How PJ Hegarty Automated 50+ Construction Safety Processes

With over 95 years in business and an annual turnover above €500 million, PJ Hegarty is one of Ireland's most progressive building contractors. But even the most forward-thinking organisations can find themselves held back by paper-based processes and fragmented data.

That was exactly the challenge facing Sinead Gaines, Regional EHS Manager at PJ Hegarty, when she set out to transform how the company managed health and safety across its 12+ active construction sites.

In this on-demand webinar, Sinead shares the full story. From a single painful process to a company-wide digital transformation that now powers over 16,000 form completions every month.

Watch: Automating EHS At Scale — Featuring PJ Hegarty

The Challenge: Paper, Excel, and No Cross-Site Visibility

PJ Hegarty's Safety Behaviour Observation (SBO) program is central to its safety culture. The SBO process focuses on finding the root cause of behaviour,  anchoring safe behaviour, and coaching unsafe behaviour through positive communication.

When first introduced in 2017, the program was entirely paper-based. Site Managers captured information on SBO cards, which were handed over to the EHS team for manual entry into Excel spreadsheets. As SBO numbers grew, this approach quickly became unsustainable.

The key pain points were clear:

• Paper-based safety observations manually entered into Excel, with macros breaking down
• Siloed, fragmented data per site with no cross-site visibility or real-time reporting
• Heavy admin burden keeping EHS staff at their desks instead of visible on site
• Data entry taking approximately three hours per person each week

"We were trying to find a solution to digitalize because it was very time-consuming to input all the data manually for each observation. It was taking about three hours for one person each week. FlowForma was the only application that could do what we asked it to do without changing the process."

— Sinead Gaines, Regional EHS Manager, PJ Hegarty

Why PJ Hegarty Chose FlowForma

Document management tools were considered but could only digitise parts of the process. Building a custom system was ruled out as too expensive and time-consuming. PJ Hegarty needed a solution that could fit their existing processes. Not force them to change how they work.

"We didn't want an off-the-shelf solution that forced us to change how we work. We chose FlowForma because it gave us the flexibility to digitise and standardise our safety processes in a way that fits our business, while also providing the scalability and seamless integration we needed across the organisation."

— Sinead Gaines, Regional EHS Manager, PJ Hegarty

FlowForma's no-code platform gave the EHS team the ability to build and own their digital processes,  without relying on IT or writing a single line of code.

The Process Automation Timeline

PJ Hegarty's digital transformation didn't happen overnight. It followed a deliberate, phased approach. From researching options in 2021 through to full company-wide rollout and beyond.

PJ Hegarty's digital journey from paper-based SBO to 16,000 forms per month

2021 — The Starting Point
SBO identified as the highest pain point. Excel macros breaking down, paper data siloed per site with no cross-site visibility.

2022 — Pilot Mode
A 6-month FlowForma trial on two PJ Hegarty projects. Immediate increase in observation volume and data quality.

2023 — Scaling Mode
Rolled out company-wide. Plant onboarding, plant & equipment inspections added. QR codes introduced for contractor access.

2024 — 16,000 Forms per Month
Permits and driver & vehicle inspections added. 45% rise in SBO observations. Annual digitisation improvement targets now in place.

Next — Full Audit Digitisation
Scoring, compliance ratings, and AI-assisted audits currently in development.

Processes Digitised: From SBO to Company-Wide Operations

What started with SBO quickly expanded, from plant management and equipment inspections to permits and vehicle checks.

Month-on-month form completions are showing growth from pilot to 16,000 forms per month

Key Results: The Numbers That Matter

The results speak for themselves. Since deploying FlowForma, PJ Hegarty has achieved:

• 16,000 forms completed per month — a scale impossible to manage manually
• 45% increase in Safety Behaviour Observations from 2022 to 2023
• 40% increase in participation in safety reporting across teams
• 25% reduction in EHS administration time — freeing staff to be visible on site
• 50+ processes digitised across plant management, permits, vehicles, and more
• 12+ active construction sites now running on FlowForma

"FlowForma has enabled us to automate and standardise our safety processes without changing how our teams work on the ground. The platform has improved compliance, increased engagement in safety reporting, and given us real-time visibility across all projects. It's made a measurable difference to both efficiency and safety performance across the organisation."

