One of the most "Liked" feature requests on the SafetySync Facebook page recently has been the suggestion that we automatically add some text to the bottom of any printed policies discouraging employees from circulating and keeping printed versions.

NOTE: This is essentially because once a document reaches paper form, it becomes static, and you can no longer be sure it is the most recent revision.  Hence the advantage of an online (i.e. "live") safety management system like SafetySync.

This feature has now been built and rolled out.  The text that will now appear is as follows (at the bottom, in small text, on a single line):

NOTE: This only applies to policies that have been entered as text versions (which we recommend).  Policies that have been uploaded as PDF's will not display this message.

Under the National Safety Code (NSC), commercial truck and bus carriers must build and implement vehicle safety programs and obtain a Safety Fitness Certificate and maintain an acceptable safety fitness rating.  These requirements are IN ADDITION to their workplace safety program.

SAFETYSYNC has always made it simple to track drivers' file requirements, vehicle inspection and maintenance records, and deliver training including TDG and Hours of Service, but the Online Safety Management System now makes it easier to build and maintain the underlying commercial vehicle safety programs:

NSC Safety Policy Templates

We've added 14 template policies that cover the required provincial or federal policies and best practices, including:

• speed limits
• seat-belt use
• drug and alcohol use
• load security
• fueling
• Bills of Lading
• conduct and discipline
• use of safety equipment
• evaluation of driving skills
• etc.

Simply click on the "Add Policy" button and scroll down to the templates that begin with section "NSC".  The policies are based on the "federal" versions of Alberta Transportation recommendations, and should work in all jurisdictions, but as with all policies, you can modify them to suit your requirements.


"Assessment of Regulatory Compliance" Audit Review

This audit protocol is based on the National Safety Code requirements for commercial vehicles and is used by the provincial transportation authority (such as Alberta Transportation) to verify a carrier's safety fitness rating.  Now you can review your own safety program internally to be sure you're ready for a government audit in the event of an application, incident or complaint.

Under considerable pressure from clients, we have finally relented and added free ISNetworld RAVS^TM policies to the templates inside our online safety management system.  We had been reluctant to do so, because the ISN^TM review process is a bit unpredictable, and we were wary of clients being upset in the event a policy did not get approved.  However having seen the quality of the policies that are being circulated by some online policy resellers, we felt we could do no worse.

So, with that in mind, there are now dozens of ISNetworld RAVS^TM policies to choose from among the templates listed when you click on "Add Policy".

All policy templates are sorted by category, so scroll down past the COR (Certificate of Recognition) templates to the sections that begin with "ISN.".

There are policies for the most common provincial, federal, and "best practice" requirements.  [If you feel any templates should be added, please send an email with the ISNetworld requirements to our customer service department, and we will do our best to accommodate you.]

Please note: Although the policy templates are adopted from ISNetworld^TM "requirements", they are not guaranteed to ensure compliance.  You may wish to combine the policies with templates from other jurisdictions or standards organizations (such as COR).  Safety administrators should add to, remove from, and otherwise modify the policies to suit each company's unique operations.

When imported, the system will automatically populate your company name where appropriate throughout the policy.


If you do use the templates, and run into trouble getting the policies approved through ISN, we recommend contacting one of the consultant organizations listed on our website.  Most are familiar with the process and can assist in getting your organization "green lighted".

After adding an ISN template policy, you'll still need to generate the PDF version to be submitted to ISNetworld^TM.  PDF copies can be printed from either the administrator or employee portal.

Once ISNetworld^TM has approved your policy, log back onto SafetySync and be sure to make acknowledging it "optional" or "required" for the various positions in your company, and designate a "reasonably practicable" amount of time for employees to review it.

All ISN and other template policies are available in the Basic (Free) and Premium versions of the SafetySync online safety management system.

If you look up "system" in a dictionary, the term "correlation" is a term that is often used to describe it.  Safety management is made up of many components, but they only become a system when they work together.

