“I used this system before I had this job, so I was an advocate to implement the system here in the first instance. I’ve found it really easy to use and quite intuitive.”

–- Greg Baud, Assets and Maintenance Manager

Water. It’s something that we all have contact with every day, and yet don’t think often about. Companies like South Gippsland Water enable us to do this. With their services, we can continue to drink clean water and not worry where the sewage is going. With 110 staff, approximately 5 sites, and a number of contractors (fluctuating up to 300) at any given time, South Gippsland Water is dedicated to providing their customers with quality water services. Their company works within land development or subdivision, pressure sewer systems, build-overs and backflow prevention.

THE CHALLENGE

The main challenge for South Gippsland Water that prompted contact with Rapid Global was their need to address contractor compliance. A key part of their risk management strategy is to ensure only fully compliant and inducted people are allowed to work on their sites, so having a reliable system in place that they could depend when hiring contractors was crucial. As part of this, South Gippsland Water wanted assurance that all people on site had current Public Liability and WorkCover insurances.

THE SOLUTION

Rapid Induct and Rapid Contractor Management were implemented as the solutions for South Gippsland Water. The company found the implementation to be efficient and seamless. Using the system, all contractors are now required to be fully compliant and inducted online with all insurance documentation uploaded into the Rapid system. Staff are also required to do their inductions online. This means that inductions can now occur at a time that suits the inductee, which saves time for all involved.

“You’re not training 10 people in 3 or 4 separate sessions; you can plan and execute training in a bit more of a streamlined way… It reduces your administrative burden to manage contractor and staff inductions, compliance, and training programs.”

The other way that implementing Rapid Induct and Rapid Contractor Management has helped South Gippsland Water is in the area of their contractor list. The way to determine who was and wasn’t able to immediately go on site used to be by reading over an Excel spreadsheet with all contractor information in it. Now, management are able to log on to Rapid at any time or place with internet access and easily enter in the specific data for the type of contractor or contracting company they need, and immediately view all options. This includes whether they are presently compliant or not, meaning if there is an urgent job to get done they can either use someone already compliant or quickly issue an online induction to be done prior to arrival on site.

THE RESULTS

Since implementing the Rapid products, South Gippsland Water have found it much easier to make sure all personnel on site are inducted and compliant. They have found this has improved their overall approach to managing training.

“It turns you from reactive to proactive in your training and refreshers. We are really starting to become proactive. Obviously if you can plan training ahead of expiries, you have a much higher chance of putting through courses, which results in potential cost savings and greater efficiency.”

They have also enjoyed having the ability to quickly and easily locate contractors on the system. One of the other key benefits has been the transparency of expiry dates for courses and documents in the system. Once the expiry is within one month of the actual date, emails are automatically sent to the person in charge of either uploading new documents or getting their staff inducted. This self-management system allows plenty of time to get people re-inducted and compliant before they need to go on site again.

Currently, South Gippsland Water are also looking at how Rapid Incident Reporting can further help them reduce risk in the future.