Some time ago, we added the ability to track which users in the system were "employees" and which were "subcontractors" (along with the subcontractor company name).  Until recently though, the company address that printed on the tickets was always the prime contractor's address (the company that held the SafetySync account).  At the request of a few clients that primarily hire subcontractors, we've added new textbox fields to the Employee Details screen.  When the user type "Contractor" is chosen, a section expands to show additional textboxes for the subcontractor's company name, address, city, province and postal code.


Now when a subcontractor's wallet card prints out (available upon completion of the required training course), the certificate now shows the subcontractor's company name and address.  Since regulated training tickets (such as TDG and WHMIS) require the name and address of the "employer" to be displayed, this new functionality satisfies this requirement.

Keep in mind that since the "employer" is, in fact, not the prime contractor in this situation, the authorized training manager's signature (if loaded into the system), will not display for subcontractors.  Subcontractors will need to sign their own tickets, since they are technically their own employer.  The prime contractor (account holder's) logo will still display to the right of the subcontractor company and address.

Although most of our clients prefer to print wallet cards for their employees training certificates (presumably so they can take the cards with them on the road), occasionally a client will want to print a training certificate, frame it, and hang it on the wall.  Until recently, certificates for WHMIS, TDG, HACCP, OH&S and all the other courses had a patterned border around the outside that was in a dull yellow.  This color would occasionally clash with the logo and generally fail to impress anyone as being a certificate specifically printed for the company.
As with all the other components of your safety program, you want to take ownership of the training and would like it to reflect your company brand.  So with that in mind, we've modified the wall certificates that print once an employee has satisfied the course requirements.  The pattern is now in gray (hopefully compatible with all company colors), which surrounds a set of thick and thin boxes that display in the color of the company's safety portal (which you as an administrator choose that compliments your logo).

The functionality for customizing the logo and color scheme is not available in the basic (free) version of our software. Upgrade to the Premium plan at the modest cost of only $6.80 per employee per month and show off your colors!

Few safety managers know that Worksafe BC has a great collection of safety awareness videos available free of charge on their website.  They even have a 70 minute WHMIS video, which is comparable to $20 to $30 versions available elsewhere online.  Why aren't more people using these videos?  It's because there's no way to track which employees have taken the courses, or in other words, no Safety Management System to administer the training.

The website does offer the ability to send email links to as many as 10 addresses, which helps inform other potential students that the courses are available.  The "system" ends there unfortunately.  No reminders, no tracking, no expiry, no reporting.

That's where SafetySync comes in.  We've incorporated these videos into our system as alternatives to our avatar-instructed courses.  We've added a few features to ensure the system works as it should:
   1.  We provide users the choice of quality for the videos.  This allows faster downloads for users with slow internet connections.
   2.  Users cannot fast-forward the videos.  This ensures that all employees do not skip ahead without watching the videos.
   3.  We've added quizzes to the lessons.  This ensures that employees understand the material.

Customers that have enabled these Worksafe BC versions into their SafetySync SMS report that the videos offer some much appreciated variation, which helps keep their employees interested throughout their orientation and training.  Administrators can preview all versions without acutally turning them on, so feel free to check them out.  You will be impressed.  Although a handful of the videos as a bit old, they are well-produced, and have just the right amount of humour or gore, when appropriate.

The list of lessons is extensive, including the aforementioned WHMIS, as well as Tagout / Lockout, Fall Protection, Overhead Powerlines, and Emergency Response Planning.

We've only been offering online safety training for a few months, yet we've heard this statement countless times already.  Although I'm reluctant to turn down a potential client, I'm pretty sure we'd be doing a disservice to the individual. 

The reason is pretty simple.  The employer must provide the training.  Health Canada clearly states that the employer has a legal obligation to ensure that his or her workers have received WHMIS and site-specific material hazard training.  Transport Canada even goes further and requires that the employer sign the training certificate for TDG.  How can an employer sign a certificate for training it had no hand in providing?

This is not to say that every employer needs to hire an instructor and set up a training facility in the office or shop.  WHMIS and TDG can still be outsourced, but the employer needs to verify that the training is appropriate for the environment the individual is likely to encounter.  In nearly every case, the "generic" training provided by various training facilities and online providers must be supplemented with material-specific training.  This means that if part of a workers responsibility is to handle propane cylinders, then that individual needs to know more than just the classes propane falls under for WHMIS and TDG.

The early online providers of WHMIS and TDG training do not offer these additional lessons.  And even if they did, I doubt the lessons could be added piecemeal.  At SAFETYSYNC, we've worked hard to build a broad catalog of material hazard courses.  We've also designed our application so that safety administrators can turn on or off the various lessons for each position within their organization.  No doubt some level of on-the-job training will always be needed, but our system will hopefully take care of most of the bases.

I believe that over time training facilities will garner less and less of the WHMIS and TDG training market due to the simple fact that facility training cannot be customized to the individual.  Online training providers will also evolve, allowing administrators to add (and remove) certain lessons from these courses.  It may take some time, since it means abandoning the per-course charge nearly all providers follow, in favor of the free pricing system that SAFETYSYNC uses.  Utimately, it will mean a better experience for workers too, since they will only have to sit through lessons that are relevant to their positions.