Hey @gary.thistlethwaite thanks for your idea. It’s timely as we’re currently looking into better supporting contractors on the SafetyCulture platform. I’d love to know a little more around the other system you use for Permits to Work. 

For context, I’m a Product Manager at SafetyCulture and I’ve been tasked with looking into Contractor Management. I’m hearing a bit around permits to work at the moment. I’d love to know more about the other system. Does this system allow you to send a form externally and get a signature using one of the signature softwares out there?
 

Our inspections experience does allow for signatures but currently you do need a SafetyCulture account to use it and it doesn’t support an integration with systems like Docusign. We’ve actually been talking recently about how we might improve our inspections experience to better support Permits to Work so it’s great to hear some of this feedback could improve it. 

We are also looking at how we can do site inductions for visitors / contractors. If you’re willing to share, I’d love to know more about how you’re doing these today?

Hi @Bec Cooper,

I appreciate your response and enthusiasm regarding our plans. I'd like to provide a detailed overview of our current process for managing contractors, so you can better understand our needs and how SafetyCulture software could greatly benefit us.

Currently, our workflow involves several steps:

1. Issue Reporting: We initiate the process by raising a 'Facilities' Issue in SafetyCulture whenever we encounter an issue like a broken toilet.

2. Work Order Generation: After the issue is logged, a work order is automatically generated in a SharePoint list. This work order outlines the tasks that need to be completed by a subcontractor, such as a plumber.

3. RAMS Acquisition: Our team then collaborates with the subcontractor to obtain Risk Assessments and Method Statements (RAMS) for the planned works. This communication is primarily done via email.

4. H&S Review: Our Health and Safety team reviews the RAMS to ensure they are suitable and sufficient for the planned activities. Once approved, they send an email notification to the Facilities team, allowing the works to proceed. If RAMS are not approved due to control deficiencies, it results in email exchanges with the subcontractor until adequate documentation is provided.

5. Engineer Training and Accreditations: We also request the necessary training and accreditations from engineers via email. Similarly, if training or accreditations are not valid, it leads to further email discussions.

6. Haspod and Permit Generation: Our Facilities Manager uses Haspod (www.haspod.com) to start drafting the permit(s) for the planned works. Multiple permits may be required for tasks like work at height, electrical work, or hot works.

7. SignNow for Permit Acceptance: The generated permit is converted to a PDF and uploaded to SignNow (www.signnow.com). The permits are then sent to the subcontractors for their agreement to the permit conditions. This serves as the start of the permit, and it is countersigned by the Facilities Manager.

8. SignIn App for Contractor Registration: We utilise SignIn App to pre-register contractors at the site, attaching their approved RAMS and accreditations. They receive an email containing site rules, induction material, maps, and parking information, which they acknowledge through an on-screen signature. The contractor's profile stores relevant documentation for the work orders they complete. This system allows us to exempt contractors from full inductions within a specific timeframe, typically 6 months.

9. SafetyCulture Inspection: We employ SafetyCulture Inspections to ensure that contractors are following their procedures. Any discrepancies or issues discovered are logged as 'Non-Conformance' incidents in our SharePoint List tracker.

10. Permit Closure and Archiving: Once the permit is closed (or extended, if necessary), both the engineer and a member of our team sign the permit again. We stamp it to indicate that it is no longer valid.

This process is intricate and aims to ensure our strict compliance with "Managing contractors: A guide for employers HSG159" (Managing contractors: A guide for employers HSG159 (hse.gov.uk) as provided by hse.gov.uk in the UK.

Our hope is that SafetyCulture software can streamline and simplify this complex workflow, saving us considerable time and effort. We believe such a solution could also benefit Health and Safety practitioners globally.

In the long term, we aspire to consolidate all these diverse systems into one cohesive platform to reduce costs for our company. While we've considered other options like "Control of Work Software - VelocityEHS" (Control of Work Software - VelocityEHS) we are hesitant to abandon our SafetyCulture account, given the numerous advantages it offers.

