Engaging Our Team

Health and Safety

A core part of engaging our staff is our toolbox talks. Held every six weeks, the toolbox talks feature good food, good company and a opportunity for us to recognise our exceptional staff and talk about issues that are critical to all of us Kerfoot. We want all our team members to go home safe every day, and we’re is always looking for ways to make safety our number one priority, and get team members to think about safety differently. This year at a toolbox talk we hosted Paralympian and workplace safety advocate, Ben Houlison, who became a paraplegic after a workplace accident in 2004. Ben’s amazing story reminded us of the impacts a work injury can have on a worker and their family, something we never want to see anyone go through.

The Kerfoot approach to promoting health and safety is producing results. We were thrilled to see our safety statistics improving, despite the increasing hours worked. Our Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate has reduced by 65% over 12 months, and our Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate reduced by 30%. That means that Kerfoot is currently tracking at less than half our industry LTIFR! An outstanding achievement by all that demonstrates our commitment to safety.


Mentoring

At Kerfoot, we believe in finding the right person for the right job, helping people connect with your passion and providing team members with support to grow in their careers. It’s entirely possible to have six different vocations while working at Kerfoot! Our mentoring program is gathering pace. The program pairs a team member with a more experienced person to help with goal setting, working to achieve those goals and support career growth.

This year saw the biggest mentoring program participation to date with 34 team members taking part including site-based and office-based team members. The program duration was close to five months, during which the participants frequently met, with mentors assisting their mentees in accomplishing both personal and professional goals and ambitions. The mentoring program embodies our values of nurturing ambition, respect, and positivity.

Kerfoot team-building day

People may forget what you say, they may forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel!

This is the idea behind our Kerfoot whole company days where everyone downs tools to come together as a whole company to build teams and overcome a few set challenges. At Kerfoot we’re so proud of our team and how each and every one of us is extremely passionate about delivering quality work for our clients. Our team off-site days are about adding value: to ourselves and to our clients. This year’s off-site day involved everything from puzzle challenges to a mini-Olympics, and as always, a healthy lunch was provided.

Kerfoot family park brunch

We recognise the hard work of our team members and we also value the ‘teams’ behind our people: the families. To show we value their support, particularly when we’re working on major projects with tight deadlines, we hold an annual park brunch for staff and their families. It’s also a chance for the Kerfoot family to meet other families in each of our lives. The 2019 park brunch was another hit, complete with children’s entertainment, from games through to face painting. There we a lot of dinosaurs and butterflies running around the park on the day and all the kids had a fantastic day, topped off with their very own surprise goodie bags.

National Tradies Month

August was National Tradies Health Month and to show support for the health and wellbeing of the tradies in the Kerfoot family, we kicked off the month by providing 50kg of organic fruit at our mid-year toolbox talk. Team members could grab a bag of fruit for work and take some home for their lunches.

The idea was so well received that we started sending boxes of fruit out to sites to encourage healthy eating. In August alone we delivered 12 boxes of fruit in total to sites. Between the fruit provided at the toolbox, fruit delivered to sites and fruit for the office we supplied a whopping 131kgs of fruit during the month of August. This includes:

  • 40kgs of Apples
  • 33kgs of Bananas
  • 25kgs of Oranges
  • 33kgs of Mandarins

Kerfoot also created a competition for all employees on site to send in their healthy

lunch pics to go in the draw to win a Doorstep Organics Fruit & Veggie box as well as a Pete Evans ‘Lunchbox’ cookbook. We had so many great entries we ended up giving away 22 boxes of Doorstep Organics goodies!

Kerfoot Creations

Pride in workmanship and partnerships

Relationships are everything and were critical to winning the NECA NSW Excellence Award in the Lighting category for the incredible George Place project, the largest site-based manufacturing of lighting in the whole of Sydney. Simply put, George Place is a work of art! With 365 ceiling fittings and 280 feature wall fittings all individually custom-made on-site, the result is a stunning old-meets-new joint foyer for three buildings. The project is a showcase of our long-standing and rewarding partnership with the FDC Group.

Commitment to safety

Kerfoot picked up the NECA NSW Excellence Award in Workplace Health and Safety Management System for the Sydney Light Rail project. A large infrastructure project that will change the way people move around the CBD and surrounds, the Sydney Light Rail work contained inherent risks including the size and quantity of live plant and machinery. Yet, the WHS numbers speak for themselves:

  • 13,236 labour hours worked
  • Zero hours lost to injury
  • Zero hours in medical treatment for injuries

Innovative solutions

The Sydney Light Rail project featured again, this time winning the NECA NSW Excellence Award in the Industrial Medium category. Working for our client Acciona Infrastructure Australia Pty Ltd, our team took on this very unique project with enthusiasm, displaying the highest quality of workmanship and professionalism. They relished the opportunity to implement little-known technologies such as the heat-sensing fibre cable.

Gordon Golf Club

Kerfoot Energy designed and installed a 44.6kWp Solar Photovoltaic system that was installed on the wastewater treatment plant at the south end of the course. 

The system utilised 415W high-efficiency LG solar panels, together with SMA string inverters and a Clenergy mounting system. As part of the works Kerfoot also provided a permanent height safety and walkway system so that the solar can be easily maintained post install. 

The system will provide approximately 42MWh annually, all of which will be utilised by the golf course and will help to reduce their carbon footprint, whilst also helping to move the club towards the sustainable future that they desire. 

Marsden Road Public School Solar

As part of the renewables energy strategy of the NSW Department of Education, all new school building must contribute to the energy efficiency of the school.

