Changing of our New Hire Orientation Training Records

[jennifer2015]

I am currently revising our orientation training record form, and will change the format and revise all the job descriptions, we have been receiving some customers and auditors suggestion that we can do something to improve the orientation training record as the information in the existing form may not be enough to show that the relevant staff has been trained properly, for example, our current job description on the form only have admin, production and quality departments, however it does not include other department such as sales, purchasing, store, etc.

The manpower turnover rate in our company is very low, and many of them are working for more than 8 years. My question is, after this revised orientation training record is approved by the management, do we need to re-train or prepare orientation training records for all existing staff? Or we only start using the new form for newcomer?

 

[Jimbo3]

When we brought new training forms online a while ago, our appropriate area supervisors used the new form to grandfather existing employees in those positions into the system. That way, although they did not have to repeat previous training, we established a record indicating that the employees are capable of fulfilling their responsibilities in that area.

 

[Ninja]

I assume that in addition to the old and new FORMS, you also have a PROCEDURE covering this training.

If desired, you can simply update that procedure to reference "Before this date" and "after this date" to refer to the forms which may be used.
Doing this, you would not have to update all the older forms unless you wanted to.

The word "may" is a great word in a procedure for the facets that really don't matter much...like layout of a form.

 

[jennifer2015]

When we brought new training forms online a while ago, our appropriate area supervisors used the new form to grandfather existing employees in those positions into the system. That way, although they did not have to repeat previous training, we established a record indicating that the employees are capable of fulfilling their responsibilities in that area.

Do you mean that if we are able to show a record which indicating the capability of employee and their responsibilities such as competency matrix, we no need to repeat the training just for the record purpose?
Currently, I’m revising the newcomer orientation form to indicate that the employee understand the operations and their respective responsibilities.

I assume that in addition to the old and new FORMS, you also have a PROCEDURE covering this training.

If desired, you can simply update that procedure to reference "Before this date" and "after this date" to refer to the forms which may be used.
Doing this, you would not have to update all the older forms unless you wanted to.

The word "may" is a great word in a procedure for the facets that really don't matter much...like layout of a form.

Yes, I have a training procedure, however the document no. remained the same before and after the revision, the changes will only be the revision number and format of the orientation form. The current orientation form does not provide enough information to show that the employee understand their responsibilities as I mentioned in my post.

 

[Ronen E]

If desired, you can simply update that procedure to reference "Before this date" and "after this date" to refer to the forms which may be used.
Doing this, you would not have to update all the older forms unless you wanted to.

This would be great for clarity and unambiguity, but in my understanding historical records are/should be audited against the procedures that were in force when they were created, so such a cut-off date is implied anyway from the issuance of a new form/procedure. More generally, a documented change (be it to the QMS, an engineering cahnge or else) is applicable only from the date of approval. That being said, if no grandfathering is applied, such historical records must be kept for completeness and continuity. On a second thought, it's not a bad idea even if grandfathering is applied...

 

[Ronen E]

if we are able to show a record which indicating the capability of employee and their responsibilities

The current orientation form does not provide enough information to show that the employee understand their responsibilities

This feels a little fuzzy to me...

If the pre-change form doesn't provide proper evidence, how will you be able to support that the existing employees already qualified? Do you have such evidence somewhere else?

 

[jennifer2015]

This feels a little fuzzy to me...

If the pre-change form doesn't provide proper evidence, how will you be able to support that the existing employees already qualified? Do you have such evidence somewhere else?

Sorry for the confusion. Our current orientation form form doesn't provide proper evidence but our Admin dept. has different files for keeping and updating of the employee certificates/licenses, external course records and in-house training records. Because recently we received some feedback from few customer audits on our orientation records, so I am revising the form, and not sure whether need to prepare all orientation records for existing staff again.

 

[Ronen E]

Sorry for the confusion. Our current orientation form form doesn't provide proper evidence but our Admin dept. has different files for keeping and updating of the employee certificates/licenses, external course records and in-house training records. Because recently we received some feedback from few customer audits on our orientation records, so I am revising the form, and not sure whether need to prepare all orientation records for existing staff again.

If orientation records exist somewhere else in your org, make a copy and keep in your system available for next audit. Historical records don't necessarily need to align with revised practice (or forms), but if the org has a long-standing practice of qualifying new employees through orientation training, records of such training need to exist somewhere (and be accessible in a timely manner), for each and every employee.

 

[jennifer2015]

If orientation records exist somewhere else in your org, make a copy and keep in your system available for next audit. Historical records don't necessarily need to align with revised practice (or forms), but if the org has a long-standing practice of qualifying new employees through orientation training, records of such training need to exist somewhere (and be accessible in a timely manner), for each and every employee.

okay, thanks.

 

[jennifer2015]

Hi all, thanks for the reply and help.