push ahead and innovate more than ever in the construction space. Everyone — no matter whether they have a trades background — should be able to get to grips with safety procedures. It should be that easy. And as we’ve seen on The Block, it can be. www.safetyculture.com