At Marsden Road Public School this 40 kW system will off-set most of the energy used by HVAC during both summer and winter.

For this project, Kerfoot supplied a turn-key solution, from design to complete installation – all completed in-house.

Our in-house design team worked closely with the school and the NSW Department of Education to ensure that key project outcomes were accomplished with zero disruption to school activities by timing the works to coincide with the construction of the new Learning Building, where Kerfoot Projects was carrying out major electrical works.

Australian National Maritime Museum Solar

Scope of Works

Installation of 243.6 kW of lightweight, best in class, first in Australia, renewable energy Solar Energy generating panels.

Job Description

Kerfoot are proud to have been a part of such an iconic project.

This project was first in its class and first in Australia using lightweight, non-glass, solar panels installed using non-destructive techniques.

Each panel weighs a fraction of a traditional glass solar panel, making them more environmentally friendly and breaking the barrier to access for older buildings where the roof was not constructed to support the additional load of traditional solar panels.

From inception to completion, Kerfoot and Energus Solar worked side by side in the planning, designing and implementing of the system in adherence to the stringent requirements of the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.

The placement of each panel was carefully selected to maximise the energy output and minimise any impact to the aesthetic of the building and the harbour. This project had very limited roof access with a 30-degree pitch. It was critical to the success of this project that we were able to overcome these challenges to go above and beyond the expectations of our client.

During the design stage, one key factor was minimisation of glare that could be created by sun light reflection from traditional glass panels, this could create potential dangerous situations to harbour users (boats, ships, etc), wildlife and adjacent buildings.

The non-glass panels excelled in the glare test returning negligible to no glare results.

IMC Level 42

Scope of Works

Supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the power, data and lighting systems throughout the area of works including workstations, AV stations and linear lighting.

Job Description

This project was designed in a way to help promote a vibrant and engaging workplace with the main focus being employee engagement. This was achieved by the design/ layout of the workstations along with utilising the use of meeting rooms and common areas as much as possible. Acroos this project we used various shapes sizes of linear light fitting to help reduce glare across the computer screens. On this project the client requested us to install a scibit which allowed the team to engage and interect in a way which promoted conversation and team work.

Level 2 345 George St – Dialogue Flex Fitout

Scope of Works

  • High End light and Power fit out with a C-Bus lighting control system.
  • New Tenant and House DB.
  • New Comscope Communications system.

Job Description

With Flexible work spaces demand growing the Level 2 Fit out for Flex and Dialogue was a great success.  The high standard of the works completed saw a satisfied client move in and occupy the space within the desired completion time.

The installation challenging and interesting the team at Kerfoot were able to go above and beyond and deliver a complete Light, Power and Communications High Standard project.

Having an enthusiastic end user happy with the achievements and end result of the project, believing that our success in delivering some amazing work spaces and lighting design finishes will only add to their own focus and drive for success.

 

State Library of NSW Western Galleries Upgrade

Scope of works:

The complete refurbishment of Lighting, Lighting Control, power, security and communications within the Mitchell Galleries 1 and 2, Dixson Galleries 1 and 2, the Amaze Gallery and within the Dixson Room.

Job Description:

The Heritage challenge was et with the Ugrade of the Western Galleries at the State Library of NSW.  Our enthusaistic and challenge orientated team saw us take the job by the horns and charge through the works at a pace which enabled us to stay ahead of time and and ahead of the builders.

The integrations team faced many challenges on lighting control and programming.  Giving the Library a site which operated seamlessly for all their chosen scenes for the next 5 years.

We overcome space issues with reticulation by extending cornices with boxed out sections and boxing in service columns to match the existing walls.  This allowed us to successfully run all lighting and lighting control cabling at high level and over 200 CAT6A cables within the 5 Galleries.

With a happy client and a proud team the Western Galleries at the State Library is a place everyone should visit to marvel at not only the art work and exhibitions but also the lighting.

Hammond Care – Wahroonga

Job Description

To Design, Supply and Install a Grid Connected PV system at Hammond Care at Wahroonga as part of the construction of the dementia facility

The design of the system was to be for a 25kW system, with power generated via Trina panels which were to be installed with an orientation to maximise the systems overall output.

The system installed for the project comprised of 99 x Trina panels, 1 x SMA 25kW invertes which had an AC supply from our custom PV Distribution Board.

To maximise the systems output the panel layout was dependant of the physical design and the layout of services on the new buildings rooftop.

Sydney Lighting Market Upgrade

Project Description:

The Sydney Markets Flemington site spans a massive 42 hectares and sees a customer base of around 140,000 people through its gates each week. The Markets operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with around 700 businesses operating within its ground. Sydney Markets found that their site wide energy consumption was large due to the age and type of light fittings. In an effort make themselves Carbon Neutral and reduce their bills, the Markets engaged Kerfoot to complete an upgrade of the existing Lights to LED what immediately reduced their power consumption for lighting by 40%. In total these lights added to a staggering quantity of just under 1,100 fittings. All works had to be completed in a 4-day work week so that the Markets could continue to function as normal. The project was a huge success with Kerfoot being now in talks of future projects.

The project is part of a larger effort by Sydney Markets to improve their energy efficiency. We at Kerfoot contributed with the lighting upgrades. Below is the detail of the savings we were able to support implementation by the Council.

Just under 1,100 High Bay fittings were replace with new LED High Bays. The Lighting wattage usage went from 250W per fitting to 150W per fitting. Reducing the lighting load by around 40% which has resulted in a significant saving to the Markets whilst increasing the lumen output by 20-30%.