How certificate tracking fosters a culture of safety that benefits your entire organization
In many industries, employees are required to hold certification to perform certain responsibilities, such as handling hazardous materials or operating specific machinery. It is important to ensure that the people that have been trained and certified are the only ones carrying out those tasks, not only for the health of your organization, but for the safety of every employee on site.
Depending on the task, this certification may be required by organizations such as the United States’ Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, or it may be mandated through industry associations and certification programs. Both establish a minimum of knowledge and training that employees need in order to perform tasks safely.
Regardless of whether certification is industry-specific or OSHA-mandated, it is integral for employers to have up-to-date records of employee certifications, to perform regular audits to ensure employees remain up-to-date, and to check those records before assigning tasks that require advanced safety training or specialized knowledge.
Managing these records manually is a burden, particularly on large job sites with hundreds, or even thousands, of employees. Paper records may have errors, may get lost, or may even be destroyed. Even if the records are filed correctly, it can still mean sorting through files, manually updating Excel spreadsheets, and checking record-by-record to find information or ensure employees are up-to-date.
This process isn’t just inefficient, it’s also dangerous for your employees and your organization. If finding this information is a constant headache, managers may not be checking records as diligently as they should, or they may skip this step altogether. Without this information at hand, they may be assigning tasks to employees that don’t have the required safety training or knowledge, which can lead to accidents.
With an automated certificate tracking system, you can maintain this information electronically. This frees up time to focus on core responsibilities and helps organizations ensure that every team member meets safety and compliance standards. While it may take some effort to make the switch from paper records, this one-time project can have long-lasting benefits for your organization.
Using stratus-io, you can manage employee certificates in a central database and then pull up the information in your database on-site, right from your mobile device. No more trekking back to the office to sort through filing cabinets or check an Excel spreadsheet; with stratus-io, you can scan an employee ID badge, barcode, or QR code and check their certification status in real-time. In addition, you can create groups of employees that hold certifications within your database and then using stratus-io, only allow those employees in those groups to access certain areas, equipment, and more.
With stratus-io, you can stop worrying about whether the right person is on the job, and instead build a culture of safety, prevent accidents, minimize risk, and focus on profits.
