For quite some time, the SAFETYSYNC safety management system has allowed employees and administrators to print a wallet card or wall certificate that lists all the courses which were covered in each employee's basic safety awareness training.

Our system now allows administrators at our oil and gas industry clients to include the crest which states that they are a member of the Enform IRP 16 Registry.  [Our software helps companies with compliance and preparing the self-declaration - but this is a topic for another blog post.]

After receiving your certificate from Enform, upload it to the "Documentation / Credentials" component choosing type "IRP 16 Registry (Basic Safety Awareness Training)".

This will automatically add the "Proud Member of the IRP 16 Registry" crest to the certificates when they print.  We recommend employees carry these cards when accessing most oil company sites (see list of producers supporting IRP 16).  These certificates are particularly important, now that Enform is no longer issuing hard hat stickers.
 

Energy Services BC, PSAC, CAPP and other oil and gas industry assocations in Canada have recently joined forces to develop various standards on nuisance issues that have been the source of ongoing complaints from local landowners in the communities in which oil companies, their contractors, and their employees operate.  Specific issues relate to communication (or lack thereof), dust, gates, garbage, noise and driving.

Oil companies have tried similar community relations programs individually in the past, including Encana's Courtesy Matters, and Murphy Oil's Good Neighbours.  The BC Government spearheaded an industry-wide effort by funding a consultation with local communities, and by calling for a joint registry of oil companies, called Living Together Working Together.  The most recent collaboration is an Canada-wide evolution or extension of that BC initiative, called Community Partners, which has the industry associations and their members working together to remind workers to treat people and property with respect by following a handful of rules. 

Participants in the Community Partners program will be asked to sign and distribute a policy statement, similar to the Petroleum Industry Guiding Principles.  As with all such initiatives, the challenge lies in communicating the policy and practices to employees.  Our software's Policy module is an obvious first step, but we've also created a brief orientation that covers the various nuisance issues and the recommended practices to avoid them.

After viewing the 13 minute orientation, employees are required to pass a 15-question quiz to verify their understanding.  The Community Partners Living Together - Working Together orientation will then show up on the worker's orientation card, which they can present to oil company work site supervisors to demonstrate their compliance with the program.

The lesson and quiz are both available at no cost.  Intersted parties can sign up here.

Administrators can now choose whether a line for the worker's signature is added to the certificates and wallet cards when they print.  In the administrator portal, go to 'Monitoring', then 'Components' in the menu.  Click on 'Safety Awareness Training'; this will bring up the settings for the component.  The last setting at the bottom of the list is new:


The default setting is 'No', meaning that unless the user is printing a TDG certificate, there will only be a spot for the employer's signature.  This is generally more convenient since the worker or an administrator can reproduce the signed certificate at any time from within the system (assuming the employer's signature has been uploaded).  If you choose to add a spot for the worker's signature, reproducing the certificate would mean having to get the certificate in the hands of the worker, then filing away a signed copy (which can be made easier with our certificate tracking module).

Regardless of the setting, a spot for the worker's signature will always be added to Transportation of Dangerous Goods certificates.  This is simply because this requirement is clearly stated in the TDG regulations.

As some of our clients may have noticed, our Safety Management System portal experienced a number of outages on Thursday and Friday of last week (June 3 and 4).  Our data center provider, Rackforce moved our systems to a new building, which began a series of unexpected reboots due to a power distribution unit overload:


These brief but repeated outages would have caused users to become disconnected from the portal.  Many of you logged in again, only to be disconnected once more.  We apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding of the difficult situation that was entirely beyond our control.

We continue to subscribe to the idea that an outsourced data center is a better home for your critical safety management system application than one maintained on our premises.  We also believe Rackforce to be one of the foremost providers of this service, and that this was an isolated event.  Rackforce and SafetySync personnel will continue to monitor our systems to hopefully avoid future outages.

Thank you for your business and continued support!

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".

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.
  

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.