Get the latest Health & Safety Xpert – with new Covid-19 documents >> Read our useful Q & A and download the HBXL Covid-19 quick guide here >> Sign up to watch our ‘Power Hour’ video chat with a Health & Safety expert >> We’ve broken down the government’s ‘Working safely during COVID-19 in construction…More Info
We’ll cut the c**p! You’re busy. So we’ll get straight to the hard facts. HBXL software tools deliver what we promise: simple business management solutions for your building firm. Here’s the bottom line If you’re disappearing under quote requests, concerned about your health and safety obligations, fed up of chasing money and managing discrepancies –…More Info
Do you trust to luck and take your chances when it comes to health and safety on the building site or do you cover all bases and leave nothing to chance?
Why not try our ‘fun’ quiz (with a serious message) and choose either an a or b answer. Then see what it says about your attitude to health and safety at the bottom!
Cost
a. Well it’s a costly process spending time on paperwork when I could be earning money on site. And the thought of using a Health & Safety advisor – well that’s another overhead I can do without. Then there’s the cost of implementing any recommendations…
b. I dread the financial impact of a fine on the business, or my insurance premiums having to go up, or even say a £700 Fee for Intervention because I’ve got slippery steps up the site cabin, or I’ve not considered the welfare of the guys on site.
Time
a. Every site induction for a new employee, sub-contractor or apprentice just slows the job down. Site Attendance Registers, they’re another waste of time. Risk Assessments, Method Statements, COSHH Assessments… they probably add a day, if not more, to a job that’s only going to take a month.
b. I can’t imagine a ‘man down’, someone I’ve worked with for years being injured or worse. Morally, ethically, there can be nothing like it – having to tell friends and family that an accident happened that could have been prevented if it weren’t for my negligence. Why would I risk cutting corners or ignoring problems?
Importance
a. Health and safety is political correctness gone mad. It’s red tape for the sake of red tape. Some of the things you’re supposed to do are laughable. I’d go so far as to say much of it is b******t. I’ve been in the construction business for more years than I care to remember and nothing’s gone wrong on my watch.
b. I’ve employees who have been working for me for years. I’ve customers who recommend my firm to neighbours, family and friends. And I’ve never had any trouble getting subbies. They trust me to be fair. I sponsor the local kids football team and we take part in the odd charity match. Reputation is everything to me, so stringent health and safety is a given.
Value
a. The responsibility is so onerous I actually don’t want to think about it. To be honest it’s making me reconsider whether I want to be in the construction business at all. It has become a burden and instead of dealing with it, I just cross my fingers and hope for the best.
b. I read online and on the television about corporate manslaughter and the thought of being in that situation is unimaginable. Leaving it to chance is not an option for me. I’ve got too much financially invested in my building business (including my home) to not follow all the rules and abide by all the laws.
If you mainly answered ‘a’…
We hope you carry a good luck charm on you as your luck may run out. Health and safety management needn’t be complicated or expensive. Construction is still one of the top four risks to injury and death alongside mining, quarrying, deep-sea platforms and agriculture. The odds are stacked against you!
If you mainly answered ‘b’…
You have a good attitude and clearly take your responsibilities seriously. We hope you’ve got the right tools in place to make the process as easy as possible. Sleepless nights are not necessary! Health and safety can be very straightforward if you adopt a logical approach. See our piece on the HSE HSG65 four steps to health and safety management as an example.
What next?
There’s a tongue-in-cheek saying ‘the harder I work the luckier I get’. When it comes to health and safety management you could tweak it to say ‘the harder I plan, the luckier I get’. Funny that! Users of HBXL’s Health & Safety Xpert software stand a much greater chance of sailing through HSE inspections with all the right paperwork in place and all the requirements implemented. And be under no illusion – the HSE have upped their visits to small to medium sites this year – it was one of their focuses. So you need to be ready.
Have a chat with one of the team about Health & Safety Xpert and they’ll give you the no-bull low-down on how it can help your firm. It has been produced in association with a health and safety consultant. It follows all the guidelines, covers all the legal requirements and assists in best practice.
Health & Safety Xpert is also great value for money and is simple to use. You only have to answer a few questions before the clever software selects ALL the relevant documents for the job – automatically. Stand back and watch them come out of the printer!
Call us on 0117 916 7898 or find some more information here.
HBXL serve a warning to all UK builders and developers – the HSE have raised their Fees For Intervention (FFI).
Some builders may hear that and deflect believing they are above board on all health and safety requirements. HBXL believe this assumption is ill advised given the HSE‘s aim to increase inspections and enforcement. In addition, the nature of infringements that the HSE deem require intervention may shock some.
