Construction health and safety management case study

Background

Savana Environmental is an asbestos removal contractor, operating nationally out of its base in the North East. It’s a familiar name for many, but in late 2021 the company was taken into new management. Under managing director Craig Robson, it has relaunched with a mission to deliver the highest quality projects, with exemplary levels of service.

Savana’s new management team benefits from more than 40 years’ experience in the industry, so it knows full well the complexity of managing asbestos removal jobs, and the people, resources and expertise needed to ensure safety and compliance. The fast-growing company offers a full suite of investigation and removal services, and already has a track record of successful outcomes for clients including construction and demolition contractors, government bodies and local housing authorities.

Challenge

Savana was relaunched from the ground up. This approach allowed its experienced management team to start from scratch, implementing best-in-class solutions to the common opportunities and challenges of running a licensed asbestos removal company. With the usual administrative demands, plus the challenges of managing, training and supervising many new staff, it was quickly evident Savana would need an advanced software solution to help with all the key aspects of its operations.

While some Savana staff had previous experience of an in-house system designed to minimise on-site paperwork, the team wanted a purpose-built solution that would help them manage and optimise all aspects of their asbestos-removal operations. In particular, they wanted a solution that included personal compliance monitoring, to help them comply with the long-awaited Asbestos Network (AN) guidance on personal sampling and exposure.

Results

In late 2022, the company started discussions with Assure360, and in early 2023 it became a customer, rolling out the Assure360 Paperless app to its supervisors. Assure360 was able to move quickly, rapidly onboarding the company and initially providing essential training to contracts administrator Benjamin Eckford and three supervisors. Like all Assure360 customers, Savana has also benefited from the extensive how-to guides and videos in the Assure360 Help Centre, along with unlimited free support from its in-house specialists.

Savana quickly began reaping the benefits of the Assure360 system. Using the Paperless app, its supervisors were able to cut the time spent recording essential safety checks and completing paperwork, leaving them with more time to supervise and support project work. The office team gained direct visibility of projects and were able to gain insight in near-real time, rather than potentially waiting weeks for site paperwork that would need to be processed manually.

Assure360’s inbuilt support for compliance monitoring, which includes features such as automatic calculation of four-hour time-weighted average exposures, has already proved invaluable. The system has been designed to support the practical uses for personal monitoring as described in the AN guidance, including exposure estimation, and maintaining exposure records, test records and health records.

Through ongoing support from the team, Savana has been able to optimise Assure360 for its purposes, while exploring and getting the most from additional features. This has further improved the company’s return on its subscription, helping it deliver the exceptional quality and value it aspires to.

What the client said

There was only a very short period between us deciding to use Assure360 to us actually being up and running, and now quite a few months down the line I couldn’t imagine my job without it. With our initial training session completed, we could just dive straight in. Rick from Assure360 had reassured us that we would quickly get the hang of it, which is definitely true, but we’ve had his support via some Teams meetings, which has also helped us tweak a few things for our purposes.

Assure360 has made many, many aspects of our job – particularly for me as the administrator – so much easier. It’s a lot less labour-intensive than paper forms, and a huge timesaver. It’s really helpful for us retaining records of jobs that we’ve done, and all their different aspects – such as helping us identify training needs, and then keep the records of that training.

A major benefit is that it gives me more time to get on with the rest of work. I’ve always got loads of work that isn’t related to Assure360 or reported on Assure360, so the fact that the Assure360 stuff isn’t that time-consuming helps me achieve more.

It hasn’t just been a time-saver for me, it’s been a time-saver for our supervisors who are actually out on site. All our site supervisors have a tablet, and they have the Paperless app. We’ve recently taken on another contract manager who was already familiar with Assure360 from his previous employer, so that saves time too.

Client name
Benjamin Eckford
Contract Administrator