Monk Bridge
Key person: Alan Neal
MSite Solutions: Access & Attendance, Online Inductions, MSite Workforce App and ID Check
Duration: 32 months
Value: £105 million
Leading construction group Galliford Try has adopted the innovative MSite workforce management system as part of its plans to develop a major new build-to-rent residential scheme in Leeds. The group will utilise the MSite Workforce App across the £105m project to generate significant new on-site efficiencies.
The new project, which is being constructed on behalf of Highline Investments at the Monk Bridge site in Leeds city centre, will feature 665 homes once completed. Across five different apartment blocks, which will vary between 12 to 22 storeys in height, there will be a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments. For Galliford Try, the project represents a significant investment, particularly in a difficult economic environment. As such, the company enlisted help from the productivity experts MSite and its innovative workforce system, for assistance in improving on-site practices and communication. In turn, the MSite workforce management system is allowing Galliford Try to respond more effectively to the challenges associated with COVID-19, ensuring that safer, more secure workplaces are maintained at all times.
With the MSite platform, Galliford Try is able to deliver immediate messages directly to workers, as well as operate contactless site access control. Through these technologies, the company is able to enact more stringent screening policies with regards to COVID-19 symptoms. In fact, on the Monk Bridge project, all on-site workers are required to complete a coronavirus self-assessment form before being allowed through the turnstile unit. Unlike previous iterations, the latest version of MSite is fully operational via each individual worker’s personal mobile phone, which eliminates any reliance on shared, biometric fingerprint scanners. With the risk of site closures still elevated due to the ongoing pandemic, investing in MSite has afforded Galliford Try an additional layer of protection, not only for its workers, but for the project overall.
For Senior Project Manager at Galliford Try, Alan Neal, the benefits of MSite have been clear for some time, long before the current crisis. He commented: “This is the second project that I’ve used MSite on, following another major renovation at Leeds Beckett University. The system is brilliant and has really helped us to ‘join-up’ thinking between different sub-contractors on-site, helping to greatly improve communication. In particular, this has really benefitted our deliveries process, which now runs far more efficiently. Additionally, we’ve been able to use the system to run site inductions, training sessions and right-to-work checks, which is a big advantage on large projects like this, which feature a number of different trades. Of course, the system is also helping us to keep sites free from COVID-19 outbreaks too, which is very important right now.”
As well as helping to improve on-site performance on a micro-level, the MSite system can help businesses like Galliford Try to enact macro-level improvements by providing more comprehensive and insightful on-site data. Utilising the MSite system on a large project such as Monk Bridge has enabled Galliford Try to better track its carbon footprint performance. Increasingly, large companies face requirements on environmental performance, so solutions like MSite, which enable greater monitoring are becoming more important.
Thanks to the MSite system and Galliford Try’s commitment to persevering in challenging times, construction at the Monk Bridge site is now well on its way. Throughout the lockdown period, the project was able to continue working and as a result, still looks on course to be delivered on schedule. Therefore, MSite and Galliford Try are helping to outline a blueprint for other large construction groups to follow. Together, the companies have shown how the sector can continue working, more safely and more efficiently than before. With the adoption of MSite, Galliford Try has been able to make the ‘new normal’ era its own. As such, the Monk Bridge project may soon come to represent the dawning of a new, more digital day for construction. If nothing else, the project once again reaffirms how the sector can use software-based solutions, such as MSite to start unlocking some of the workforce productivity gains, which have eluded it for almost four decades.