Coffey Testing is an industry leader in construction materials testing services in Australia. At Coffey Testing, Quality Assurance and Independent Geotechnical Testing are provided to clients efficiently. Coffey Testing’s vision is to be the leading materials testing company in Australia, driving demand for quality results through the performance and expertise of their people. They deliver on this vision by helping clients reduce risk through the highest quality testing, improving their operations and building exceptional client relationships through their industry-leading people. Coffey Testing has over 25 locations Australia-wide, including remote project laboratories. They have 60 years of experience working on small, medium, and large-sized projects across all sectors. Coffey Testing’s clients choose them for their ability to provide efficient high-volume testing in any part of the country and consultation and expertise to conduct speciality testing for aggregates, soft soils, rock, grout and concrete.

High-profile cases in the news highlight how things can go seriously wrong when structural issues occur in construction or civil projects. Every component that goes into a building project – whether a building, road, bridge or other structure – is designed to create structures that last. As testers of construction materials, including concrete, aggregate and soil, Coffey Testing plays a crucial role in the building process by ensuring that materials are strong enough and meet the required standards. To lead the pack in delivering quality results and maintaining a safe environment, Coffey Testing ensures the capability of their people is not only continually being improved, but is evolving to adapt to the new standards or developments in the market. This has led Coffey Testing to the development and delivery of their best-practice national training program. While training has always been embedded into Coffey Testing’s processes, in the last 18 months, training was identified as a key strategic priority to deliver on quality and safety goals and has evolved considerably.

This led to the development of Coffey Testing’s initiative, being a world-class and best-practice national training program. Coffey Testing’s rigorous approach to training contributes to the company’s industry-leading approach to quality and safety, which continues to give the company a competitive edge.

Coffey Testing implemented, several measures to evolve training practices to elevate Coffey Testing’s world-class and best-practice national training program. Coffey Testing conducted a company-wide engagement survey identifying gaps in their current training processes. Issues identified included that trainers weren’t onsite enough and a need for more face-to-face training following pandemic-related restrictions, which had shifted much of the training online. The in-house training offers a blend of online and face-to-face learning, including on-the-job training with support from field trainers and virtual training streamed live to participants from Coffey Testing’s training laboratory and self-paced eLearning modules via an LMS.

The investment in training has improved quality and safety outcomes, which has had a real financial impact on the company. Coffey Testing has a reputation as a leader in quality and safety, which differentiates the company from competitors and enables them to win more work. The training program has also created efficiencies. For example, the organisation has saved several hundreds of thousands of dollars, usually paid in workers’ compensation premiums, by reducing LTI to zero. Due to road safety training, have fewer motor accidents have also reduced car insurance premiums. Their initiative has created a safer work environment, which has also helped to attract and retain talent, reducing recruitment costs. The data behind the benefits, impacts and examples of value creation are evident as Coffey Testing went from 14 LTIs (Lost Time to Injury) to not a single LTI in nearly six years, with over 1 million man hours worked, as well as very low incident rates compared to the broader construction industry.

For information about Coffey Testing, visit coffeytesting.com.au