Organizations invest a lot of time, money, and resources into workplace training. Yet auditors are often called in to review the documents that show the organization’s compliance with their training, and find many of the same problems with the documentation time after time. There is documentation for some but not all employees. Completion dates on worksheets seem to vary and often be missing. Sign-in sheets may prove that people were there, but don’t indicate what they learned. Certificates may prove that someone completed a course, but the details are missing. These documentation gaps do not show that the training failed, but that the organization has failed to document it in a way that proves the training happened in a way that will satisfy the auditors’ compliance needs.
The issue is knowing the training happened but not being able to prove it in an acceptable way. Employees who were trained, completed courses, and gained valuable skills. But the organizational records do not show this in a way that will be acceptable to the auditors. What seems to only be an inconvenience in terms of record keeping becomes problematic with an audit, and in some cases, severely problematic enough for remedial measures to be put in place or fines to be issued.
Incomplete Records Findings
One of the most typical findings in the auditor’s review of the organization’s records is that they are incomplete. One employee has completed their training but the record documents attendance but not competency or content covered. Another employee has a certificate for three years ago but no record of having completed the refresher training. Yet another employee has an onboarding checklist that shows training was scheduled but not completed.
The documentation gaps do not happen overnight. They build up over time. Someone forgets to pick up the sign-in sheet after the training session. A certificate isn’t filed away neatly. An employee doesn’t complete all their training before leaving the organization and their half-finished training paperwork remains. A training session happens in an informal office environment and no paperwork is drawn up. All of these incidents seem small in isolation, but as an auditor goes through records they add up to show a story of poor organizational record keeping.
This situation gets worse the more an organization grows. Tracking ten employees with a simple spreadsheet or record keeping folder is easy enough. Tracking 50 or 100 employees with similar record keeping practices leaves gaps that start to become impossible to cover. Important details slip through the cracks when record keeping systems in place were never meant to deal with such numbers.
Vague Details Documentation
An organizational file can show that an employee completed “safety training” but not specify what safety training. One certificate can show professional training completed but not state what that training was. Attendance records can show that someone was present, but not what they learned or if they met all their competencies. Compliance auditors need details as most records regarding training require it.
Organizations that require many training sessions have particularly stringent requirements regarding content of the documentation they issue. Organizations such as https://cloudassess.com/ have developed systems that can track this information and capture what needs to be there rather than just a vague record of what happened in a training session.
Completion Dates Inconsistencies
Another common finding auditors have is paperwork showing inconsistencies with completion dates. Employees may have files showing their training completed many years after they needed to complete such training upon starting their position. Refresher training might seem to have taken place well after the deadlines for completion.
The dates may not line up with anyone’s recognition when a certificate is provided as proof of completion from another party. The expiration dates might be lost in an avalanche of other certificates being handed over to an employee who completed yet another type of training.
Completion dates matter when compliance organizations require such documentation with regard to training needed to be completed within a specific timeframe.
Auditors know what to look for based on their legal experience.
Competency Checks Gaps
Another common requirement of compliance regulations is checking whether someone obtained a competency after finishing a course, as opposed to just being present at the training session, and completing the course.
Trainers often have specific knowledge and experience that can only be equalled by someone trained to do so and not someone who is new to this line of work.
In most cases, organizations only have sheets with attendance records instead of someone who is competent and who passed their test after completing their course.
This situation means organizations can provide evidence on auditors’ requests for proof of someone completing their training in the organization; however, they have no paperwork to show that they were competent.
Prevent Audit Issues
The issues auditors find with record keeping can be avoided if systems are put in place as opposed to paperwork at this level. Training records should capture everything to show compliance with any regulations needed before the auditors find compliance issues with organizations after their fact.
Organizations that provide training and organizations that manage them have no business fearing audits if they keep track of everything they need to with regard to professional training, file it away properly, and bring all findings in audits back to the content of what they were trained on rather than responding to an audit with simple problems with record keeping documentation