What are Fees For Intervention (FFI)?
Not sure what Fees For Intervention (FFI) are? Simply put, they refer to the HSE attaching a monetary value to the time they spend addressing your health and safety issue. This includes identifying the material breach, helping you to put it right, investigating and taking enforcement action. This will comprise of time spent:
■ Carrying out visits (including all the time on site during which the material breach was identified);
■ Writing notifications of contravention, improvement or prohibition notices, and reports;
■ Taking statements; and
■ Getting specialist support for complex issues. This total amount of time will be multiplied by the FFI hourly rate to give you the amount you must pay. For the current FFI hourly rate, visit www.hse.gov.uk/fee-for-intervention/index.htm
Frequent causes for Intervention
Still believe that your building company are not at risk of unwanted HSE attention? Why not read some of the HSE Public Register of Enforcement Notices to see what kind of issues have been flagged, leading to penalties. Below are a selection of the top causes for the HSE to submit a notice.
- Failure to demonstrate Construction Phase Plan has been completed
- Lack of adequate hand washing facilities for either food prep, toilet sanitation or in order to use a cement mixer
- Lack of lighting to avoid trip hazards
- Demonstrating consideration of separation of pedestrians and vehicles
- A clear emergency exit route
- Unsanitary toilets
What is it going to cost me?
This is quite an open-ended question really. The straightforward answer is £129 per hour but it is wise to take note of the potential cumulative cost. Looking at the cases in the HSE Public Register of Enforcement Notices, fees can quickly mount up. This results in a higher total cost or fee. The average Fee For Intervention is £700!
This figure could get even worse when you consider the fact that an inspector is likely to be more vigilant when they realise you have failed in one area. For example, you may have muddy steps to the site cabin – a reason for intervention. This may lead to the investigator to be more thorough perhaps finding your fuse is blown on your hot water boiler in your cabin. Another intervention. Now he’s on a roll and likely to pick up anything that you may have let slip and look. Maybe you have not put a bin in the cabin. Guess what. It’s another intervention.
Three seemingly small, simple things that have built up to cause a hefty fine and your company’s name to feature on the HSE register. Lastly but importantly, featuring on the HSE register will likely mean anyone who searches for your company on the internet will find your notices before they find you! This is because the HSE website is likely to be better ranking than your own website on Google (if you have one). This could have a negative effect on your company image and therefore affect sales!
What can UK builders do to avoid Fees For Intervention (FFI)?
Did you start thinking that HSE fines did not worry you because you know you are safe on site? Now you may be thinking it is impossible to have every little thing covered and avoid a fine. Well HBXL are not just here to scare or worry you. We have a solution. A software solution.
Health & Safety Xpert is the answer to keeping up with health and safety requirements and avoiding HSE fees. Our software is the easiest and fastest way to ensure that you have everything in place to meet your health and safety requirements. Health & Safety Xpert automatically lines up all the paperwork and things UK builders would need to consider based on job specification. Then all you need to do is complete by filling in finer details and print off. It could not be simpler! Give us a call to find out more – 0117 9167898. Alternatively, drop us an email and we will get back to you.
How well do you spend your working day? You know, in a lifetime you spend literally years sleeping, eating and queuing, months and months checking junk emails, sitting at traffic lights, brushing your teeth… So what about making the rest of your precious time really count.
Construction companies are typically fully on. And if you’re the boss you could easily be involved in estimation, delivering quotes, design, planning permission, approvals, health and safety, trips to the merchants… But if you feel like you’re consistently wasting time then take a look at what productive people do well and what undoubtedly contributes to the success of ambitious building firms!
“Time flies but the good news is you’re the pilot” as someone cleverly put it. If you could save even 30 minutes a day, think of the goals you could achieve with a bit more time? Maybe…
- Coming up with new marketing ideas
- Updating your website
- Improving your IT set-up with new software
- Health & Safety training
- Renewing equipment
- Recruiting new staff and appraising current ones
- Searching out new suppliers and merchants
- Talking to sales reps
- Visiting trade shows
- Going to demos
- Watching the odd webinar
- Looking for new land
- Reviewing your quantity surveyor, bank, accountant…
- Mark Twain said “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Do the least appetizing job first. You know the one you keep shuffling to the bottom of the pile. Get it done FIRST THING. And then you can go onto the good stuff.
- ‘Urgent’. Nightmare word. How much time do you spend putting out fires? Do those ‘urgent’ requests actually matter that much? Enough to keep putting off important jobs? Consider ignoring, yes ignoring, those ‘urgent’ cries for help. Or find a quick way of delegating them. In fact delegating is to be recommended full stop.
