Certificate tracking is an essential part of running an effective organization. All employees must remain up to date on certifications, permits, licenses and any other requirements, and their employers must maintain up-to-date records of all of this documentation. This recordkeeping can be a major headache, especially for organizations working in industries such as healthcare whose employees require numerous certifications. It’s easy to lose track of renewal dates and allow certificates to expire, which can be a huge liability for you.
Now, add in the urgency of a crisis and the issues commonly experienced with certificate tracking are compounded. You may be hiring new people or bringing people out of retirement to fulfill needs during periods of high demand. Internally, you may move employees to different positions to improve operations, as well. These moves do not come without some updates on the administrative side of things, and if you neglect it, you’ll have to do a lot more work later and face possible administrative or legal action.
Creating a certificate tracking system is the first step in making sure all of your employees are meeting industry standards of service and skills, and during a fast-developing situation, you’ll be grateful you’ve taken the time to prepare a framework which keeps everything up to date.
A certificate tracking system will aid your organization in several key ways.
Keeping Track of Expirations
You’ll want to be prepared well in advance of any unexpected situations. Emergencies usually come out of nowhere, giving you little time to get all your ducks in a row. That’s why it should be part of your regular routine to review and update your database of certifications.
With a certificate tracking system, you don’t have to spend the countless hours it would take to check the status of every document in your database. Everything can be stored and managed in one location. You’ll receive notifications when new documents have been uploaded as well as when old certificates are about to expire. You can even decide how soon before expiration you’d like to be notified in case employees need time to take a course or training to recertify.
Automate Collection & Verification
Collecting, storing and referring back to certificates throughout their lifecycle becomes a messing process when you’re working with physical copies. What you really want is a system where your employees participate in tracking their certificates. They are able to upload new versions, respond to reminders or notifications concerning their status and help you verify their validity and currency.
With a certificate tracking system, employees can upload certificates right from their email. All certificates, permits, licenses and any other requirements will be indexed with preferences designated for each. Collection of new and renewed certificates can be a simple process completed from anywhere, and administrators will be alerted by the system when these tasks are completed.
When it comes to verification, you’ll be able to quickly retrieve and communicate the status of certifications from a centrally-located database. All parties, both internally or externally, will know your records are fully up to date and employee requirements have been met.
Accessibility of Materials
In a fast moving situation, you probably need the information you’re tracking down yesterday. Whether your records are jammed into filing cabinets or lost amidst all the things saved on company computers, you haven’t made certificates easy to access when you need them the most.
By moving to a cloud-based certificate tracking system, you’ll have access to everything you need via a secure repository. You’ll have full control of how you organize your materials – by user, department or document type such as permits, licenses, insurance policies. Within these groups, you can even include subgroups to delineate between years or issuances. With everything set up just like you need it, finding what you need will be intuitive, easy, fast and save money.
Of course, you don’t want everyone within your organization to have access to everything. That’s why a flexible grouping structure should allow you to layer access and control who within your organization will be able to view and take action on each certificate. Users will only be able to view their own documentation. That’s better access control than you’ll get with a filing cabinet or online cloud account.
Expedite Renewal
It always seems like if one thing goes wrong, everything else follows suit. During a crisis or emergency, when you need to ensure that all employees – both new and old – are fully prepared for the job they need to do, waiting on out-of-date certificates or permits to be updated will throw a wrench in your plans. You want renewals to happen quickly, preferably without any lapse in coverage.
The most effective way to expedite renewal is by utilizing a system designed for certificate tracking. As the time for renewal approaches, everyone will be notified. New versions can be easily uploaded and stored from anywhere, but you’ll also have a history of all past versions to reference should the need arise. You can even assign tasks to required parties or link to policies and regulations both within and outside your organization – whatever helps the process of renewal run smoothly and quickly for you.
Guaranteed Compliance with ComplianceBridge
Whether you work in healthcare, education, manufacturing or a myriad of other industries, maintaining current credentials is a critical factor in ensuring compliance. Don’t let proper management of this important administrative responsibility fall by the wayside.
The ComplianceBridge certificate tracking software handles all aspects of your organization’s continued compliance with licensing and certifications. With ComplianceBridge Certification Tracking, you have the ability to collect, organize and store all certificates, permits, licenses and more. Access and update your database at any time and from any place. Reminders and notifications alert affected parties when their certificates are nearing expiration and it’s time to renew. ComplianceBridge won’t allow you to worry about noncompliance or loss of coverage again, and you’ll be able to dedicate your focus to other matters.
Whether you’re running as “business as usual” or adapting to new, uncharted territory, we make the process simple, centralizing all of your certificate management activities inside a secure, robust system. Schedule a demo with ComplianceBridge today to see how easy certificate tracking can be for yourself.
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