Packaging Materials Manufacturer
October 19, 2016
info:HR has always been a popular HR Information System with manufacturing and distribution companies of all sizes. One such company is an industry leader in the fabrication and distribution of protective packaging materials, custom designed products and corrugated boxes of all sizes and grades. Although having started small, the company now operates various facilities totaling over one third of a million square feet and services over a thousand clients throughout Canada and the mid-northern United States.
The company is ISO 9001-2000 registered and serves all sectors of the economy from award winning point of purchase displays to the heaviest industrial packaging.
In 2007 the company became a client of HR Systems Strategies. Terri Starr, Human Resources Manager, began with the organization in 2010. Terri has consistently expanded the use of the system over the past 5 years to include access by supervisors in three plants. This allows all management and supervisors to review employee records.
“We find it so helpful for all of our Supervisory team to have access to information when they need it. From performance reviews to attendance and training records, supervisors can access what they need instead of waiting on HR to retrieve the information for them. It has really streamlined our processes, which everyone loves,” Terri remarked.
Upon acquisition in 2012 by a large Canadian conglomerate, a greater demand for the organization of record keeping was required. Prior to acquisition Terri used info:HR to track and maintain training records for the company’s ISO certification purposes. ”Audits were much smoother using info:HR, with the document attachment feature and the reporting functionality.
When I was asked for a document I was able to produce it in a couple of clicks for our Auditors. Our decision to import documents and the ease of retrieving our documentation was remarked on and praised in a number of our ISO Audit reports,” Terri explained.
After the amalgamation there was an added requirement for documentation and reporting of Health and Safety training records specifically, for the Corporate Management Team. “Our new owner has an exceptional safety standard, requiring continuous health and safety training for their employees at every level. This is strictly maintained through a ‘Pop-In Audit practice’.
Being new to the corporate family, it’s important for us to show our new peers that we share the same health and safety values,” said Terri.
An internal Health and Safety audit team from the corporate offices will arrive unannounced at a facility and will spend time speaking with the staff regarding health and safety practices at the host facility. “We as a management team are required to produce comprehensive reports in an Excel-style format on all of our health and safety-related training, complete with the status of each training course and renewal information. Non-compliance is not tolerated,” Terri described.
info:HR employee training plans were introduced to Terry in early 2014 through conversation with Barbara Chicago, HRSS Client Service Representative and Trainer. “Terri contacted me to ask if there was s a way to store records for reporting purposes in the required format. We discussed Training Plans and the Training Matrix report – this was my favourite report to give to my auditors,” Barbara commented.
Shortly after their conversation Barbara began working with Terry to build employee Training Plans to suit their organizational requirements. Barbara has had real world experience working with info:HR and the Continuing Education section of info:HR, coming from a manufacturing and auditing background herself. “I was thrilled to be able to assist Terri with setting up the framework for the continuing education records required by the new owner. Terri and I had a number of discussions regarding the best way for the records to be stored to ensure the criteria for ISO and the health and safety auditors would be met equally; we also considered ease of reporting in our plan.”
Barbara and Terri began working together on the project in June of 2014. Through discussions and training they created a plan to move forward with a solution. “Barbara took the time to really get to know our business and understand our requirements, when she was unavailable Bill was always there to help me as well,” Terri said.
In September of 2014 the corporate audit team arrived at the local facility for a health and safety audit. “I am pleased to say I was fully and completely confident when the auditors arrived that our records were accurate and up to date. I produced the reports in the format required by our auditors quickly and easily,” Terri continued. “With this being our first audit it was important for us as an organization to be compliant. We succeeded! The auditors did not require any further information from me; we satisfied the requirements with the reports I ran from info:HR in a matter of minutes with a few clicks of my mouse,“ Terry declared.
“I was so thrilled to hear that the audit went well for Terry and her team. I understand how stressful the audit process can be and making it just a little easier for someone, well it is just good to know we could contribute,” added Barbara.
Tags: Packaging