- ‘No’ on the other hand is a very effective word. Can you afford to give your time away that freely? Say no now and again. It’s not such a bad thing. It will actually improve your mood and make you more productive. Constantly saying yes can be more destructive.
- Turn your attention to one task. Multi-tasking is rarely a good thing in business. Focus on one thing and complete it. You’ll do it quicker and better.
- Group similar tasks and do them one after the other. You know how long it takes to get into the groove, so once you’re in it, stick with it and get it all done. You might find yourself killing two birds with one stone in the process.
- ‘The two-minute rule’. Obvious but clever. Handle two-minute tasks straight away. If you know it will take that short a time then do it immediately. Bang. In. Out. Done. It’s a waste of time and energy to add it to a list or have it in the back of your mind.
- Equally, don’t look at something and abandon it a few minutes later. As soon as something has your attention make a decision. And if it’s not a two-minute job, think about what’s required, decide on the next step or quickly delegate it. There’s that delegation word again…
- Ask more questions. Guessing is a great big fat waste of time. Trial and error won’t get you there faster. Employees, subbies, sales reps and customers will like you for it and you’ll save time. Win-win. And on the same theme – write it down. There’s nothing big, clever or quicker about trying to remember stuff.
- Pick up the phone – don’t email – there are some tasks that could be sorted in a fraction of the time with one or two phone calls.
- Stop jumping in and out of the van. Plan better and visit the merchants less. Get a list of all the materials for all your jobs onto paper and think logically about what you need where and when. And if that’s just not going to happen – get software that will do it for you.
- Stop doing things manually. There could be a number of tasks that you are currently doing by hand, with a calculator, on a note pad… that could become automated/completed by software. Spend a few hours now on your software – or find an entirely new programme such as estimation software, CAD design software or health and safety software – and save days and weeks in the long term. Honest. We should know! You can even synchronise data across programmes so you only input it once – well you can with HBXL Building Software!
- Shut the door and go into hiding. This will help with point 11. Even if it’s just for an hour. Say no calls, no knocks on the door, no email checking. Head down, undistracted and get the job done.
- Just do it! Let’s face it, decision-making really doesn’t have to be a long drawn process. Don’t overthink it. Share it with someone else. Say it out loud. Can the business afford it? Is it a worthwhile investment? Would the business benefit? Yes? Go for it.
- Plan ahead. Take a few minutes at the end of the day to prepare for the next one. It confirms what you’ve done that day and makes sure you have a productive tomorrow. And that includes clearing your desk. How much time do you waste looking for things?
- And finally – whilst all of the pointers here have been office/admin orientated, there are probably another 15 again for the construction side as well. Just for starters – choose your labourers and trades people well – it will save you time all ways round.
And if you only pick up on one point here, it’s a start. Busy isn’t always a good thing, it could be masking a few short-comings. It’s all about time management, whether you’re a house-builder, doing loft conversions, renovations or extensions.
And if we can offer any advice on using the right software tools to increase your productivity, such as HBXL’s EstimatorXpress 2017 for speedy estimating, take-offs and quoting, then give us a call on 0117 916 7898 or email sales@hbxl.co.uk - we’ve got the time if you have!
It’s very easy to write January off when the weather lets you down, customers too - and the odd subbie. It’s dark, wet and there’s no money around… But all is not lost, far from it – the quieter period presents a great opportunity to review your business and decide how to take it forward. So we’ve listed here 10 goals to construction success in 2017 to set you on your way.
