As we approach the fall season, for some of you, we are also approaching the final stages on the first year in the Excellence program. Can you believe how far you’ve come? You are in the home stretch, let’s show off your hard work and tell the WSIB validators all about your journey.
A great way to gather evidence to prove your topics are deserving of a rebate is the evaluation step. Step 4, the evaluation, encourages you to reflect on your efforts to implement the topics and determine what worked for you, what challenged you, and what needs a bit more work. Remember, the WSIB validators are looking to see that your topics are living and breathing in the work place. In order to see that, you have to be able to speak to it. How do you know the topic has been entrenched at your workplace? What indicators will prove this? What will prove it is not?
Let’s take the topic of Pre-Use Inspections as an example. You revised your policy (it was previously too wordy and unclear), communicated the changes, and trained your workforce on how to properly complete the inspections. You’ve given it some time, preferably a month or two, to sink in. Now it’s time to evaluate. What will you be looking for to prove your efforts were successful? Perhaps you will pull the pre-use inspection logbooks and look at the inspections. You can look to see if they are completed every day, you can check to see if they are filled out correctly. You can compare the quantity and quality of the pre-use inspections to those that were completed before the topic was implemented. Find pieces of evidence that prove your topic has been entrenched.
For argument’s sake, let’s say you’ve taken all the right steps to implement the topic but come evaluation time, you notice the topic is not living and breathing. Perhaps the pre-use inspections are only being completed once a week, instead of once daily as outlined in your policy. Perhaps the pre-use inspections are being completed, but the quality of the inspection is poor. All evidence indicates something along the way didn’t work. Don’t panic! Use your evaluation to pinpoint the areas that need improvement and create an action plan to correct the deficiencies.
When you are writing your evidence story, comment on your findings. Tell the validator what you’ve done, how you did it, and what the outcome was. If the outcome wasn’t as favorable as you hoped, tell them your plan to fix it. Don’t let the imperfections weigh you down, address it and make a plan to move forward.
We have a recorded webinar dedicated to the Evaluation step for more ideas and suggestions. Check it out on the Dunk Excellence Portal. We also have our upcoming Touch Point Webinar on October 8th at 9AM. The first portion of this webinar will discuss the evidence submission portion; join us for insight on the submission process and the expectations from the WSIB.
As always, if you have any questions or need any assistance along your journey to Excellence, please reach out to us. Call us toll free at 1-866-754-8839 or email excellence@systems24-7.com.