McCann is a leading civil and electrical engineering construction company that operates throughout the UK. In Highways, they have 250 workers operating across Major Projects, Maintenance, Local Authority and the SDF. We spoke with Ben Feltham and Donna Mooney to learn what they had to share about Passport. Ben Feltham is the head of compliance for McCann and has been with them for over ten years, overseeing HSEQW delivery. Donna Mooney has been with McCann for 15 years and is responsible for keeping training up to date.
Could you tell us about McCann and your history with Passport?
Ben: We do a lot of work for National Highways, they are one of our biggest clients. Working for them through the channels of the Smart Motorway Alliance (SMA), the Regional Delivery Partnership (RDP) and Scheme Delivery Framework (SDF) we were keen to adopt the Passport scheme early.
We now have 100% coverage with Passport and are almost there with the HCI. We don’t send anyone to a National Highways scheme without the passport, and we’re now working on getting everyone a virtual card.
What do you think about virtual cards?
Donna: They’re popular with the operatives. A virtual card is just so much easier, isn’t it? It’s instant. It’s always with you because it’s on your phone, and you always have your phone.
Ben: I’ve often thought I had my physical card, only to arrive on site and realise I don’t – but I always have my phone with me. My favourite story with that, was when one of the operatives was out on site, and he was measuring how far a foundation went, and his cards just slipped out of his pocket and into the hole; it was so deep they just had to build right on top of it.
And what do you think of the system itself?
Donna: I really enjoy it. I just think the system’s brilliant. It’s so user-friendly, and it’s so easy to use. Everything is explained – there are even booklets with step-by-step pictures on how to do everything. The helpdesk are always brilliant – as soon as I contact them, they come straight back to me. I just find it very easy and very user friendly. I don’t know how anyone could ever struggle with it. For example, if I want to add a competency, there is a search bar. As I type, it brings up the competency I’m searching for, and it keeps it all uniform for me.
How did you do things before Passport?
Ben: Looking back to the bad old days before Passport, onboarding was a lot of work for Donna and the operatives. The nature of our work is specialised, and operatives aren’t in attendance on any one site for very long, which means they sit through practically the same half-day induction up to fifty times a year. That is over a month of duplicated time. Passport is the industry’s route out from this way of doing things without compromising on the health and safety knowledge of operatives. You can see why we are so on board with the scheme! What is so encouraging is that we’re seeing benefits already. For example, on SDF, inductions are now shorter because of Passport.
And how are you using Passport?
Ben: We currently use it to swipe in on one of our projects. But, to align with National Highways’ objectives, we are going to use it everywhere we can across major projects, local authority, maintenance and SDF. For example, in SDF and maintenance, we have depots workers attend for start of shift briefings before they drive to an area on the network. This is perfect for swiping. No additional tech is needed, we’ve all got company smartphones and we all do daily briefings. It fits into the way we already do things.
Donna: It is just such a good scheme.
Ben: It’s a big step forward for the highways industry. It’s one that’s been badly lacking.
Donna: I wish it had been done years ago.