Communication Workarounds Are A Compliance Risk

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Frontline Communication: The Hidden Compliance Risk

Any organization with a frontline workforce has experienced this pain at one time or another. How do you communicate with this audience as an employer? For many, it means using a mix of business and consumer apps that weren’t designed for this purpose. For many employers, this approach is good enough. However, there’s a business risk that you may not be aware of when you do.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s 2022 Monaco Memo provides guidance on how companies should manage employee communications using personal devices and third-party messaging applications. However, this Reuters article discusses the regulatory scrutiny around employees using unauthorized messaging apps and personal devices for business communications. The biggest challenge for any employer with frontline staff is compliance recordkeeping. Good questions to ask:

• Do we have an audit trail? Do you have appropriate record retention for safety or compliance reports? If an employee notifies a supervisor of a workplace safety issue, is this communication exchange captured somewhere? If it’s in a text message or WhatsApp, it’s not.

Do we have consistent version control? When you are rolling out new OSHA compliance guidelines, can you make sure that these are getting to employees and supervisors in the field? Are you sunsetting out-of-date guidelines and documentation?

• Is there any way for you to know? Where is everything captured and stored? Without dedicated apps and processes, there’s no way to know.
• Do we have location, time, and date stamping capabilities on reports? Even if reports get filed, can you prove when and where the incident happened? Is there photographic and video proof? If it’s captured in an email or a text message, how easy is it to convert into legally required formats? Without dedicated applications and processes, you probably don’t have all of these.

How should you move forward? A good start is conducting risk assessments, implementing appropriate guidance and controls, and verifying that you are preserving corporate records to address this compliance challenge. Good luck!

Manufacturing: Half of U.S. Jobs Could Go Unfilled In Next 10 Years

A new research report released by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute indicates that up to 5 in 10, or 1.9 million, skilled jobs could go unfilled in the next decade. Developing talent — both from within the existing employee base and those newly entering the workforce — will be important to keep up with the pace of continued innovation.

New Compliance Coming in 2024: Workplace Violence

It’s an unfortunate fact about today’s workplace that violence is an issue that needs to be addressed. Recently, Cal/OSHA recently published Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) addressing various aspects of the Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (“WVPP”) that most employers must have in place by July 1, 2024. These include site-specific plans, employee input, and training. Although these are required issues only for California employers today, it’s reasonable to expect more states to adopt measures in the near future as well.

Top 10 OSHA Violations of 2023

Safety is always a priority for frontline workers, but there is always room for improvement. A top priority should be falls, which was the No. 1 OSHA violation for the 13th year in a row, according to the agency’s statistics. If you are looking for improvement, start with fall prevention and training.?

EBook: 7 Reasons Performance Support Is Best For Frontline Employees

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News and Notes

• Aviation: America Airlines Pilots’ Union says it’s seeing more safety and maintenance issues. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Energy/Utilities: The General Accounting Office (GAO) says that the gas pipeline regulator needs to do more to implement safety regulations. (OGJ)
• General: OSHA publishes new “walkaround” rules for who is permitted to be present during an inspection. Both the employer and employees have the ability to designate a “walkaround” representative to accompany an OSHA inspector on a walkaround of the facility during an inspection by the agency. The new rule clarifies who the employee representative can be. (JDSupra)
• General: The crucial role of frontline workers in shaping customer experience. (BizCommunity)?
• Healthcare: ATD's 2024 State of Healthcare Training report found that staffing shortages were still having an adverse effect on healthcare workers. (Press Release)
• Retail: How can bike shops attract and retain qualified salespeople and mechanics? (Bicycle Retailer)
• Retail: IKEA targets employee AI literacy with a training program. (Internet Retailing)
• Transportation: FMSCA has rejected 34% of under-21 truck driver applications. (Freightwaves)
• Transportation: When must truckers complete a driver vehicle inspection report? (TruckingInfo)

That’s it for this week!

Take care,

John Thompson

P.S. Training your people shouldn’t be so hard. See how easy — and effective? — training can be with FLX Systems. Schedule a demo today.

About FLX Systems

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