So, you’re meeting the status quo and passing your safety inspections. That’s great, but it’s no reason to let your safety program stagnate. Why not aim a little higher?

While a no-accident policy is definitely a noble goal and achievable in some industries, it is important to set realistic yet demanding goals. OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) is a great way to start.

VPP essentially recognizes worksites that have gone above and beyond in their health and safety efforts by implementing top-of-the-line safety management systems. Sites awarded by the program are considered exemplary leaders in safety performance and are eligible to receive one of three rankings:

• Star: The highest level of recognition, the Star Program recognizes sites that have achieved injury and illness rates at or below their industry’s average, self-sufficiently control workplace hazards, and boast the most robust, comprehensive safety management programs.
• Merit: Merit sites are on the road to becoming Star-recognized, but need to boost health and safety performance to be considered excellent.
• Star Demonstration: This designation is reserved for worksites that address unique, often sector-specific health and safety concerns and issues.

Many employers might wonder why they ought to exceed basic health and safety requirements and seek recognition through the program. There are many reasons, all of which will contribute to any organization’s social and economic bottom lines:

• Fewer Accidents: On average VPP participants see at least 50 per cent fewer accidents on an annual basis and a Days Away Restricted or Transferred (DART) case rate of 52 per cent below the average for their industry.
• Increased Productivity and Efficiency: Fewer accidents mean less downtime and a more effective, efficient use of your human capital.
• Reduced Insurance Rates: As your company or worksite demonstrates superior safety performance and encounters fewer or no fatalities or accidents, annual insurance rates will plummet.
• Attract and Retain Talent: Not only will existing employee morale get a boost from your exemplary safety record, being VPP Star-recognized will help your company attract top industry talent who will be lured by your commitment to safety.
• Marketing and Brand Equity: With fewer or no accidents, injuries, fines and fatalities, VPP recognition can ultimately be leveraged with marketing campaigns to boost brand image and attract high-calibre customers.
  

Achieving VPP recognition is demanding, but completely realistic if a worksite has implemented a robust, streamlined software-based safety management system.

To learn more about VPP or join the program, contact OSHA’s Office of Partnerships and Recognition at (202) 693-2213 (or the VPP Manager at your OSHA Regional Office). Read all about VPP here.

Intelex is pleased to announce they have been selected by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to provide a Training and Licensing Management System for their 4800 employees. The Laboratory, one of nine Johns Hopkins divisions, approached Intelex in search of a cost effective IT system that would allow them to streamline the management of their employee training and certification requirements at the departmental level.

The Intelex Training and Licensing Management System that they selected has the ability to establish specific training requirement and certification standards associated with any workgroup, is robust enough to accommodate a large number of employees, and is highly automated allowing for easy scheduling and re-scheduling of training. The Compliance Report, which is a pre-built feature of the system fosters the generation of real-time reports drawn from all training data in the system. Key reporting metrics include: assigned training by employee, training hours completed, training hours pending, certifications completed, certifications pending, certification renewals approaching as well as data specific to individual courses such as the number of employees assigned to a course and the number completed.

"We are excited to add John Hopkins University to our educational client roster along with others like the University of Virginia and Texas A&M University," commented Intelex President and CEO Mark Jaine, "Our EHSQ software systems have been gaining a lot of momentum within the education industry and we are looking ahead to continue this trend and provide solutions unique to the industry's needs." With the Intelex system being highly scalable in nature, it will be able to adapt to the expanding needs of the University and ultimately not be outgrown.

Find out more about Intelex's Training and Licensing Management System.

Intelex is excited to announce the new Training Quiz Builder Module that has been designed to enable organizations to develop customized training quizzes for competency testing as part of their employee training programs. Working in conjunction with the Intelex Document Control and Training Management Modules, it facilitates the creation of training quizzes, presentation of training materials, testing of employees and tracking of employee training records.

Module Overview
The Intelex Training Quiz Builder was designed to streamline and strengthen the employee training process. Using this module an organization will have the ability to:
Create individual quizzes; formulate either multiple choice style or comment style questions.

-Load training materials (PowerPoint, Flash, external links to CBT content) directly into the module thereby enhancing users experience and retention.

-Associate training with any document stored in the Document Control Module (Policies, Procedures, Work Instructions or Training Materials) to evaluate employee knowledge and competence of that specific document/task.

-Establish scoring thresholds to set pass/fail standards to gate employee progress.

-Actively track and update employee training records for successful and failed attempts.

-Generate reports based on results.

-Automatically notify employees about new documents that have been released or revisions to existing documents that competence must be tested on.
 
Implementing the Intelex Training Quiz Builder will enable your organization to fine-tune their employee training program to reflect the competencies associated with specific jobs, sites, and levels of designation. Working in conjunction with the Intelex Training Management module, the Training Quiz Builder can facilitate an employee training program that is highly configurable with the ability to easily manage company growth, changes in policies and procedures and any other developments that a company may experience.

To learn more request a demonstration today!