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Review your business direction - Starting with the biggie! What projects do you want and like to take on. Consider the 80/20 rule – could you concentrate on the 20 percent of the work that generates 80 percent of your revenue? And say no to the less profitable work? Do you want to diversify? What about Design & Build ? Walking is a good activity for clearing your mind and thinking afresh. Yes even builders can take an afternoon walk! Then break down your big ideas into daily, weekly or monthly actionable goals that you can measure. |
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Improve your bottom line - This usually involves 1) Raising your rates 2) Doing more work 3) Reducing your expenses. Look at the figures for last year and see how you could trim some overheads. Did your profit margins drop unnecessarily? Do you keep reducing your profit margin because of oversights? Find the leaks in your bucket. |
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Stop being busy and be more productive - Busy isn’t necessarily productive. ‘What’s the point of spending your days climbing a mountain, only to realise at the end of this new year, you’ve climbed the wrong one?’ (Quote courtesy of Robin Sharma, leadership expert). Do you enter the same data into multiple documents? Put systems in place that will streamline various processes. |
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Learn to delegate - Have a good long look at your role. Do you really have to do it all? Perhaps it’s time to stop being pulled in different directions and concentrate on the bigger issues. Make a list identifying the things that someone else could do. Estimating? Speaking to suppliers? Booking subbies? |
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Review your approach to health and safety - How confident are you that you have a handle on health and safety? Are your employees and the public properly protected? Do you know what the HSE expect from you – have you properly sussed out CDM 2015? How about putting some time in the diary to gen up on it, do an online health and safety course and get others onto it as well. |
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Review your customer service - Remember the customers pay the bills. If you want good reviews, if you want them to recommend you then make sure they stay happy. A single A4 sheet with your expectations of your employees and subbies will make sure everyone knows the policy. What about giving customers the opportunity to feedback at the end of a job – you could come up with a short questionnaire? At least make sure to ask them to give you a review. |
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Research cloud computing - If you’re not already using Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive or another cloud storage application, then consider the benefits they could bring you. Saving and accessing files such as estimates in the cloud are really easy, and using cloud over physical file storage can save money as well. And of course you can be anywhere and still access your files remotely. But possibly most important of all is backing up - a must if you don’t want to lose something important following a systems failure or malfunction. |
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Promote your business better - It needn’t be anything grand. What about updating your website (you have got one haven’t you?)? How out of date are the projects on there? What about a Facebook page? Perhaps it’s time for new livery for the vehicles, new polo shirts, some better signs? Sponsor a team or event. Whatever, put together a list, add some time frames and make them happen. And why not book in a bit of marketing training on this – some short courses are available to do from home or office. |
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Become a tiny little bit of a geek - You don’t have to know your Bytes from your RAM but technology really will help you work more effectively, which means faster computers and clever software. Make a point of keeping up with new and changing technology that would impact you directly. Don’t just think about power drills and the latest plasterboard. What IT could you invest in to make your business run more smoothly? |
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Commit to new learning - Your business has to stay safe and compliant. Put some remote online health and safety training on the calendar. And why not think about learning a new skill. Find out about software for designing your own extensions and loft conversions for instance. |
Want more advice on construction success?
We hope our 10 goals to construction success in 2017 proves helpful. If you would like any more advice on streamlining your processes, tightening up on admin and improving your profit margins, give one of the team here at HBXL a call on 0117 916 7898. Our suite of software is aimed exclusively at the builder and developer and was founded by a builder who knows only too well about the pressures of running a successful business. Have a great 2017!
With the HSE rolling out more inspections and the number of prosecutions on the rise now is a very important time to talk to us about our health and safety software.
Why now?
Clearly health and safety is not something to mess around with. Nor are the unlimited fines, fees for intervention and potentially company closing prosecutions that can come from not just accidents but having the appropriate paperwork to hand when a HSE inspector shows up nor being able to demonstrate to them a thorough awareness of the legislation, even if no breach has actually occurred.
There are many examples of recent notices where firms simply didn’t have a Construction Phase Plan in place or didn’t have suitable hand washing facilities in place. All offences are saved to the online public register where prosecutions are saved for at least 5 years! For example;
“Contractor – Failed as a contractor to plan, manage and monitor construction work – Regulation 15(2) of Construction, Design and Management Regulations 2015 Employer – Failed to discharge its duty under Regulation 7(1) of Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 – Did not control exposure of employees to Respirable Crystaline Silica – fine £16,000, Total Costs Awarded to HSE £1,377.45.
Check out the Prosecutions database and see for yourself. http://www.hse.gov.uk/prosecutions/
Other than a rather larger number of inspections (which you may well have avoided so far) and a clear focus on small to medium building firms, there has also been a large rise in the number of fees for interventions as well as a rise in the number of prosecutions so it appears the HSE has a rigorous regime of inspections in place.
Why health and safety software?
Health & Safety Xpert is the easiest and fastest way to ensure that you have everything in place to meet your health and safety requirements. This is because the software automatically lines up all the paperwork and health and safety precautions that you should be completing based on your job specification. Every document you could possibly need including Risk Assessments, Method Statements, COSHH Assessments, Construction Phase Plan and more. Then it’s simply a matter of filling in the finer details to complete and printing off ready to inform your site actions and/or saving to your preferred cloud storage provider so they can be on hand whenever needed.
Why the urgency?
The HSE have announced that their aim is to complete at least 20,000 inspections in their 2016 – 2017 annual service plan with the intention of repeating or growing this in the following year. Given that there are approximately 50,000 VAT registered building firms in the UK (ONS, 2016), firms have for a fairly high chance of being randomly spot checked. So best to be sure you’ve got everything in place!
