British Columbia recently changed the location of their statutes and regulations.  They used to be found at qp.gov.bc.ca however they've recently been moved to bclaws.ca along with a new look and some additional functionality.

 
We updated all the links to the acts, regulations and codes that pertain to health and safety so that any of our client's employees looking for them will automatically be correctly routed from within the software.

I am always surprised by the number and scope of documents available on from each jurisdiction.  There are literally hundreds available, but most are not applicable to health and safety (such as the Floating Manufactured Home Tax Regulation).  That being said, if there are any laws that you feel should be linked in our software that are not yet in place, send us a support request and we'll have it added ASAP.

We have been working closely with the folks at Energy Services BC on a number of initiatives to help educate oil and gas contractor employees on some of the local issues in Northeastern BC.  Aboriginal Awareness training is a subject that many in the region feel is an area for possible improvement.  We have developed a short course and will make it available to all companies operating in the area.

For many service companies, Aboriginal Awareness training is simply a requirement of doing business in the North.  Aboriginal Awareness training is one of the pre-qualification questions in ISNetworld for Cenovus (and possibly other ISN owner clients):

 
Rather than answer "No" to the question, instead enable this course in SAFETYSYNC for your employees and supervisors.  The course is 29 minutes, divided into three lessons:

1. Aboriginal Peoples and their Origins
2. Civilizations, Cultures and Beliefs
3. Politics and Economics

Each lesson is followed with a quiz which tests each worker's comprehension of the material (9, 15 and 18 questions respectively).  As with all our courses, administrators have the choice to specify the pass rate, choose quiz questions, etc.

Please review the course if you feel it applies to your operations.  You can either leave feedback after the quiz, or make suggestions in the blog for each lesson in the Company Administration portal.

Just a quick update to let our client safety management system administrators know that we've added the link to WorkSafe Alberta's eLearning module on Ice Roads called Working Safety on Ice.

I realize it's May already and that all of 2010's ice roads have probably already melted!  The link and quiz are now in the system in case you plan on working on ice roads in the future.  The lesson can be found in the 'Safe Driving Practices' course.

It is not enabled by default, so if your employees work on ice roads in the winter, don't forget to turn it on by checking the box next to "Ice Roads".

In a world where, on occasion, death, injury, and illness at work are hidden away and taken for granted, Workers' Memorial Day is an opportunity to highlight the preventable nature of most workplace accidents and ill health and to promote campaigns and union organisation in the fight for improvements in workplace safety.  Each year, more than two million women and men die as a result of work-related accidents and diseases.  Workers suffer approximately 270 million occupational accidents each year, and fall victim to some 160 million incidents of work-related illnesses.  Hazardous substances kill 440,000 workers annually – asbestos claims 100,000 lives.  One worker dies every 15 seconds worldwide. 6,000 workers die every day. More people die whilst at work than those fighting wars 

April 28 is the day we remember the workers killed, disabled and injured by their work.
The slogan for the day is Remember the dead - Fight for the living

For all you safety managers or company executives out there using our software, today might be a good day to send out a safety bulletin in SAFETYSYNC to let your employees know that you appreciate them, and that you're continually looking out for their safety. 

Administrators can now enter details for a recommended training provider (institution, phone #, website link, blanket purchase order) in the Company Administration Portal.  When an employee's existing certificate is about to expire (or doesn't have one in the first place), they will be given this information in their employee portal so that they can call the institution, schedule the training, or even take it online (if it is available).  Having a 'Recommended Training Provider' can:

• Help employees locate and schedule appropriate training
• Ensure certificate training meets your organization's requirements
• Keep training consistent
• Direct employees to institutions that have lower costs
• Simplify accounting by ensuring course fees are booked to the correct Purchase Order

COMPANY ADMINISTRATION PORTAL
Simply enter the appropriate information for the training institution in the Certificate Details screen (this must be done for each Certificate, since you may have different institutions for various certificates).  Any textbox that is not filled in (such as Blanket PO) will not appear for employees.  Don't forget to check off "Share with Employees" before saving!


EMPLOYEE SAFETY PORTAL
Once the Administrator has input the details about the Recommended Training Provider, the information will be presented to in the Employee Safety Portal above the certificate name.  The website link will take the employee to to website where they can look at schedules, directions to the institution and other useful information.
  

Proving to an auditor (and a court in the event of an accident) that employees were trained on the hazards present in the workplace has historically been a challenge for safety administrators.  This is because:

  1.  Training records are not always kept, and
  2.  There is no proof the employee understood
       the material

That all changes with the new reporting feature we've made available in the online training module.  Administrators can now print the quiz results for every lesson taken by an employee.  It not only shows the employee's score (as compared to the requirement), but also the answer chosen for each question in the quiz.  The quiz questions shown will always reflect the quiz taken by the employee at the time, regardless of whether you subsequently add or remove questions from the lesson quiz.