Software is a great way to help link these components.  The SafetySync system allow administrators to upload policies, which employees must acknowledge.  It also allows administrators to upload forms, which employees can complete and submit as records (with deficiencies and action items if applicable).   However, it is not uncommon for an inspection policy to reference an inspection checklist, or for a hazard management policy to reference a hazard ID report.

Simply link the two in SafetySync, and the relevant form(s) will appear at the bottom of the policy.  Employees can click on the link to open the Word, Excel, or PDF form.

Occasionally I meet a client that is looking for a computerized Safety Management System that is wary of the Internet.  They are reluctant to upload their policies and procedures to the "cloud" (in the SafetySync case - a secure web server at a data center), because of the chance that a rogue employee could share a password with a competitor, or download all the files on a home computer and go into competition.  Companies spend considerable time and money developing policies and procedures, and the company's competitive advantage would be compromised if they fell into the wrong hands.

Fortunately, there is a solution to still use an online safety management system like SAFETYSYNC, and still keep your documents secure to within the company's internal network.  Here's how it would work for policies (although the same could be done for a safe work procedure):

Create the policy in the system, choose to "Enter Policy Statement", but rather than copy and paste the policy text, instead create a URL link to the file on your internal network drive by highlighting the words that are to be the source of the link, then clicking on the "Insert/Edit Link" (which looks like a globe and chain link):


This will open a popup screen. Choose the <other> protocol, then type in the file path in the URL field (which for file on the network would have the File:/// suffix and forward slashes where there might otherwise be backward slashes):
 
Please Note:  If there are spaces in any of the file folders or document name, replace the space(s) with %20 as shown in the example.



When your employees go to view the policy or procedure in the Employee Portal, and click on the link (the blue underlined text), the file will launch in the appropriate program (such as Adobe Acrobat or Microsoft Word).

This is assuming of course, that the user is logged onto your company network and has appropriate permissions to the folder (hence the security).
 

I had this question posed to me by a customer today.  Essentially a safety administrator was wondering if a company is required to have employees acknowledge health and safety policies, as our software is designed to do.  The reference to policy communication is hard to find in most jurisdictions, but it is almost aways there.  In Alberta it is in the Occupational Health and Safety Act in section 32 "Written health and safety policies", subsection (c) "...as far as reasonably practicable, inform that person's workers of the policy."

The term "reasonably practicable" is certainly open to interpretation.  Your organization may believe printing policy binders and making them available on bookshelves in the office or shop will suffice.  Our feeling is that a formal acknowledgement, like the one offered in our software will certainly prove due diligence for your policy communication needs.

The topic of policy communication a bit of a concern for organizations that are RAVS certified by ISNetworld.  Essentially you've written health and safety policies and submitted them to ISN for approval, yet because they are long, detailed and dry, you may not have plans to communicate the policies to your employees.  I believe most auditors and courts would subscribe to the idea that those policies that pertain to each worker's health and safety need to be communicated.  Using a couple of examples, only employees working in and around confined space need to be made aware of the confined space policy, and only employees that may be required to work alone need to be made aware of the company's working alone policy.  Our software makes this differentiation by role easy; assign policies only to the positions that are exposed to the hazards in question.

SafetySync takes the policy communication element one step further.  The system allows workers to decline a policy if they do not accept it or understand it.  Our feeling is that it is "reasonably practicable" to allow a worker to take exception to a policy or suggest improvements.  Declines happen only very rarely, but the manager or administrator is immediately notified and can follow up on any concerns, rather than simply assuming everyone accepts a policy as it is written.  Employee input and regular reviews are important parts of safety program development.

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.

