I’ve worked in asbestos and safety businesses now for some 30-odd years. I’ve been to more sites and contributed to more projects than I care to remember, and of course, I’ve worked alongside hundreds of colleagues. I’ve seen first-hand the challenges and dangers of asbestos removal, the methods we use to address them, and the work of regulators who hold us to exemplary standards. It’s a unique, fascinating, challenging industry.
Assure360 comes from this personal experience; its roots are in the spreadsheets I built when working as an auditor, and supporting LARCS through licence assessment. As they became more sophisticated, I realised the potential to create a product that could help keep my wider colleagues safe. And that’s been our mission at Assure360 for the last 11 years.
But I know that not everyone working in construction and asbestos removal went to college. Not everyone is comfortable with technology. And many of us struggle with conditions such as dyslexia. In our paper-bound, records-reliant industry, these can present skilled workers with real difficulties. Paperwork is a chore, yet technological solutions like our Paperless app can seem threatening and complex.
That’s why I wanted to pull together a few words from the people actually using Assure360, and in particular Paperless. Every day, hundreds of supervisors fire up the app to complete their critical checks and mandatory safety records. It helps them get more done, and gives them back time from their day to actively help and supervise the team. What do they say?
Some of the boys we work with have been in the game for 24 years and all they know is paperwork, so the new system is a bit of a jump for them. I wouldn’t say I’m the best at computers at all, really, but it is mega easy to get, really. And if there are problems you can text Rick [Garland] and he’ll get back to you in about 30 seconds.
Joe Cooksey, Supervisor
At first I was very daunted when I heard what was going to happen. I’m not very technical. I can use my iPhone but that’s about it. I have to say I was taken aback by how simple it was. I picked it up very quickly and now I much prefer it to paper.
Craig Toomer, Supervisor
I’m not the best on computers and things, and I was a bit nervous about using Assure360 at first. We got a trial of the system, and Nick [Garland] came out and showed me how to do it, and from there I just got better and better at it. When you ring Nick he answers his phone straight away and helps you out with it. I’m clued up on it, but I’m still progressing with it – getting into all the things.
Pete Cooper, Supervisor
I have been in the asbestos industry for 24 years and a supervisor for the past 19. I’m not a computer person at all – never owned one in my life – so I was a bit nervous when East Coast fully adopted Assure360. But now a few months in, I’m really getting the hang of it, and I can say I absolutely love Paperless. Just using it makes me feel a lot more professional, my spelling and writing is not great – the app takes care of that.
Mark (Penny) Ashcroft, Supervisor
Now it’s more being a supervisor than just doing the paperwork, because you can add pictures. It’s dramatically helped me time-wise, and also just the professionalism of it. Asbestos strippers aren’t known for their spelling or writing, but now if you have a visit from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or anything someone can always read what you’ve written. They can go through the site diary and you’ve just got everything there.
Joe Cooksey, Supervisor
The extra time it gives me to supervise [my team] makes my life so much easier. I have everything on an iPad rather than a huge site folder. Even on a short project it saves me a huge amount of time.
Craig Toomer, Supervisor
It’s definitely saving time, and especially after the first day when you load it all up with everything, then it’s just a matter of pushing the buttons after that – it’s all been stored. I do think it’s a very professional tool, there’s no doubt about it – and easier.
Adrian O’Neill, Supervisor
It’s quicker. When you went to fill your paperwork out it could take four or five hours, whereas with Assure360 it could take 20-30 minutes in the morning, then you just go back to it during the day.
I can use the free time to actually help my team: carry things and sheet up with them, whereas before I’d be sat here with my glasses on with my paperwork. It’s even better for the analysts with four-stage and signoffs and everything; no messing about with bits of paper to get the sign off – it’s all on there.
Pete Cooper, Supervisor
There are reasons why Paperless delivers this time-saving simplicity: years of personal experience and community feedback inform everything we do. I use our software professionally in my role as a consultant. And we’re always asking our users for feedback and input into our development pathway. This feedback loop is a fundamental part of what we do, typified by the quarterly client forums we introduced last year.
But what does all this mean for the back office: the contracts managers and directors who may not be using the Paperless app, but need to be sure that any business solution delivers value for money, and that any safety solution supports health and safety? We asked East Coast Insulations’ associate director Adam Lubach:
You don’t get anywhere quick in Norfolk. Instead of doing a site visit and making sure everything is alright, we can actually do that from our office, which saves us a bit more time. There are quite a few rural areas up here where it’s hard to get a signal, so we were a bit worried about how that could impact our operations. We did a trial period to check how that would work, and then we went with Paperless after.
It does save me a lot of time as a manager. For example, this week I’ve got three jobs running. I know I don’t have to run around to these sites because I can have a quick look on Assure360, I don’t have to go there and I can concentrate on seeing clients, preparing quotes. I can spend more time on the plan of works.
With a paper-based system you spend a lot of money on paper, then you’ve got to audit the paperwork; you’ve got to file it. There’s a lot of post-completion work after the actual removal job has been done.
[Paperless means the supervisors] don’t have to come down to the seating area, the welfare, or to the office to do paperwork – they can do it on the move. They’re loving it because it saves us a lot of time. The guys are more hands-on, so they’re better at managing the operatives, and it makes it easier for me to manage the jobs.
Assure360 Paperless does all that work for you as the job starts and progresses and finishes. So all I’ve got to do is just close jobs out in the end, then that’s uploaded and stored for the HSE’s audit for our licence renewals. So it saves us a lot of time with paperwork.
Adam Lubach, Associate Director, East Coast Insulations
I’ll leave the last word to Craig Binge, Managing Director at Westfield:
We have been using Assure360 for some years now and have always found that it makes running jobs so much easier. We have a particular supervisor that is extremely dyslexic but despite this he is able to use Paperless perfectly.
Just having the system puts the HSE’s mind at rest and visits go much more smoothly. I’ve often said it has been the single best investment we have made as a business – and that companies would be mad not to use it.
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