William Hare, a prominent UK steel contractor, has overhauled its quality, safety, and operational processes following a decade-long digitisation strategy using the workplace platform SafetyCulture.

The firm, which has its headquarters in Greater Manchester and retains a global workforce of more than 2,000 individuals, delivers major infrastructure projects. Its recent portfolio includes high-profile developments such as London's 2 Finsbury Avenue and the Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station.

The global initiative was first launched in 2015 to handle auditing. Since then, William Hare has shifted its entire suite of quality, safety, and operational workflows away from traditional paper systems into a unified, connected digital system.

The enterprise calculates that the introduction of the mobile-first SafetyCulture system has enabled them to complete over 180,000 inspections while saving an estimated one million sheets of paper. Operational consistency has been established across the business by logging more than 500 standardized templates within the digital platform.

Mike Buckley, William Hare's quality assurance manager, said: "Over the years, we were producing thousands of inspections, each one requiring manual write-up, scanning, filing and follow-up – which was inefficient and wasting so many pieces of paper.

-- Advertisement --

"A primary challenge with the legacy system was the isolation of data across handwritten documents, spreadsheets, and physical filing cabinets, which prevented real-time oversight and trend analysis. Mike added: "With everything digitised we're now far more responsive to putting corrective actions in place and preventing recurrence."

The adoption of digital record-keeping has enhanced safety protocols by allowing the contractor's safety, health, and environmental (SHE) teams to carry out weekly assessments, environmental reviews, pre-use equipment safety checks, and immediate incident reports.

Dawn Simmonite, safety, health and environmental manager at William Hare, said: "As soon as an incident has occurred on-site, the site management completes a first response report. We get an alert and can respond straight away – it's our golden hour ticket."

"Beyond basic compliance, the platform serves as a foundation for the contractor's 'Right first time' philosophy. "Right first time is important for us. We give the shopfloor the tools to ensure they do get it right, and it has improved the product and the business in the long-run," added Buckley.

The live dashboard has also modernised the company's approach to formal external audits. "They ask a question, and we literally respond to it on the screen live," added Mike.

Data from The Improvement Paradox, a commissioned study carried out by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SafetyCulture, indicates that fewer than one-third of frontline companies worldwide—and only 20% of firms operating in the UK—consider continuous improvement to be fully integrated into their day-to-day operations.

Looking ahead, William Hare plans to extend the scope of its digital network by cataloguing its 6,000 physical assets on the platform. This expansion will allow the firm to monitor maintenance histories, geographical locations, and servicing timelines.

The mobile-first system provided by SafetyCulture is currently utilised by other major industry names including AECOM, ArcelorMittal, and Mobile Mini, alongside thousands of additional British businesses across the manufacturing, infrastructure, and frontline operations sectors.