Safety Improved at DOC Thanks to HammerTech Construction Safety Software

Intro

“I've always said from day one that when it comes to safety, we are either going to eliminate hazards or control them. First, we're looking to eliminate the hazard and then if we can't, we're going to control it to the best of our abilities. It's all about eliminating or reducing the risk as much as possible.”

This is the view of Nate Clinard, Vice President of Corporate Safety at US construction firm DOC. And while Nate is part of a team of seven, he likes to say there are another 180 people in the business that contribute to safety. “It is a collaborative effort – and it needs to be when you have up to 20 projects on the go at one time.” Adding to this collaborative effort is Scott Sattler, a dedicated member of DOC’s safety team for over 10 years, who recently assumed the role of Northeast Regional Safety Director. Together, Nate and Scott maintain and elevate standards for the firm championing safety excellence for all employees.

DOC has a history dating back to 1879 when it was established by Daniel O’Connell in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The company has since expanded to New York, Connecticut, and more recently Florida, providing construction management and general contracting services to both the public and private sectors.

DOC has a safety motto of “Be Careful Today” adding it is not just a slogan but an operational way of life.

Metrics

Challenge

The DOC safety team’s initial challenge was to find a software solution that could help it achieve its mission of having a paperless office. Nate admits that at one stage “we were at our wit’s end. We were going to pull the plug and not do anything.” Fortunately, he received a call from the HammerTech team who were heading out to New England, and they made a plan to meet.

“During the presentation we thought, this has some juice behind it. Not only would it make everything paperless, which was our main goal, but it also handled trade partner on-boarding, pre-task plans, audits – it had everything safety we needed. We went full bore ahead from that meeting and here we are today.”

Nate said the other options DOC looked at required more work on their end to configure, customize and implement. “For us HammerTech was the right decision because it had 95% of what we were looking for with the added support of configuration and implementation services.”

Focus

Working in partnership has been the main focus of both the DOC and HammerTech teams. “What makes a huge difference is that the people we deal with have a background in construction safety,” says Nate. “We’re not just talking with IT developers or salespeople. We are talking with people who have the same experience that we have in the field. The HammerTech team are with us on this journey and are dedicated to helping us reach our goals.”

“What makes a huge difference is that the people [at HammerTech] we deal with have a background in construction safety. We're not just talking with IT developers or salespeople.”

Nate Clinard, Vice-President of Corporate Safety

Nate and his team also had a focus on getting trade partners not only onboarded with HammerTech but up to speed quickly. So far, no trade partner has declined to use it.

As a general contractor and a construction manager, DOC needs to ensure that all the necessary inspections, permits and pre-task plans are completed. “In the past they were being done, but we couldn’t look at every piece of paper daily to triple check. It was very clear in the early stages of talking with our account executive at HammerTech, that for this to be successful it had to be a collaboration between DOC and all of our trade partners.”

Solution

DOC singled out HammerTech’s new safety dashboard and reporting tool, Insights, as a must-have feature for construction EHS software. Insights provides both leadership and site teams with detailed and timely safety, subcontractor and site operations data in one place. With Insights, contractors have said they’re saving up to two days every time they prepare safety reports. Quicker access to data will improve decision speed and quality to ultimately create safer sites.

“Everyone is on the safety train after the implementation of HammerTech.”

“Insights is an absolute game changer. We were involved with the beta implementation, and it has blown us away. Talk about real-time statistics. We can pull the dashboards up and the information is all there. We started a new process called a safety blitz last week, and it's designed to get teams out in the field using the observations aspect of HammerTech. Within Insights we can see which projects are doing well, who's in the lead, the negative observations, and the positive ones. It took just five minutes to review, screenshot and send an email out with the report to the executive team.”

HammerTech Insights is replacing a reporting platform DOC had used for the past seven years. “On that platform it would have taken an hour or more to do what we did in five minutes. We've had the capability of pulling real-time statistics, but HammerTech has taken it to the next level where we can get it seamlessly and across the board. Now, any one of the project teams can access their own project data and see what they are doing as well. They don't have to wait for me and my safety group to pull the information and send it out.”

Results

Nate believes that HammerTech has “absolutely” enhanced the day-to-day safety on the job sites and projects the company works on. DOC has installed TVs in its job site trailers to display critical safety information managed in HammerTech. This means as soon as anyone walks into the jobsite trailer, they can look at the screen and see the dashboard of that project including live permits, bulletins, and deliveries. “It has increased the visibility of safety, which in turn has increased the amount of activity around safety as well.

“We are still in the infancy of HammerTech. Down the road, once the first round of trade partners use the platform, they’ll become more familiar with it. It's going to increase both trade partner and DOC efficiency, which will increase the efficiency of the overall project.”

About DOC

Established: 1879

Started using HammerTech: June 2022

DOC provides sophisticated construction management and general contracting services to public and private sector clients. Founded in 1879, DOC is a trusted leader in the construction industry. Today its team of 180 professionals is focused on leading the way as it delivers the buildings, facilities, and infrastructure that sustain, educate, and entertain the communities it serves.

With offices strategically located in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Florida, DOC is well-positioned to serve its clients and communities with dedication and expertise.

It specializes in both building and civil work across a wide cross-section of projects such as education, healthcare, and life sciences, commercial and transportation.