Customer Story: Sommer & Staff Constructions
Sommer & Staff Constructions is a long-established commercial building contractor based on Brisbane’s west side. Founded in 1974, the company has built a strong reputation for quality workmanship, project management expertise and reliable delivery across complex construction environments.
Over many years, Sommer & Staff has worked across a broad range of sectors, including industrial, commercial, retail, refurbishment, fitout, hospitality, community and government projects, health, education, aged care, residential, mining, legal and defence work.
That range of work brings variety, but it also brings responsibility. Construction businesses need clear systems for employees, contractors and subcontractors before work begins. Site expectations must be communicated properly. Safety procedures need to be understood. Records must be kept in a way that managers can access when needed.
For a business working across different locations and project types, relying only on repeated in-person briefings, paper records and manual follow-up can quickly become inefficient.
THE CHALLENGE
As Sommer & Staff grew, the need for consistent inductions increased. Employees, contractors, subcontractors, permanent workers and part-time workers all needed to understand company policies and safety procedures before commencing work. With more people involved and more job locations to manage, the cost and administration of onsite inductions continued to rise. The old process placed pressure on managers and site teams. Inductions took time to organise. Workers and contractors often needed to travel or attend scheduled sessions. Printed materials, meeting rooms and repeated explanations added unnecessary cost. Most importantly, it became harder to maintain one consistent induction experience across every person and project. For construction businesses, consistency matters. Every worker should receive the same core message about safety, conduct, site rules and company expectations. A strong contractor induction process helps reduce confusion and gives managers a clearer record of what has been completed. Sommer & Staff needed a more efficient way to deliver that process.
THE SOLUTION
Sommer & Staff managers began looking for a more cost-effective and practical way to manage company inductions. After reviewing options, the team trialled Induct For Work. The system provided a user-friendly way to move inductions online and make them available across multiple devices. This meant employees and contractors could complete their induction without needing every session to be run manually. Instead of repeating the same information in person, managers could provide a consistent online induction pathway that users could complete from a suitable device and location. For a construction business, that flexibility is valuable. Contractors may move between sites. Project teams may be spread across locations. Some workers may need to complete requirements before arriving onsite. An online process helps make that easier to manage. Induct For Work also supports broader construction workflows such as contractor pre-qualification, document collection, acknowledgements and completion records. These features help businesses move beyond simple information delivery and into a more organised compliance process.
THE BENEFITS
Moving inductions online helped Sommer & Staff reduce the cost and effort involved in running repeated induction sessions.
Instead of relying heavily on room bookings, printed materials, trainers and travel time, the business could deliver induction content in a more flexible format. That change helped reduce operational pressure while still giving workers and contractors access to the information they needed.
The second major benefit was consistency.
Online delivery means every person receives the same core induction content. This helps protect the quality of the message and reduces the risk of different managers explaining important procedures in different ways.
The third benefit was accessibility.
Inductees could complete their induction from different locations and on different devices. This made the process easier for people who were not always near head office or who needed to complete requirements before attending a job location.
For managers, a system like reporting also makes it easier to review completion status and identify who still needs attention. That visibility is especially useful when employees, contractors and subcontractors are spread across different projects.
THE RESULTS
Since using Induct For Work, Sommer & Staff has been able to provide a more consistent induction process for employees and contractors while supporting compliance and reducing pressure on site managers.
The business moved away from a more manual induction model and adopted a process that better suits modern construction operations. Workers can access induction content more easily. Managers can reduce repeated administration. The business can support a clearer and more organised approach to induction records.
For construction companies managing multiple projects, a structured induction process is not just an administrative improvement. It supports safer work, clearer communication and better preparation before people arrive onsite.
Why this matters for construction businesses
Construction companies often deal with changing project teams, subcontractors, multiple sites and strict safety expectations. A weak induction process can create delays, confusion and unnecessary risk.
An online induction system gives construction businesses a practical way to introduce company policies, site expectations, safety procedures and compliance requirements before work begins.
Induct For Work helps businesses create induction courses, invite users, collect documents, record acknowledgements and review completion status from one platform. For organisations that already have induction material but need help moving it online, rapid induction setup can help turn existing documents and procedures into a cleaner digital process.
Start improving your induction process
Sommer & Staff Constructions shows how a long-established construction business can use online induction to reduce administration, improve consistency and support compliance across workers, contractors and projects.
If your business still relies on repeated face-to-face briefings, printed materials and manual tracking, it may be time to move to a more reliable process.
Start your 14-day free trial and see how Induct For Work can help your organisation deliver inductions with less admin and clearer records.
Frequently asked questions
Sommer & Staff needed a more efficient way to induct employees, contractors and subcontractors across multiple projects and locations while keeping the process consistent and easier to manage.
Induct For Work helped the business move inductions online, reduce repeated manual sessions, improve accessibility and provide a consistent induction experience across users.
Online induction is useful in construction because workers and contractors often move between sites. A digital process helps deliver key information before work begins and gives managers clearer completion records.
Yes. Induct For Work can support contractor induction, document collection, acknowledgements, completion tracking and reporting for businesses managing contractors and subcontractors.
Do you have any questions or great tips to share?
Induct for Work – the only online induction system you would need to run online inductions.
Start a free trial or book a demo to see how INDUCT FOR WORK can support your workplace processes.
Author: Anna Milova
Published: 05/05/2017
Updated: 22/09/2022
