“It provides administrators of the business with an immediate way of accessing those qualifications that need to be monitored and addressed,” Downey says. Managers needed similar information, but at a snapshot level instead, so a dashboard was developed in BW, which shows compliance by qualification groups, and forecasts when qualifications will expire. Within the dashboard, managers are also alerted if someone is booked for training, in order to help with workload planning. “Managers can run a report in the dashboard about the compliance of every person in that organisational layer,” Downey says. Using the HR system, this graphical report is delivered to managers that have direct reports. While the security is currently managed manually for these reports, Downey says they are looking at implementing role-based security in the future. With a large number of contractors working on the QR National network, the company was also able to run safety sessions for around 1500 contractors and track these and the resulting qualifications in the LSO.
Appraisals on the go Because the QR National workforce is very diverse and works across some quite remote areas, reaccreditation of workers can be a challenge. “For example, the best way to assess a train driver is for the assessor to get on the train,” Downey says. “We wanted to empower our assessors to conduct that role without any hindrances, without having to bring them into the classroom.” To streamline this process, QR National established a number of appraisal templates within SAP, accessible through a portal. These templates pull through the qualification requirements for certain positions, and the assessor can use the portal to store all assessment material, including assessment documents. By allowing the assessor to complete the process of determining the assessment outcome and impart the qualification if someone is competent, an additional administrative function is eliminated. This process ensures that assessors are always using the most up-to-date appraisal document with the appropriate version control. As a dynamic document, the assessor is able to check if the worker has a current qualification or if it has expired. “We have about 150 appraisal documents in SAP for assessors and instructors to access for various functions, including classroom delivery,” Downey says. “It eliminates the risk that people will be accredited using outdated criteria.” Through the implementation of the Knowledge Management module, QR National was also able to retire half a dozen legacy document management systems across the organisation.
Workflow QR National implemented a number of workflow items relating to qualifications. Managers and individuals are reminded 90, 60 and 30 days out from qualification expiry, and were given access to the learning portal and information
on how to renew qualifications. This system provides a self-enrolment functionality for workers, as well as a capability for a manager to enrol an individual if they haven’t taken action to address a qualification requirement. “Anything that is a mandatory requirement bypasses an approval process from the manager,” Downey says. “If someone has been told they have to do something, we’re not going to put a barrier up.”
Course programs and unique qualification groups For the RTO component, course programs work the same way that they do in tertiary institutions. Courses are grouped into different stages and learners can find out how the course is structured, what units of competency it aligns with, and dates when a course is offered. “From the back end, we can track who is where in the program structure, and follow up with them,” Downey says. One challenge, when using the LSO, was how QR National’s RTO could report on national units of competency through SAP, which doesn’t have this functionality natively. The company overcame this by creating a national unit of competency group separation, which makes it easier to report for compliance purposes. “You need to think ahead and do your planning to work out how you want to report on it, and what you want to report on,” Downey says.
Key learnings Downey says some of the key considerations for those seeking to implement a similar solution are to ensure position profiles are clean and well-maintained, if using position-based learning; focus on communication across the organisation about functionality such as dashboards to ensure maximum take-up; and monitor the system to understand how staff are using the tools and resources and identify opportunities for continuous improvement. “Now that we are moving torwards the rail safety requirements, we need to look at what we could be doing better, but considering now we have a lot of this infrastructure in place, the move towards that is not such a great leap.”
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