As a Tier 1 builder in New Zealand, Icon wants to be leading the industry and always aims to exceed regulatory requirements. To achieve this, they selected HammerTech to manage HSE across what can be dozens of projects at any one time.

“Our value proposition is that when you construct with Icon, when you choose Icon as your head contractor to build your building, you're going to get a quality product, you're going to get something that is safe and was built with the best possible safety practices,” says Icon’s NZ HSEQ Manager, Karyn Beattie. 

Metrics at a Glance

The Challenge

Beattie, who was instrumental in implementing HammerTech, talks about the importance of being able to identify issues that may be common to several sites. Before HammerTech this was difficult as injuries or close call (near-misses) data was rarely shared between sites in real time. 

One of the major reasons Icon chose HammerTech was around data capture and removing paper processes and the subsequent admin costs associated with those processes.

Secondly, it was accessibility. There is no use having a great tool and people not being able to use it. As Karyn Beattie explains: “Our demographic group is often not particularly tech savvy so it was important to bring them on the journey to understand what their pain points are.”

Data integrity was also incredibly important. One of Icon’s compliance requirements to do business in New Zealand is the analysis of safety information. It needs to get to the root causes to deal with accident occurrences – whether that be a physical accident leading to injury, property damage, or a near miss. Analysis of this data is necessary so a strategy can be put in place.

The Focus

Karyn Beattie, Registered Safety Professional, has been in the HSEQ space for 17 years and has used many pieces of software in that time. “Before we decided to choose HammerTech we did a full RFP and we looked at 15 different software solutions. HammerTech came out on top. We looked at a number of predetermined factors.” 

She said that before HammerTech, information about an incident was more difficult to get. “Sometimes it might require me to travel to a location and physically locate a document or to conduct an interview to ask more questions. The quality of information also varied greatly. With HammerTech it is easy to reference and loop back to someone in the location where the incident has taken place, particularly to do follow-up questions because contact information is in the system.”

Additionally, one of the things that is under-represented in any software implementation is the interface between people and the software. What might take one person a quick 15-minute demo might take another three or four training sessions. Spending time training staff appropriately is instrumental for change management.

“It is important to make sure that people are aware what is needed in order to get people on board because this software is catering to an industry where we have people working on the tools not on a computer screen. These people are quite practical. Many tradespeople – some qualified 30/40 years ago. They may not have interfaced with software as frequently as some younger users. They need that care package available that goes along with getting them on board.”

Beattie said during the implementation phase there was also a lot of consultation back and forth with the HammerTech team to ensure the changeover was as seamless as it could be. “We still have regular catch ups to tweak things,” she said. “The human element is really important.”

The Solution

Analytics are vital in managing risk on a construction site. Specifically, the ability to aggregate data by collecting the same trending information over a period of time to analyse performance. To do this, Karyn has the ability to modify forms automatically within HammerTech to ensure all users are accessing the most up-to-date version, resulting in the collection of consistent information and data. 

“An example might be one person on one site entering an incident report about a particular brand of equipment that has had multiple failures and if you only see what is on your site, you wouldn’t necessarily know that there is an overall problem. If you are seeing a trend with that piece of equipment over multiple sites, you are able to tell that there is a problem and be able to do something about it.”

With HammerTech, data is constantly collected and analysed. “At any one time we might have, say, 50 companies doing the same tasks. If they don’t speak to each other no one knows what is going on. We can now alert them – or at least we can ask the question “is there a better way for you to be doing this?” If no one asks the question the problem doesn’t get solved.”

The Results

Beattie says there have been time saving benefits with the implementation of digital processes as workers are able to input their own data. Gone are the days of receiving multiple PDF files and having to transfer information into spreadsheets to produce trending data. “In terms of labour hours that are given back – we are starting to realise some of it now. There are still some issues with some subcontractors that still use their own software platforms. They are actually double handling some of the information. But we are no longer receiving PDF bundles and having to manually cut and paste information across.”

Beattie also saves time in verifying the information before producing divisional reports each month. Previously she would need to go through a nest of server folders relating to a particular project, bring up an incident report and then manually scroll through a PDF to locate the relevant information. With everything safety in one location, Karyn can now verify her safety data off one project report within HammerTech. 

About Icon

Established: Over 160 years ago

Began using HammerTech: 2021

Icon is a major Tier 1 construction company. Across Australia and New Zealand, it is a leading provider having completed or are constructing more than 80 projects with an annual revenue exceeding $1.7 billion. Icon has expanded through a blend of organic growth, strategic mergers, acquisitions and investments. In 2015, Icon became part of Kajima Corporation, an $11 billion Japanese powerhouse with 17,000 employees across 20 countries, which gave it the financial strength that sets it apart in a competitive market.

Location: Australia & New Zealand

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