— Sinead Gaines, Regional EHS Manager, PJ Hegarty

4 Key Highlights from the PJ Hegarty Story

1. Digitising SBO Drove a 45% Increase in Observations

Moving from paper and Excel to FlowForma transformed observation volume and quality. Management now has real-time trend visibility across all sites for the first time. Statistics show a direct correlation between higher SBO rates and a reduction in incident rates.

2. 16,000 Forms Completed Every Month

After digitising plant management, permits, SBOs and vehicles, PJ Hegarty now processes approximately 16,000 individual forms per month. A scale impossible to manage manually.

3. QR Codes and 100% Contractor Adoption

QR code posters on-site let anyone with a phone access the right forms instantly. No licence management, no admin overhead. This drove 100% adoption across the contractor base without adding complexity.

4. GA2 and GA3 Audits and HSA Compliance Now Fully Digitised

PJ Hegarty also uses FlowForma for their GA2 and GA3 plant inspection audits. Critical for HSA (Health and Safety Authority) compliance. Having these audits digitised means inspection records are automatically logged, timestamped, and instantly accessible for regulatory review.

This removes the risk of lost paperwork and ensures the team is always audit-ready.

GA2 Telehandler Inspection Report and live dashboards showing SBO summary, permit status, and plant status

5. Full Data Ownership Enabled Dashboards for Every Stakeholder

Dashboards are now sliced by site, region, client, time, or risk level,  including bespoke views built to individual client specifications. Project managers have the information they need before they even arrive on site.

"Staff are happy with its user-friendly application, and our project managers like the real-time information dashboards available daily. We have accessible information to engage with safety at daily meetings relevant to the site activities. It has reduced our EHS staff's administrative time, allowing them more time on site."

— Brian Mooney, Director, PJ Hegarty

The Safety Board: QR Codes Across Every Process On-Site

One of the most visible aspects of PJ Hegarty's transformation is the on-site Safety Board. A central hub of QR codes giving workers and contractors instant mobile access to every form they need, from SBO training and permits through to plant inspection forms, scaffolding checks, and equipment forms.

The PJ Hegarty Safety Board : QR codes for SBO, permits, plant inspections, scaffolding, equipment and more.

From Safety to Company-Wide Digital Transformation

What started as a single pilot for the EHS team quickly spread across the organisation. According to Anthony Condon, Digital Manager at PJ Hegarty, the speed of adoption came down to one thing: FlowForma empowered employees to digitise processes in the way they wanted.

"When we decided to deploy a new digital solution and wanted to make adoption as easy as possible, we needed a solution that meant we didn't have to change our processes to suit the solution. We understood that moving people from a paper-based process was change enough; it may have been too difficult for staff to adopt a completely new process."

— Anthony Condon, Digital Manager, PJ Hegarty

"The EHS team had the first process within three days, and once they got it and realised what it could do, they just got hungry for it. They were coming to us with processes — not just from safety but from procurement and requisitions and everything."

— Sinead Gaines, Regional EHS Manager, PJ Hegarty

Watch the Full Webinar, Automating EHS at Scale

Want to hear the full story directly from Sinead Gaines? Watch the on-demand webinar below here: Automating EHS At Scale — Featuring PJ Hegarty

Or check out our other resources on PJ Hegarty below.

Recommended Resources

                                                               Read the Customer Spotlight.                                        Read the Case Study

Ready to Digitise Your EHS Processes?

PJ Hegarty's story shows what's possible when the right digital tool fits the way your teams actually work. Whether you're managing safety observations, plant management, permits, or compliance, FlowForma gives you the flexibility to digitise at your pace, at your scale.