Pinsent Banister Consulting Partners
PJ Hegarty & Sons
Case Study Summery
PJ Hegarty, one of Ireland’s leading Tier 1 construction firms, partnered with PBCP to digitize its Health & Safety processes.
Together we transformed a legacy paper-based Safety Behaviour Observation system into a scalable digital process, later expanding into plant & equipment inspections and permit management.
Building a digital Health & Safety ecosystem from scratch in the process!
- ✓ 200,000 + Forms completed in first 2 years
- ✓ 15,000 + Forms Per Month
- ✓ 50 + Digital Processes
- ✓ 1,000 + hours saved on site
- ✓ 35% Reduction in H&S Department Admin
This transformation has established PJ Hegarty as a leader in digital safety innovation across the Irish construction sector.
The Client - PJ Hegarty & Sons
With over 100 years in business, PJ Hegarty is one of Ireland’s leading Tier 1 construction firms, delivering large-scale, high-profile projects across multiple sectors.
With an annual turnover exceeding €500 million, the company’s longevity and continued success are a testament to its progressive approach to innovation and technology.
PJ Hegarty consistently invests in digital solutions to enhance compliance, streamline operations, and drive profitability – setting a benchmark for modern construction practices in Ireland and beyond.
The Challenge - Digital Innovation in EHS
Over the last decade, one of PJ Hegarty’s core goals has been to lead the industry in Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) across all projects. Digital innovation was identified as a key enabler of this ambition.
A key focus area was the Safety Behaviour Observation (SBO) programme. The initiative aimed to recognise and reward safe behaviours while also identifying the root causes of unsafe actions.
This proactive approach was designed to support coaching, create a positive feedback loop, and embed a strong safety culture across the business.
The original process was entirely paper based. Observations were recorded on physical cards, manually collected, and then re-entered into spreadsheets.
This created significant challenges:
- ✗ Time-consuming administration that diverted resources from higher-value safety work.
- ✗ Limited visibility into safety trends, as data was siloed across multiple spreadsheets.
- ✗ Delays in feedback to site teams, reducing the effectiveness of coaching and behaviour change.
PJ Hegarty recognised that digitising this process would not only reduce the admin burden but also unlock richer data insights to support real-time decision-making and strengthen its safety-first culture.
The Solution
PBCP worked closely with PJ Hegarty to reimagine the Safety Behaviour Observation (SBO) process for a digital environment.
Partnering with process leader Sinead Gaines, we mapped each step of the existing paper-based workflow, identified bottlenecks, and highlighted opportunities to enhance the programme rather than simply replicate it.
This collaborative design approach ensured the new system would be both user-friendly and powerful in capturing meaningful safety data.
Within just five days, a working prototype was developed, tested with site staff, and refined based on real-world feedback before being rolled out through a phased implementation programme supported by internal system training.
Key features of the digital SBO solution included:
- ✓ Accessibility - QR codes enabled anonymous participation for subcontractors & visitors, while a dedicated mobile app supported internal teams.
- ✓ Automated Workflow - Negative safety observations are instantly routed to the relevant sites EHS team for review, with notifications delivered via the mobile app & email for rapid feedback.
- ✓ Scalable Design - The system was built to accommodate both immediate needs and future enhancements, ensuring PJ Hegarty could continue to evolve the programme over time.
The result was a robust, easy-to-adopt digital process that not only replicated the paper system but also significantly improved feedback loops, accountability, and data capture for ongoing trend analysis.
The Result
The Digital SBO initiative has now grown into a pillar of PJ Hegarty’s site Safety culture.
The Usage of the Digital SBO process continues to grow month on month, and PJ Hegarty has paired this with continued process development including a traffic light system for risk levels and observation review categories and subcategories.
- ✓ 50,000 + Safety Observations completed in first 2 years
- ✓ 50% Reduction in process Administration time
PJ Hegarty recognised that digitising this process would not only reduce the admin burden but also unlock richer data insights to support real-time decision-making and strengthen its safety-first culture.
Continued Partnership
Building on the success of the digital SBO initiative with was important to process leader Sinead Gaines.
We partnered with Hegarty to digitise its Plant & Equipment inspection processes.
The goal was to ensure that every machine on site was properly certified, tracked, and inspected without adding to the EHS team’s administrative workload.
The new digital system allows operators to complete daily and weekly checks directly on mobile devices. Each piece of equipment is onboarded by the EHS team with its certifications uploaded, logged, and assigned a unique seven-digit identifier.
Key features of digital Plant & Equipment Inspections include:
- ✓ Accessibility - QR codes enable access for all contractors & staff .
- ✓ Dynamic filing - All certifications & inspections are stored in SharePoint under the relevant project, plant/equipment type, and ID number.
- ✓ Instant access - Site staff simply enter the ID number to retrieve all related information about the machine.
- ✓ Streamlined inspections - Users can complete inspections digitally, with defect reporting & an automatically generated PDF record that is filed in the correct folder.
Impacts so far:
- ✓ 100,000 - Inspections completed in the first 2 years, with thousands completed every month.
- ✓ Administrative burden eliminated - As filing and record-keeping are fully automated.
- ✓ Improved compliance and visibility - thanks to real-time dashboards that allow management to track inspection status at a glance.
To support the wide range of machinery used on site, 26 different inspection & suppporting processes were developed, covering everything from small tools to large plant.
Continued Partnership
Following the success of the SBO and inspection systems, Hegarty’s partnered with PBCP once again to address another critical process – managing permits for external contractors.
The paper-based approach had been time-consuming and inconsistent, creating delays and limiting oversight across multiple projects.
Together with the EHS team, we designed a bespoke digital permit system that standardises and simplifies the entire process across 15 permit types. Each permit follows three clear steps:
- 1. Application - Contractors submit permits digitally, ensuring all required information is captured at the outset.
- 2. Approval – Internal staff can review, approve, or reject applications instantly via the mobile app or desktop access.
- 3. Close Out – Once work is completed, the permit is closed and securely stored for future reference.
To support site management oversight, custom dashboards have been deployed that provide real-time visibility, including:
- ✓ Number of active permits per project
- ✓ Permit types most commonly in use
- ✓ Common reasons for rejection
The results have been immediate and impressive:
- ✓ Over 15,000 permits processed in the first six months.
- ✓ Faster approvals - with site teams able to manage permits on the go.
- ✓ Valuable insights - from data analytics, allowing leadership to spot trends and strengthen compliance.
This system has streamlined permit management across all PJ Hegarty projects, improving efficiency for both contractors and internal staff while giving management a clear, data-driven view of safety-critical activities.
Outcome
Our success when working with the PJ Hegarty Team has not only been testament to PBCP’s mission of providing digital transformations of the highest quality aiming to improve efficiency and compliance but also a testament to PJ Hegarty’s continued commitment to innovation and technology in Health & Safety.
Figures:
- ✓ 15,000 Forms Completed Per Month
- ✓ 50+ Processes Digitalised
- ✓ 1000+ Hours on site saved