Port Authority of NSW is a medium to large sized company whose ultimate goal is to provide port facilities and services to meet the needs of commercial shippers in NSW across their 8 sites. This includes maintaining the port and marine assets such as cruise terminals and providing safe navigation of vessels in and out of some of the busiest harbors in the world.
THE CHALLENGE
With a staffing team of about 350 people and over 270 external contracting companies to manage, the challenge for PANSW lay in the risk of having contractors on site who were not compliant and therefore did not know what the safety procedures and their reporting obligations were. A better system was needed to manage the 5000 contractors who could otherwise be working while non-compliant, thereby potentially jeopardising not only their own safety but also the safety of those around them.
One of the other challenges lay in the fact that security personnel had to check that site inductions had been completed prior to letting contractors on site. This was completed using an induction card, which resulted in the difficult task of distributing them to contractors.
“Security personnel had to ensure completion of site induction prior to letting them on to the site, and it was a difficult task to distribute the cards to the contractors.”
– Jai Shankar, Process & Application Support Manager
A system was therefore needed to aid PANSW in better managing their contracting companies in terms of both documentation and ensuring on site compliance.
THE SOLUTION
The Rapid Induct and Rapid Contractor Management systems were implemented by PANSW in an attempt to improve the current contractor management process. Furthermore, the company chose to improve their efficiency to an even greater extent by opting to have contracting cards issued directly to contractors. This has saved PANSW time and money due to the fact they now do not have this additional concern to take into account when dealing with contracting companies. With Rapid Contractor Manager, the administrator of each contracting company is responsible for ensuring compliance of their workers, all while enabling staff at PANSW to log in and view contractor compliance or make changes if necessary.
“With the introduction of Rapid Contractor Management, it has become so much easier as the contracting companies are responsible for ensuring that their staff are compliant prior to entering our sites.”
Staff and security personnel at PANSW have also found the Rapid Admin Tools app to be helpful in quickly determining the compliance of contractors. The ability to look up a contractor or a contracting company remotely on a mobile device means the team at PANSW can be always assured the right people are on site if there is ever any doubt or concern. The app is also a useful tool for completing important tasks (such as issuing passwords to inductees or reporting workplace incidents) even while out of the office.
THE RESULTS
There was great success with PANSW’s transfer to Rapid Induct and Rapid Contractor Management, with contractors particularly happy with the new systems.
“Our project manager at Rapid Global was professional, diligent and helpful in every way to ensure a smooth transition. We have had good feedback from our contractors with regard to the change management.”
The implementation of the online induction software and contractor management systems has resulted in multiple savings, from time savings for the company due to the ease of managing contractors to financial savings from the reduced card wastage. But most importantly Rapid Global’s systems have enabled PANSW to make sure that the work being completed on their sites is being done with full compliance and safety to make sure everyone can go home at the end of the day when the job is done.
