Construction
Keeping unqualified people off site
Tie site access to paperwork, and let the system keep count.
On site the problem is not having the paperwork: it is that the person on the scaffold today is one of the people who have it. Between those two things sits a list somebody updates by hand, and that is where it breaks.
How to set it up
- 1
One case per subcontractor, with their workers as participants.
- 2
Company documents in one phase; each person's in their own.
- 3
Whatever expires — training, medicals, insurance — marked as such.
- 4
The site manager checks the cleared list before opening the gate.
Important
Someone entering without current training is not an administrative breach: it is the person who gets hurt and the liability that follows. This is the case where the list has to be genuinely right.
What changes versus a spreadsheet
| With a spreadsheet | With a case |
|---|---|
| Somebody updates the list | Status recalculates itself |
| Expiries are checked when someone remembers | They warn before lapsing |
| The site manager phones the office | Checks it on a phone |
| At an inspection, you search | You show |
Worth knowing
Setting training to warn 60 days out leaves time to arrange a course. Fifteen does not, and the person stays off site until they have done it.
›What about self-employed contractors?
The same: a participant with their own documents.
›Does it serve for contractor safety coordination?
It is exactly the file you have to produce for it.
›Can I give the safety coordinator access?
Yes, read-only and scoped to that site.
A real case
The situation
A site with nine subcontractors and a hundred and twenty workers tracks it in a spreadsheet.
What you do
- Moves each subcontractor to a case with their workers
- Marks training and medicals as expiring
What you get
The site manager checks at the gate, and the next inspection finds no worker without current paperwork.
The situation
Entry is authorised by looking at an out-of-date folder.
What you do
- Checks the status in the moment
What you get
The decision uses today's data.
The situation
Somebody not on the list comes in.
What you do
- Checks per person before authorising
What you get
What comes through the gate is what was checked.
The situation
The authorised list is on paper in the site hut.
What you do
- Checks it from a phone at the gate
What you get
The control works where the gate is.
The situation
A document expires and nobody withdraws the authorisation.
What you do
- Lets the expiry withdraw it
What you get
Access reflects the real situation.
The situation
The client asks who came in on a specific day.
What you do
- Checks the record of authorised access
What you get
You answer using that day's date.
This article answers
- site access control documentation
- contractor safety coordination
- worker without training on site
- construction subcontractor paperwork