If you use SAFETYSYNC to deliver your online training, your recordkeeping will happen automatically, and will always be available to prove due diligence!

The backbone of a Health and Safety Management System is the ability to identify deficiencies and correct them.  Any hazard slipping through without correction can lead to an accident, injury, OH&S investigation, legal action, and loss of reputation.  Therefore it is critical to not let any deficiency go uncorrected.

In the SAFETYSYNC software, the corrective action process starts with a "record" (such as a hazard assessment, safety meeting, inspection, or incident investigation).  An electronic copy of each record is stored in the system for subsequent analysis or review.

There can be any number of deficiencies identified on a record.  Each deficiency must be addressed by developing a corrective action plan, which is assigned to an individual, assessed for priority, and given a due date.


Each action item has a log which records any events related to the action item (creation, reassignment, comment, deferral, etc.)

Once a deficiency has been corrected, the individual marks the Action Item 'complete', which automatically advances the item for management sign-off (required for most Safety Management System standards, including OHSAS 18001 and CSA Z1000).

When an Action Item is assigned to an employee, it shows up in the worker's Employee Portal (sorted by priority and due date).

The employee is also sent reminders when action items are coming due, to ensure all deficiencies are corrected on a timely basis!

We've been asked a few times by customers how they can use SAFETYSYNC to ensure compliance with Ontario's new law on Workplace Violence and Harassment, Bill 168.  There are two elements of the law that require attention: policy and training.

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE POLICY
All companies must have a Workplace Violence Policy "posted prominently" by June 15, 2010.  If you don't already have a Workplace Violence Policy, you might consider developing one or hiring an OH&S consultant to help you with this process.  Once the policy has been approved for distribution, load it into the SAFETYSYNC company administration portal as a new policy (under Documentation / Policies in the menu), by clicking "Add Policy".  

 

We have a template workplace violence policy, however most clients start with a blank policy. Policies can be typed, copied and pasted, or uploaded as pdf documents.  After you've saved your first version, assign the policy to EVERY position in your orgainization by clicking "Select All" in the "Required" column of the Positions tab.

Employees will be sent an email at the reminder interval you've specified, with a link to the outstanding policy.  They will be required to acknowledge the new Workplace Violence Policy to maintain their 100% compliance with your safety program.

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE TRAINING
All companies must now train their employees ANNUALLY on how to recognize signs of violence and harassment, as well as how to respond and deal with those situations.  We have two lessons on Workplace Violence in SAFETYSYNC (under the Violence and Security course):

 Workplace Violence Awareness (10 mins)
 Workplace Violence Prevention and Response (5 mins)

We recommend turning on both lessons, but as with all our courses, the lessons you choose are completely customizable.  The course can be assigned to employees by making it "Required" for all positions.

Alternatively, if a company has another training video which they've licensed or discovered elsewhere online, it can be uploaded or linked accordingly.

By default, a number of quiz questions will be assigned for the two lessons, along with a pass rate of 80%.  Feel free to add or remove questions, and adjust the pass rate.

Last but not least, go into the course settings, and set the expiry for the course to "1 year".  Employees will have to re-take the course annually to remain compliant with Bill 168.

As those of you using our Recordkeeping module appreciate, SafetySync is a great way to store completed safety forms (we call them "Records" once they have data on them to distinguish from "Forms" - which are the blank versions).  Until recently, the only way to submit these records was to upload them into the system.

We've now added a new feature which makes it easier for the less-tech-savvy employees in the field to send in their records: the old tried-and-true fax machine.  There are two ways to use the fax to route the records to the appropriate approver in your organization.

The first, is for the administrator to copy a unique bar code (available in the appropriate Form Details screen in Company Administration) and paste it somewhere on the Word, Excel or PDF document you use for your forms.  That way, each time an employee prints a form from the system, it will already have this bar code attached.

In some cases, it may not be practical (or even possible) to put a bar code on a form.  No worries; employees can simply print a fax cover sheet for the form, and submit it ahead of the record when sending the fax.  This cover sheet can be set aside and re-used for the same type of form again and again.

Simply have your employees fax their safety records (and cover sheets if needed) to 1-888-308-8804.  It's a toll-free number, so you will not incur any long distance charges.

The faxes get automatically routed to the records approval screen within minutes, for review and approval by an administrator.  If there are any deficiencies identified on the record, corrective actions can be assigned to individuals and due dates set.

Safety recordkeeping has never been easier!

As I mentioned in a recent blog on Material Safety Data Sheets, you can now assign chemicals to certain locations in your organization.  I forgot to mention that we've also added space to record key information of the product.  This is a great place to keep information like supplier names and contact information, order quantities, container sizes, storage shelves it can be found on, etc. 



If there are any other fields you feel we should add to the MSDS Details, please drop us a note (support@safetysync.com).  We'll add it to the development queue!