How to do it right: Naming Conventions for Safety Training and Documentation using Excel (or a Database) or cerTraxApp

Having worked with and reviewed more than 40 customers's Safety Training Data as they migrate their training documents to cerTrax (cerTraxApp.com), I've had a chance to analyze the pros and cons of these various systems before coming up with these recommendations -- especially if you are using Excel and/or a Database (or if you currently are using Paper based systems and want to use Excel and/or a Database). [Shameless pitch -- just switch to cerTrax at https://cloud.certraxapp.com/#/signUp ]

Recommendation: Use <TYPE>_<SITE>_<CERTIFICATE-YYYY>_<FIRSTNAME>_<LASTNAME>_<EMPID>_<DATE-ISSUED> format

But why?

First and foremost, if you are using a home grown system, folks that come behind you should be able to easily learn and adopt the prevailing naming conventions. Besides, chances are your company is acquiring other companies (or starting new sites)....and your system needs to be "portable". This requires a standard hierarchy for the metadata so it is scalable and portable/transferrable.

You need to make it real easy to look up a worker's Safety Training Document in your FileSystem

Hence the recommendation above. But, that's a lot to unpack.

The reason is that every certificate associated with an employee needs to be uniquely identified in the system -- you should be able to search for "Brandon Hitachi Shovel" -- to pull up all Brandons that have been trained on the Hitachi Shovel, and open the correct training document for the correct Brandon you were looking up.

So, what do each of the following mean in the above recommendation?

Typically, most companies keep their records in an excel file (or a database) and link that record with a scanned copy of the OSHA or MSHA document in a file system. The best way to do the mapping is to use the above naming convention.

<TYPE>

Every Safety Training is generally classified into one of 3 items:

1. Site -- something that is required before you can step foot on a site
2. SOPs - Standard Operating Procedures
3. Task - Task Training provided by a competent trainer so the operator can safely perform whatever they were hired to do.

So, that first prefix should be: SITE, SOP, or TASK. Make sure it is all CAPS (not required -- but a best practice)

<SITE>

Second in the hierarchy is the name of the site. Most companies use 3-5 characters to represent a site. It needs to have enough information so it is easy to read and interpret. A common method used is to drop the vowels so the site can still be represented without a loss in clarity (don't drop the first or last vowel). Here are a few examples:

• Imlay --> IMLY
• Spring Creek --> SPRNG-CRK
• Lehigh Hanson Cupertino --> LH-CPRTNO
• Pinson Mine --> PNSN

<CERTIFICATE>

This is the name of the training you are issuing. Here, Capitalize only for Abbreviations or to do Concatenate words.

• OSHA 30 GEN 2019 --> For OSHA 30hr
• OSHA 30 CONST 2019 --> For OSHA 30hr Construction
• MSHA ART 2019 --> MSHA Annual Refresher 2019
• MSHA New Miner --> MSHA New Miner
• Proper Welding Procedures --> SOP For proper welding procedures
• Chemical Awareness And HazComm --> Chemical Awareness and Hazard Communication Procedures
• Conveyor Belt Safety -- > self explanatory
• Cyanide Safety
• Smelter Site Specific Hazard Training --> self explanatory
• CAT 776 Haul Truck --> Identify Specific Model trained on
• Dosco ML2BP Roadheader --> Again, identify specific model trained on
• Packer 2 --> Identify specific model trained on

I guess this gives you enough of a variety to know.

<FIRSTNAME>_<LASTNAME>_<EMPID>

Attach First and Last name to each certificate to properly identify the employee that received the training. We also highly recommend appending the employee ID to the certificate so you can track disambiguate all the "Rick Smith"s of the world :)

Please note that employees come and go. And somebody needs to go into the system and remove (or archive or update) their records. There are some folks that LOVE excel ( I ain't one of 'em).

?We've seen so many instances when an employee moves from being Full-Time, to an Hourly (and back), and sometimes goes to work for a Contractor or becomes a Vendor. Managing all this data gets tedious ... and this is generally when things go out of whack.

<DATE_ISSUED>

Always include the Date Issued in the naming convention so you can easily identify if that particular employee is due for re-training (depending on the circumstances)

A few GOOD Examples:

The file system structure is also easily accessible for folks that want to look at the exact digital copy of the original training document.

There is MUCH better way to do this (for FREE)

If you are looking at simplifying and streamlining managing your Safety Training data, I would strongly recommend trying out cerTrax. Typical setup and configuration take about a day or so. And the benefits are the following:

1. Get 30, 60, and 90 day notifications (Excel DOES NOT do this) (available in Free version)
2. Visually track who has training, needs training, or needs to be re-trained (Free version)
3. Create your own training plans and have your trainers use them (full disclosure: this is in the paid version)
4. Issue OSHA and MSHA compliant Training Certificates to the folks that just got trained (again, this is in the paid version)
5. Integrate with your HR and Fleet Management Systems (Enterprise version)
6. And finally, issue QR codes to your employees so supervisors can quickly look up what each person is trained on (again, paid version :)
7. And, there is an APP for that!!!

Here are a few screenshots of cerTrax. Give it a try.

After we transitioned one of our customers over to cerTrax (from reams of paper), Larry Hughes - the Safety Director there, basically said

cerTrax is like Advil for the Safety Training Data management headache

Like I said earlier -- give it a shot. See if it works better than the system you folks currently have in place.

For a quick 10 minute demo, message me on LinkedIn or send me an email at spenmetsa@rapidBizApps.com.

For a trial account, go to https://cloud.certraxapp.com/#/signUp. There is a NO-OBLIGATION FREE 2 week trial.

And if you still like the system you are currently using, the worst that'll happen is you spend about 2-3 hours trying cerTrax out. And PROVIDE ME FEEDBACK!!!!

Thanks again folks,

Satish :)