I’ve never needed health and safety software before, why would I now?
HBXL have been doing some research into the common reasons that firms failed on inspection. We found that many, seemingly small things like a access to a loo, lack of a Construction Phase health and safety plan, or failure to ensure that pedestrians and vehicles could move wit
hout risk has caused fines and failures. Take a look at the full article here.
What happens to my software if health and safety regulations change?
You’re thinking that having all your health and safety sorted for you, automatically, based on your job specs would be great. The peace of mind that, when asked, you can provide all required docs with no hassle would be amazing but what happens to the software if there are regulation changes?
Health & Safety Xpert is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is up to date with the latest regulations and all you need to do is download an update any time there are changes. As long as you have Support and Updates in place (which are free for the first year and include our award winning support service) then your software is futureproof. Never get caught out by regulation changes again!
Health and safety software from award winning building software providers
Want to know more about Health & Safety Xpert? We haven’t even told you the best bit! All HBXL Building Software products are integrated with X-Connex connectivity! That means that if you own EstimatorXpress you can import all the information from your estimate to automatically produce your health and safety documentation! Almost no typing required! Don’t believe us? Give us a call on 0117 9167898 and we’ll be happy to show you how and set you up with a free 30 day demo on all of our software. We look forward to your call.
You may already be benefiting from EstimatorXpress so you probably already know the time, money and effort saving possibilities of embracing a software solution. BUT, the real clever stuff begins when you combine HBXL software products. Read on to find out why and give us a call to discuss our December deals…
Beyond award winning estimating software
EstimatorXpress as a standalone product is still something to be valued as suggested by the number of estimating software awards it has picked up this year alone. This being said, the benefit of using software to prepare and manage your construction projects extends beyond estimating.
Our building software helps with every stage of the building process, enabling efficiency savings which in turn improves your profitability. It’s an essential toolkit for anyone wanting to run a more productive construction site. As Aristotle said “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and the same can be said for our software range. So extend your suite and start seeing the bigger benefits.
Integrated software from end-to-end
All HBXL products are fully integrated for a complete end-to-end experience to reduce the amount of time and effort required by you. If you are already using more than one of our products, you’ll know how easy it is to share information between the programs so that you don’t have to enter details more than once. If you have been using EstimatorXpress on its own, you’ll be amazed what the software range can do with almost no extra effort! PLUS, because all the information is shared across the package, you can be sure that everything matches up to reduce errors and omissions.
Starting with PlansXpress, simple drag and drop tools will help you draft architect quality plans, 2D elevations and 3D models. (Or if you have been given plans from your client, simply scan and trace them to make alterations and capture essential construction information such as dimensions and specification).
Then, for an almost instant quote, import your building plan into EstimatorXpress to get a
complete cost break down of the project. Now that’s efficiency savings – save on architect and QS fees and your time.
Next, import your estimate into Health & Safety Xpert and it will use your job specifications to automatically generate all hethe required health and safety documents you need including Risk Assessments, Construction Phase Plans, site checklists and audits to ensure that you meet required HSE compliance including CDM 2015 and CHAS. There are whole host of site management documents 
automatically produced – all the quicker still for using Health & Safety Xpert in conjunction with EstimatorXpress.
Afterward, import your EstimatorXpress estimate into ContractsXpert and it will use your estimate details to directly prepare a watertight customer building contract and ensure you meet Doorstep Selling regulations, as well as properly contracting with your subcontractors. So much better than clients defaulting on payment and causing you cashflow issues, and subcontractors walking off site when a better offer comes along.
Five, use ProjectXpert to ensure you run the most productive construction project 
possible. Simply import one or multiple jobs from EstimatorXpress to manage single or multiple, simultaneous jobs and keep track of how your whole week, month or year is panning out at any point, not just at the end! If you’re thinking you don’t normally have more than one job at once, then you really need to try the software to see how it improves the management of the individual projects you have on the go. You don’t know what you’re missing out on! (The import is worth focusing on as not only does it bring across your build program, but also your resources and costings…this means you can manage planned build program versus actual, resource allocation and costs versus actual too…
To sum it up…
- Win more business by offering a ‘design & build’ service that makes you stand out (only 14% of UK building firms currently offer this service).
- Encourage customer confidence and repeat business with professional contracts and health and safety documents.
- Return a higher profit on every job and manage your time more efficiently
- And save yourself a huge amount of time and stress…
Add to your software with existing user discounts!
HBXL reward our existing customers too… we offer exclusive user discounts for anyone who already owns any of our software range. Give us a call on 0117 9167898 to discuss your own deal today!