Digital workforce and competency management at scale: Biosite and SCS Joint Venture
When SCS (Skanska Costain STRABAG) Joint Venture took on the challenge of constructing 13 miles of twin-bore tunnels for HS2, they faced a huge logistical hurdle: managing more than 21,000 operatives across 23 sites, with nearly 2,000 suppliers. The solution? A fully customised digital solution from Biosite.
The challenge
SCS (Skanska Costain STRABAG) is a Joint Venture tasked with constructing 13 miles of twin-bore tunnels on the HS2 route to its southern terminus at Euston.
Working on one of the UK’s biggest ever infrastructure projects, with more than 21,000 operatives across 23 sites, SCS knew that it would need a complex, customisable and reliable digital solution to manage its large, highly transient workforce.
The system needed to provide workforce and competency management at scale and link the data to access control across SCS’s sites, including highly sensitive and safety-critical tunnelling works.
Crucially, the SCS team also knew they had to cut the otherwise unfeasible administration that would be associated with pre-induction and enrolment processes for operatives across almost 2,000 individual suppliers or trades - all without impacting safety, reliability or site efficiency.
Our approach
Biosite worked with SCS and its stakeholders to develop an incredibly complex, fully customised digital solution which reduces risk, removes administration and boosts efficiency for SCS.
Led by Allison Cameron as induction & access lead at SCS, the system records pre-induction and validation of qualifications, placing the responsibility for pre-enrolment with suppliers to reduce administration whilst maintaining control for SCS. Once the compliance and competency of individual operatives is checked, the data is linked with biometric access control systems, across physical access (turnstiles) and mobile app, using facial recognition technology. This provides a dynamic workforce management tool that records who is on site, when, and for how long. It also highlights any current or upcoming non-compliances, including training and qualification requirements.
The consistent approach across the entire project is driven by well-defined processes established by Allison, that are embedded into control room operations, ensuring clarity and uniformity throughout.
This bespoke solution, tailored to cater for the requirements of a huge project with significant churn of suppliers, was implemented in less than five months – from initial scoping and testing, through to site rollout.
In addition, several thousand profiles were transferred from other HS2 works after Biosite’s technology was initially used on the HS2 South Enabling Works Programme for Costain Skanska Joint Venture (CSJV).
Allison Cameron, induction & access lead for SCS, comments:
Biosite’s biometric access control and workforce management system makes it possible for us to complete the process of pre-enrolling operatives from almost 2,000 different suppliers or trades across 23 sites with no administrative headache - a process that would otherwise be extremely inefficient and virtually impossible. This is the only way we’d be able to get people on site quickly, and to our required standards, on a project of this scale.
It’s an incredibly complex digital solution, tailored for our individual needs, that allows us to give pre-enrolment responsibility to our suppliers but ultimately keep control of our workforce management and access control.
The benefits
By reducing administration and improving onboarding efficiency for SCS, Biosite’s system has made it possible to effectively manage and track a large, transient workforce across all SCS sites with confidence.
It allows operatives across the supplier base to start work on site quickly and to strict project and site standards, giving SCS the power to manage their profiles through to expiry.
The system covers:
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Online induction (pre-enrolment) data for site operatives, with more than 25,000 inductions completed since project start
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Almost six million competencies checked, spanning more than 1,700 competency rules across almost 26,000 individual accounts
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Access for approaching 2,000 suppliers to manage onboarding administration
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Management of time and attendance and access control events (entering or exiting site or zones), with more than 20 million access events recorded to-date
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Ethnicity, diversity and inclusion data, anonymised in line with SCS policies
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Biometric access control (both facial recognition and fingerprint recognition) linked to pre-validated operator profiles, which is more accurate and secure than card-based or manual alternatives
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Fatigue management
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Safety briefings and toolbox talks
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Skills checking, training and qualification needs
In total, the system covers 1,790 roles, with multiple roles linked, covering an average of 201,293 SCS staff and 739,251 subcontractor man-hours each month. In addition, it boosts security by highlighting any qualifications expired or due to expire and identifies additional training requirements.
Operatives can move from site to site – including safety-critical tunnelling zones with additional access requirements – and still be tracked without hindering movement.
And thanks to the power of Biosite’s system, all of this is made possible at scale, in real-time.