Whether you are a brand new construction business owner or a longtime field worker, this post will help you successfully break down the requirements of COR certification. The whole purpose of a COR Audit is to ensure you meet all national industry health and safety standards.
Read on to understand the basics of the COR program so you can successfully earn your company’s accreditation, but also learn the importance of using online tools to help you stay compliant, and why it’s the best path forward.
What is COR?
COR is an occupational health and safety accreditation program and stands for “Certificate of Recognition.” It confirms that a business’s health and safety management system has been evaluated by a certified COR auditor and meets national standards.
“The objectives of COR™ are to provide you (the groundbreaker) with an effective safety and health management system to reduce incidents, accidents, and injuries as well as their associated human and financial costs.”
“COR™ is now frequently used as a pre-qualifying and/or condition of contract by public and private project owners across Canada.” By earning COR™, you will be able to demonstrate to clients that your health and safety management system has been developed, implemented, and evaluated on an annual basis through comprehensive internal and external audits. Basically, you’re a safety superhero. Here are just a few sections you can expect to be scored on from the COR Audit:
- Company health and safety policy
- Workplace hazard assessment and control
- Safe work practices
- Safe job practices
- Company rules
- Personal protective equipment
- Preventative maintenance
- Joint occupational health and safety committee
- Training and communication
- Inspections
- Investigations and reporting
- Emergency preparedness
- Records and statistics
- Legislation
Why is COR compliance important to my construction business? Good question.
Every workplace requires employees to complete health and safety orientation and training. It is your (the employer’s) responsibility to ensure that employees complete orientation and training to meet the COR Audit. As a company owner, you will need to prove that your employees were put through health and safety orientation and training. Finally, you will need to prove that they are also “competent”. Most importantly, you will need a track record of the entire process for evidence.
Starting to sound like a lot? That’s because it is! Good news though, we’ve kidnapped the foremost experts on jobsite safety tracking, and gave them coffee till they built their dream software. None were harmed, but they are VERY caffeinated.
Is now the best time to track COR audit requirements online? We think so.
By now, it’s clear that COR will be looking for your company to unquestionably meet the national industry health and safety standards. As mentioned earlier, this means having proof that your employees possess the knowledge needed for the job and that you have the track record to validate.
The key takeaway from today’s lesson is the track record. Be prepared to show all dates of employee training and testing, training material, site work plans and training, and all other compliance-type documents for your company. In other words, it’s alluding to having helluvalot of paperwork as well using a lot of your valuable time.
Consider Corfix your wingman, here to make sure auditors swipe right on your safety efforts 😉