Your insights and assistance in tailoring a solution to our specific needs would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

@gary.thistlethwaite Thank you so much for such a detailed response and my apologies for the delay in replying, I’ve been on leave and just returned today. I definitely did not want you to think you’d gone to all this effort and I ignored you. 

This is impressive and you’ve given me a lot to look into. We are currently investigating how we can better serve the collection of licences and credentials from workers to ensure they are compliant and competent to work and the ability to keep these up to date. This also includes how we could facilitate site inductions using the SafetyCulture platform. 

Following this we plan to look at how we could create contractor entities within the platform allowing you to manage and group users from subcontractors as well as store important documents like insurance policies, contracts etc 

I’d love to chat to show you a bit about what we’re working on. We’re definitely not in the position currently to solve your entire workflow but perhaps we have some pieces to improve it for you. 

I’ve got your email so I’ll pop you an email now and we can set up a time to chat. 

Has anything been done on this from with regards to signatures for approvals by someone outside the company as this is also something we require and will assist with Quality compliance.

The more we use SC the more we are find the need for external signatures.

If we have a customer that is not present at the completion of work we still need to get a verification from that the work is complete via our post work inspection checklist.

Would be great if we could send an inspection to our customers to be signed.

How are people getting around this issue ?

What's required basically is an approval process. At the moment in safety culture this is something that is missing. It would be a massive improvement to the system if external companies clients and so on could approve agree and report of the signatory during the handover process.

This in my opinion is an essential improvement that is required. To be able to have the ability to collaborate with other companies clients and main contractors in our supply chain remotely for them to endorse what we are doing is a critical feature of our accreditation process.

We have started to Pioneer the way we utilize the safety culture platform for auditing and monitoring. We have included our safety management system and our quality assume system within this system the lacking area is the signatory piece.

I understand that there are other pieces of software and companies that offer signatures such as doc u sign however we we need to be looking at one system to care to for more rather than having lots of little systems that piece together. I look forward to even more about this improvement going forward.

I would also like to add that when looking at the safety culture system from assets to actions to templates inspections and heads up down to issues and the integration with people having the ability to have some kind of signature signature or approval or acceptance by individuals contractors and the like will be in my opinion game changer.

@Bec Cooper I am also really keen to see the introduction a feature that allows external contractors or visitors to the site be inducted via Safety Culture. 
Could it be possible for the site to be issued with a QR code that the visitor scans, they can then have the option to complete templates relating to that site, such as Permits to Work, Safe Systems of Work and also be issued with a template (video) detailing the emergency evacuation procedures for that site -  which they can sign to acknowledge they have received and understood this information. The documents issued to that guest/ visitor can have a unique reference code.
This would create a digital record of all visitors who are currently on that site and in the event of a site evacuation, this information would serve as a roll call / fire register, allowing the site manager to validate they are accounted for.  This could also tie into the incident management feature. 

The information supplied by the guest could also be matched to any credentials they have provided prior to attending the site, such as licenses and insurance certs etc. 

If the contractors information is not already on the system the form can prompt for them to be validated before any PTW’s, SSOW are issued.  

We are currently having to use paper forms or provide a link to a Microsoft Forms version. Allowing guest users the opportunity  to be issued, complete and sign such forms within Safety Culture would be an amazing advantage as It would keep everything in one platform

Also, would it be possible whenever the contractor completes the Permit To Work form that this then creates actions relating  to that PTW - for example, should the criteria of the PTW require the site manager to carryout hourly checks on the contractor to confirm their welfare and safety, then an action is created to validate that this has been executed, and time stamp when the check was carried out. 
 

The site manager can then close the PTW and have the contractor sign out of the site using the QR code and input a ref ID attached to the PTW.

I would be happy to pick this up with you directly if needed?

speak soon,

Thomas  

Thank you for posting this request, this is exactly what we need for one of our templates that requires signatures from our customers