Competency Management Technology

I met with some contractors from a small oil and gas company who do work with one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. As I was discussing different regulatory compliance problems with them and presenting ways in which using an integrated system like Predict360 would remedy their problems, a lack in simple technology took me by complete surprise and made me think about the effects of this deficiency.

I was demonstrating the easy email reminder capabilities of the system, and the contractor brought up the fact that a lot of the employees do not have email addresses or access to internet at all.

How, then, are they informed and kept up to date on all of the changing regulations? Word of mouth? Newspaper?

Managing regulatory change is hard to achieve with the proper technology, but I imagine it is downright impossible without technology. There is no way these email-less employees are able to be constantly informed of all the safety hazards and changes that occur throughout the year if they are so out of touch. With this in mind, it makes me wonder and worry about the employees that are set out to do work in the field. The chances of them being properly trained and aware of all of the most recent rules regarding safety are slimmer if they do not have a way of staying instantly informed.

Competency management is one of the most important parts of maintaining a safe workplace. People are careless no matter what, but if they are careless AND ignorant, safety has no chance of prevailing. I almost think it should be a pre-requisite these days for workers to have access to the internet and email. What do you think?

On a similar note, things get way to “Easy” for companies that employ decent regulatory compliance software or a GRC software that has easy to understand modules. These tools are a must for companies that rely on manual actions and spreadsheets.

 

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