Director of Health and Safety, Neale Goff and Health and Safety Business Partner, Mubin Chowdhury provide valuable insight on how implementing Reset has helped the University of Leicester not only fulfil their legal and moral obligations but reinvigorate the way they manage contractors across the University’s vast estate...

What were the main challenges you faced prior to Reset?

At the University, there are multiple entry points with no traditional reception where contractors could report, register, and exchange information and details required to work safely. Prior to Reset well-intentioned but ad-hoc methods were being adopted or existing systems weren’t being used effectively. Engagement with stakeholders, such as project managers and contractors also needed to be reviewed.

We were looking to reinvigorate our processes for contractor management and engagement and at the same time, develop consistency. This would address our duty of care to manage contractors in a collaborative way and improve efficiency. For example, now we have eight Reset terminals spread across our campuses and hospital sites that enable our contractors to log into site and at the same time, provide company information and documentation via Reset. To summarise, we are now able to verify the organisational capability of our contractors to manage health and safety, quickly and efficiently.

What were you looking for in a contractor management solution?

Firstly, a solution that would allow us to fulfil our legal duty of care towards others, such as the contractors, and then enhance and future proof this with additional features. Something that would let us manage both the strategic and operational elements of contractor management, allow the most efficient use of our own resources and be both practical and cost-effective for contractors.

What made Reset stand out?

An attractive feature is Reset makes excellent use of technology, including mobile solutions. A key requirement of any modern Health and Safety strategy or management system is continual improvement, we can evidence this with Reset. Reset hits the mark for both our strategic (e.g. checking the organisational capability of contractors to manage health and safety) and more detailed operational needs (e.g. verifying the qualifications of individual workers).

Since implementing Reset, what are the main benefits you have experienced?

There is always further work to be done as part of our continual improvement process and of course any system relies on effective implementation and utilisation, but compliancy of our contractors has dramatically increased and improved. Examples include individual workers now using the Reset terminals on campus to register their attendance, the uploading of risk assessments on Reset and keeping health and safety documentation up to date. The University has also made its way up the ‘league table’ of Reset clients in terms of effective use of Reset and the Access terminals on site and that reassures us that we are fulfilling our duty of care.

What have you been impressed with the most?

Although Reset provides a technological solution, which is impressive, the human element and interactions is important. The Reset customer services team and individuals within the team, especially Samantha, Lee and Faisal, work with both us and our contractors, providing impressive response times and fast solutions to any issues encountered.

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