Irish construction tech firm partners with oldest private US construction company
GoContractor, the Irish-owned and headquartered leader in the digitization of construction worker on-boarding and compliance tracking, has been contracted by McCarthy Building Companies in the US to digitally facilitate the company’s on-boarding of its subcontract workers. McCarthy is the oldest and one of the largest privately held construction companies in the United States, with over 5,000 employees nationwide and over $4.5bn in annual revenues.
The agreement will see the digitization of McCarthy’s entire project and safety orientation process for its craft and trade partner workers, by utilising GoContractor’s on-boarding and worker management platform to help create safer projects, reduce the common risks associated with worker on-boarding and management, and streamline the worker on-boarding process.
McCarthy recently piloted GoContractor’s digital solution as part of the NEXT Coalition which is a group of leading U.S. and global engineering and construction firms formed in 2020, dedicated to safeguarding the industry by protecting the lives of its workers from threats including COVID-19.
McCarthy will transition their orientation operation to a digital format hosted on GoContractor, with the goal of being 100% digital in 2022. This agreement with GoContractor comes as part of McCarthy’s commitment to digital transformation by identifying and implementing emerging technologies within the built world.
Maria Mahon, CEO and Chairperson of GoContractor said: “GoContractor is extremely proud to partner with a firm of the calibre of McCarthy Building Companies in the United States. GoContractor has experienced a rapid level of growth in Ireland and internationally as more and more companies are utilising our software solutions to ensure their on-boarding processes are efficient, comprehensive and cost effective while ensuring safety standards are maintained as a first priority.”
Rob Graham, McCarthy Vice President, National Safety said: “By utilizing GoContractor’s digital Safety Orientation Program we have been able to improve efficiencies in our on-boarding process, benefiting both individual workers and our project management teams. Workers now have immediate access to our orientation information, helping to streamline this process while still maintaining our safety culture that is critical to our overall Safety Program.”
Dave Burns, McCarthy Vice President, Emerging Tech and Project Delivery said: “COVID-19 introduced a host of new challenges for our company and our projects. The NEXT Coalition, and the GoContractor partnership that came out of that, presents a great success story for knowledge-sharing and innovation. GoContractor has tackled problems relating specifically to COVID-19, and we fully expect it to deliver value for our workforce well beyond that.”
In 2020 in Ireland, a major online training programme was initiated by the Construction Industry Federation in partnership with GoContractor to enable over 125,000 workers in construction to return to work from the commencement of Phase 1 of the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. Overall GoContractor helped approximately 250,000 in heavy industries to return to work. The induction programme enabled construction employees to clearly understand their on-site responsibilities in terms of safe working.
With offices in Dublin and New York, GoContractor was established in 2012. The company’s Irish clients include MTM Engineering, Ardmac, JJ Rhatigan, Energia and the ESB. It is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that has created a platform for employee orientation that also ensures better compliance with safety regulations. GoContractor can cut on-boarding costs by as much as 50 per cent by getting workers to do the induction ahead of time via smartphones, tablets or laptops. The company’s CEO and Chairperson is Maria Mahon.
