Mattest Materials Testing Uses Connecteam To Streamline Daily Processes & Increase Efficiency

Key Takeaways:

The Challenge:

With 20 years of experience, Mattest Materials Testing is determined to provide quality testing for the construction industry.

Like many in the construction industry, Ricky, the Laboratory Manager, faced challenges with:

• Jumping from solution to solution to manage the company
• Messy scheduling and planning with endless back and forth hassle
• Access to safety material and reports was slow and not easy to distribute
• Time-consuming manual preparation and sharing of safety reports and forms
• Disorganized communication with no work-life separation

 

The Solution:

• One app with access to everything in a single place to better manage the entire company
• Real-time job scheduling that is easy to use and quick to share
• Direct, mobile access to the knowledge base for health & safety protocols, tutorials, and materials
• Automated checklists and forms to quickly share safety announcements in real-time
• In-app work chat with filters and groups, instead of untrackable text messages, Whatsapp, or phone calls

 

The Outcome:

• Saved hours on managing the daily process by using a single solution
• Minimized risk by sharing real-time safety reports and procedures
• Enhanced scheduling process by instantly seeing who’s available for a shift and send scheduling updates in a tap
• Gained full and better visibility into projects by having all information under one roof
• Streamlined communication more easily with field and office teams

“Everything runs more streamlined now that we have one solution to handle all our daily processes.”

Background:

With locations in Belfast, Cork, and Dublin and over 20 years of experience, Mattest provides a rich experience as a commercial materials testing laboratory. Mattest has accredited UKAS and INAB, laboratories established on key civil engineering and road construction projects all throughout Ireland and Great Britain. 

Mattest is committed to providing its customers with professional construction materials testing services.

As Mattest continued to grow, they recognized that working with four different solutions was hindering efficiency more than it was helping. When they found Connecteam as their all-in-one solution, everything began to run more smoothly.

We spoke to Ricky, the Laboratory Manager, who has been with Mattest for 13 years. Ricky shared his company’s experience with Connecteam.

“Connecteam is very, very easy to use.”

Challenges Faced:

Before Connecteam, we were using four different applications at a single time which was very messy, time-consuming and just a total headache having to jump around from one solution to another. For example, we had one solution for time tracking, another for scheduling, we used WhatsApp to communicate with each other, and on top of it all, all policies, forms, and procedures were done through paper! 

Originally, we came across Connecteam as a way to introduce the clock in and out feature, which was the main factor in choosing Connecteam as a solution. But once we were on the platform, we saw it could do much more so we completely switched all aspects of our day-to-day over to a single platform.

“The app is worth it as everything is all in one place, from workflows to job scheduling.”

The All-In-One Solution

Efficient Job Scheduling:

We have a few admins who manage different features within Connecteam. For example, a job coordinator takes care of job scheduling. He maps out customer calls and requests and then designates workers, based on their availability which they can populate themselves, to these different job sites.

 

Digital Workflows and Libraries:

“I don’t have to go chase any workers to get their receipts or anything, instead, it’s all on the app and uploaded into this one workflow which has definitely streamlined the process.”

We also have a health and safety manager who works with the workflows and libraries feature. She creates a monthly toolbox (safety talks) in order to send out these crucial flyers regarding health and safety. Before Connecteam, workers actually had to all come to the office to receive this information. She also created a library that can be accessed at any time which is super helpful especially when it comes to COVID procedures.

With workflows, we have a lot of people who share forms and need to use the same ones over and over so Connecteam helped eliminate the need for printing out physical copies to share among 40 different employees. Workflows really pushed us to work even more with Connecteam. 

And because of COVID, we have to work with many questionnaires, handle various procedures regarding COVID, and so on. As we were on lockdown for some time, our employees couldn’t actually come into the office to fill out forms so we built it on the app and they could complete this from their mobile phone wherever they were. Additionally, we have workflows for different job roles like our drivers need to record their fuel so that invoicing is handled correctly whereas before, they filled everything out in a physical logbook and kept all physical receipts by month. 

 

Accurate Time Clock:

“It’s all just easy to monitor.”

Currently, the time clock is only used in the Dublin location to allow workers to clock in and out, complete a shift to show they’re on the job, add tags so it’s easy to see what they’re working on, and so on. Plus, we have real-time visibility as to where our employees are and who is available for picking up extra shifts. 

 

Chats and Updates:

The chats and updates are set up for different groups such as managers, drivers, location, etc. This makes it easier for us to share information and announcements to specific employees and we can monitor who opened and read the message, and if needed, send out a reminder to anyone who didn’t. Connecteam helps us keep everyone on the same page and we don’t have to worry about accidentally sending a message to the wrong person or group like you get on WhatsApp.

 

Final Thoughts

Overall, we have saved a lot of time, managers and on the ground workers, because we don’t have to jump from solution to solution. (Or carry paper and binders everywhere!) And we can do more with Connecteam than we were with other solutions. 

We’re adding on even more to the app every day so the cost will cover itself as it’s saving so much time for everybody.

Connecteam is very, very easy to use. Our workers get on board very quickly and you can’t go wrong. It takes about half a day or a day to set up the user account and then you just go in to get used to the system to really get up and running.

Would I recommend Connecteam to colleagues and friends? Definitely. I notice family and friends, or even just other companies, using methods where I think Connecteam could really help. Like sending COVID questionnaires through a Google Doc and the like. And in my own industry, Connecteam is a great fit to streamline processes.

“I was surprised by all of the features Connecteam had to offer, like having digital forms we didn’t know such a thing existed and that it could be done so easily.”