Sign In

Legal Requirements for visitor Sign In

Employers have an obligation for the safety of all visitors to the worksite(s). Steps must be taken to brief visitors about hazards, emergency procedures and precautions to be taken, to ensure contractors are competent for the job, have suitable hazard management measures in place, and are monitored and supervised in proportion to the risk

Procedure for visitor Sign In

The following procedure applies to the whole process of visitor/contractor management, including the Sign In, which is the point at which the relevant people register their presence at a worksite and are taken under an appropriate level of care and control. SafetyBase also uses an Approved Contractors list, to store details of contractor certification and approvals; Site Safety Rules, which is a template for creating your own site specific rules; Safety Induction to record inductions and evaluate contractor risk ratings; Safety Contracts, which can be used to develop broad contracts between the contractor and the employer. There are no hard and fast rules as to the exact means used in every case. The processes must be applied according to the level of risk, time, project size and complexity

Wherever practicable, visitors to the workplace must report to a place or person to register their presence. They must be allocated to a responsible person and be given sufficient information to assure their safety while in the workplace. This will range from basic information like evacuation procedures, escorting/supervision all the way to competency based selection, comprehensive induction using site safety rules, job hazard analysis and monitoring/evaluation of contractor safety performance

The site responsible person will normally be the Plant/Equipment Manager, Property Manager, or the person for the time being performing those roles

The site responsible person should consider the following:

• Do contractors or visitors just "turn up" and get started? This is OK for routine tasks for which there is an existing understanding (e.g. truck deliveries), but it's not OK for first visits or more complex and varied work. Getting a Sign In is your opportunity to exchange initial information and assign a host
• Selection and screening. Does the visitor/contractor have the required competency and prior knowledge to complete their business safely? Do you maintain a list of pre-approved contractors? You can use Approved Contractors under the Contractor Safety section
• Does the contractor/visitor understand the rules and reporting requirements while on site? Do they know where and how to report hazards or accidents? Site Safety Rules is a template you can use, print and get signed/dated
• Does the visitor/contractor have knowledge of the hazards they will encounter or create, and do they have an agreed site specific plan or instructions as to how the hazards will be managed? The Safety Induction can be completed and printed for sign off. It also allows a risk based evaluation of the contractor performance
• Will you require the contractor to sign a baseline safety agreement upon which you can overlay some more specific requirements, including work permits and special precautions? You can use the Safety Contracts template. You can put contract wording into it by using the template at the top of the page at Help/Health and Safety Procedures Manual/Contractor Safety/Safety Contracts
• Do you need to set up a system for monitoring, joint discussions or spot checks to ensure agreed hazard controls are effective and continuing?
• Will you maintain monitoring records and conduct periodic re-evaluations of contractors?

SafetyBase files under the heading Contractor Safety will assist in maintaining and controlling all the above processes

Using Tasks to assist with visitor Sign In

Tasks can be notifications, instructions, alerts or corrective actions associated with a particular file. You can add Tasks as you go during data entry, using the inline New Task button in your screen. You can also use the Toolbar at the bottom of your screen during data input, or the Tasks tab after you submit the file

As you create a file, SafetyBase may automatically set suggested Tasks, depending on some of your droplist selections. Watch for inline informational messages, which are there to alert you if a droplist might create an automatic Task

Please note that although these automatic Tasks may be created as helpful prompts, they do have generic wording, so you have the choice of creating Tasks yourself. This is advisable if you prefer the wording to be specific or personal. If appropriate, you can select the "Recurring" button, which lets you create a repeating schedule, (say, an inspection, review or check-up interval)

When any Task is set in the system, it will display in the form you created, a summary tab in the file and in the Task List of the person it is allocated to (Recurring Tasks don't show until they are due). Tasks are also e-mailed to the allocated person on the required number of days prior to the Due Date

A small number of tasks have been set as mandatory (example, reporting serious injuries to the statutory authority). These cannot be deleted

SafetyBase Tips and Tricks for visitor Sign In

• If the status is left as "Signed In", the file will show on the Dashboard Open Files list. This is important, as a means of ensuring visibility to all affected parties.

• Consider associating an electronic document (example, an existing image, pdf, spreadsheet, document, video etc), using the "Attach Documents" tab, or inline toolbar at the bottom of your screen while entering data. Record the document's details by completing the appropriate data fields, then click Attach Document. The document will upload and be available for viewing. Many file types will display as a thumbnail

• You can associate a SafetyBase file using the "Link Files" inline button on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen while entering data, or afterwards, using the Tasks tab (example, Hazard, Fault Report, Accident Investigation or similar file that has direct relevance): Record the file's details by completing the appropriate data fields, then click ADD. Use the progressive filtering of the drop lists and ADD the file you want. The file will be linked. If you follow the link, the linked file will automatically have a link back to the file you came from

• Remember to link People with this file type, using the "Associate People" inline button on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen while entering data, or afterwards, using the Associate People tab. Doing this will build an automatic safety history for each person, which you can view by clicking on the person's name anywhere in the account

• Check file history in the "Status Log" tab. This automatically records status changes to the file. If you would like to monitor the file, click the "Watch" button at the top of the file summary. This will place the file on your Watchlist and e-mail you whenever the file status changes