At the request of one of our larger customers, we have added a couple of new fields to the "Policy Version Details" screen that pops up when you click "Save As New Version" when editing, reviewing or updating a policy:

1. Administrators can now change the Revision Date themselves.  This is particularly relevant when entering existing policies into the system.  In the past, the simple act of uploading the policy would reset the revision date; but for some companies they went through the formal review process on an earlier date.
2. Administrators must also enter a "Reason for Change / Modifications" when creating a new policy version.  This is required for audit trail purposes in OHSAS 18001 and CSA Z1000.  It also helps the administrator recall the reason for changes, and what modifications were made at a quick glance without having to open the prior version and review it.

The Oil & Gas Inquirer recently had an excellent arcticle (Service Firms Plead for a Coordinated Safety Registry System) that highlights the controversy surrounding contractor registries, with a particular focus on ISNetworld.

Some of the more unflattering comments were:

    "...we're not really sure if there is a positive impact on the industry's safety performance."
    "It's an ongoing irritant to the contracting community."
          -  Wally Baer, President and CEO of Enform

    "You just don't need it here."
    "There is no value-added.  I don't think it assists the operator a whit in determining what is a safe rig."
          -  Don Herring, President of CAODC

    "ISNetworld is driving a proprietary standard that does not seem to support openness or data sharing..."
          -  Cal Fairbanks, President and CEO of Canadian HSE Registry

Personally, I feel that ISNetworld^TM is being judged on its ability to deliver improved safety performance, which isn't entirely justified.  Contractor registries really only do one thing well: manage risk for prime contractors.  I mean really... how can a registry improve safety when the workers play absolutely no part in getting a company green-lighted in ISNetworld?  All the work is being done by each company's safety department (or increasingly by consultants) to write new policies that satisfy RAVS^TM protocols.

By forcing contracting companies to write and submit more comprehensive safety policies, the prime contractors have satisfied their due diligence requirement.  What service companies may not realize is that the process exposes their companies to increased risk.  The sub-contracting firms must now adhere to the standard levels they've set for themselves in the policies.  This means service companies must properly communicate policies to employees, provide comprehensive awareness training, and so on.  If (and only if) the service companies do their part, and implement better safety management systems, will safety performance actually improve.

This is where Enform and their Certificate of Recognition can come in.  They actually send auditors to the service companies to review records and interview employees.  The COR process could either point out that the policy binders are simply collecting dust, or they could collect reports from a Safety Management System that demonstrates compliance.  This transformation is likely coming soon, so its probably best to invest in a Safety Management System like SAFETYSYNC and be prepared.

Printed material has been the most efficient means of storing and sharing documents since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440.  Paper documents became even more pervasive when as computer companies like Hewlett Packard made printers affordable enough to be available in every office.

I saw an article recently about Kindle, Amazon.com's electronic book.  Newsweek calls it "the iPod of reading".  It can download any book from a catalog of 240,000 titles in just 60 seconds.  And it can store 1,500 books!  Amazon has already sold over 500,000 of the electronic books, and they can't keep up with demand.  This trend has enough momentum that I think kids growing up 30 years from now will have to go to a museum to see a printed book.

Paper is still ingrained in our business culture though, and safety departments are one of the heaviest users.  I've seen companies that have an administrator in the safety department dedicated to printing, binding and distributing paper full time.  Just think how much paper is generated for policy manuals, procedure binders, Material Safety Data Sheets and the dozens of types of safety forms.

It's hard to imagine now, but I see paper use steadily falling over the next few decades, as more and more companies realize that storing documents online is more reliable, secure and cost effective than paper.  This transition will happen sooner in organizations with dispersed workforces; nearly all workers now have (or will soon have) access in the field to a computer (or similar device) and the Internet.  With the right software (ie. an online Safety Management System like SAFETYSYNC), a company will have all it needs to make the move to electronic documents.  Solutions that offer the ability to print and sign a document will be the ones that are adopted first, since this practice is still important for due diligence purposes.

Our Form and Recordkeeping components are going to be released soon in Beta for testing.  If you're interested in moving some or all of your forms online, give us a call!