Kier is one of the largest contractors in the UK, managing billions of pounds in contracts across various verticals to deliver essential infrastructure projects. They operate in sectors including rail, highways, and utilities, using Causeway SkillGuard and Causeway CourseSight to manage workforce competencies and surplus training capacity.
The Challenge
In an industry with a high staff turnover and widespread use of supply chain and agency workers, Kier faced significant challenges in ensuring that all personnel were qualified and competent. Verifying the credentials of a transient workforce was time-consuming and administratively burdensome, often requiring multiple copies of records and extensive paperwork.
The Solution
Kier implemented the Highways Passport system to address these challenges.
This scheme allows Kier to view the competencies, qualifications, and inductions of all members of their staff, including those from their supply chain and agency staff. Each worker receives either a physical card or a smart card that can be accessed on their phone, showing their induction records and qualification statuses.
The system enables supervisors to verify that workers have the necessary credentials for their roles before starting a task. This ensures safety and compliance across all projects.
"We believe the Passport scheme will improve standards within the industry and help those who work within it feel professionally qualified and, in turn, part of a project that’s bigger than any one contractor. The opportunities for efficiencies are enormous: reduction of admin time, reduction of the need for multiple copies of records, ensuring competencies are shared, and the supply chain doesn’t have to duplicate training, toolbox talks, and inductions. It helps increase communications with the operative workforce and decrease time spent on investigations as records are readily available."
Scott Cooper, Managing Director - Kier Highways
The Outcome
The Highways Passport system has brought significant benefits to Kier. It has reduced the administrative burden by eliminating the need for extensive paperwork.
The ability to log in and instantly access all necessary worker information has streamlined the process of verifying competencies and qualifications, improving workforce management.
Improved communication is another key benefit, as the system allows Kier to send messages directly to their frontline staff, which has been particularly useful for safety alerts and updates, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The increased visibility across the entire workforce allows Kier to search for specific skills and react quickly to major incidents or events, increasing overall efficiency.
Kier also uses Causeway SkillGuard across other industries. In the rail sector, Kier workers are on both the Sentinel system and the HS2 Safety Passport. Sentinel covers the entirety of the UK rail workforce, while the HS2 Safety Passport is used for all workers operating on HS2 sites. In the utilities sector, Kier has three different businesses working with Thames Water, and their workers carry the Thames Water Safety Passport.
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