When a new worker starts, you make sure that all of the credentials are in check and that their qualifications and health and safety training (e.g. OSHA 10 cards, Safe pass card, CSCS cards) is up to date. You may even double check the qualification cards with the awarding body to ensure they’re not fake. And finally, you will test the new worker on some of the basic information they should know based on their qualification and observe their behavior over the first few days to make sure they’re competent.
Two months later, the qualification expires and the same worker is still wandering around your site. While they may be aware of the need to renew, many workers put it on the long finger due to the associated cost and effort. Even if you have manual reminders set up, these can become difficult to manage when there are many workers involved. So what are the risks of having workers with expired qualifications on site?
The most obvious risk is related to the health and safety of each of the workers. It is human nature to take new training on board and practice it meticulously within the first number of weeks. However, as time goes by, we start to take short-cuts. We observe that there wasn’t a huge consequence of the ‘less safe behaviour’ and this becomes the new norm. With the increased risk, it’s only a matter of time until an accident occurs. This is why safe pass card NEED to expire. So that the worker is reminded of all of the good practices and continues to behave safely.
Secondly, regulations require workers carrying out high-risk roles to have the appropriate qualifications. If one of your workers is found without an in-date qualification card, you could be viewed as non-compliant by local governing bodies. Likewise, if an accident occurs on site and workers involved are not compliant with qualification card requirements, legal ramifications are a likely outcome.
As the volume of workers increases, your ability to manage the expiration of qualifications is likely to diminish. This is why you need to hand the heavy lifting over to an automated system.
GoContractor has recently added a ‘Document Management’ feature which means that you can build your own ‘registration page’ for contractors and workers. They must upload any requested documentation before they’re allowed to start work. For example, you may ask contract companies for insurance details (and the expiration date!) and ask their workers for a copy or picture of their qualification cards (and the expiration date!). Workers then move on to complete their site and role specific orientation, which also has an expiration date and an automatic refresher.
So what happens with all of these expiration dates? You can view a list of any expiring documents at any time, but GoContractor will also notify the contracting company, the worker and YOU of any upcoming document renewal requirements. We give 6 weeks’ notice so that workers have enough time to schedule in their OSHA10/30, Safe pass card or CSCS training. We can even link it to your security system so that they will be denied access on site if a qualification is expired.
Want to run spot check? No problem! Use your mobile device to scan worker’s GoContractor profiles and check their documents and orientation details.
