We know that Covid normal equals staff shortages, shut-downs, cost pressures, supply issues – you name it, we are all still seeing and feeling the impacts across Australia regardless of location, role or age and this is no different for the education industry.
We also know that keeping students, visitors, vendors along with all staff safe, having good procedures in place for risk reduction and site safety is nothing new, but that the focus on these has been amplified by the pandemic. Including:
- Staff shortages – and the associated risk of not adhering to necessary compliance and procedural control when you are short staffed or have new/casual staff onsite
- Hybrid learning – managing attendance at student hubs, libraries, labs and other large gathering areas
- Wellbeing while on campus – the importance of tracking visitors and contractors that attend sites to ensure they comply with policies and procedures
- Student and staff experience – ensuring that the institution is investing in the right infrastructure and technology to meet the needs and expectations of the community
- Seeking alternatives – financial implications of students looking at other education alternatives making the competition to attract and retain students hotter than ever
Is your campus prepared?
To help you determine the answer, ask yourself:
- Do we have enough insight to plan, prepare and understand the risk to protect ourselves against these emerging risks effectively?
- Are we set up to handle the new realities and expectations of students, staff and visitors?
The potential ramifications of a contractor compliance incident?
Imagine your institution has requested a contractor come on site to make necessary repairs. However, unbeknownst to you, the contractor does not have the correct access rights or follow the correct WH&S policies or even their public liability insurance has expired.
That day, your institution has a replacement staff member who didn’t know the contractor was arriving, nor did they know where current contractor documents lived, or policies involved.
The contractor enters your campus and slips off the ladder falling into a window, not only damaging property but also severely hurting themselves.
If the above was a real incident, let’s start looking at the potential ramifications stemming from a lapse in compliance standards.
- Who’s at fault? Who is liable? How will the courts address any claim for compensation where the institution lacked proper process?
- How could your institution be impacted if it had to cover any bills, losses or insurance increases?
- How would your budget be impacted and what other projects would-be put-on hold or cancelled altogether?
- How would students react to the lapse in procedure and the potential issues that would cause and what roll-on effect would that have in the broader community?
- How about the potential for reputational damage or the impact of adverse social media or news have on the event?
- Finally, what about the staff having to deal with the issues, complaints and problems arising from this?
How do you further understand the risks and mitigation activities?
Does it all sound a bit like doom and gloom? Without the right processes in place it can be.
Nobody wants to be reacting to an easily preventable issue. The good news is that it’s possible to identify the risks and address them before they become an actual problem. In just one approach, education institutions with large or distributed campuses can automate some of the visitor and contractor processes to stay compliant even when they have staff shortages.
Don’t know where to start? We do.
Anticipating the impact of potential issues is paramount to safeguarding the campus environment, employees, students and contractors. With over 3,000 education customers, we believe we understand the challenges faced by the education industry, and our experience means we can provide insights and solutions that address your challenges and make sense to your higher learning institution by:
- Identifying potential risks and mitigation activities through visitor management processes
- Discussing solutions to ensure onsite visitors have been properly checked in and inducted where necessary
- Considering ways in which to validate and manage contractor licenses and credentials ensuring relevant information is provided prior to entering
- Providing insight on how to capture relevant health screening information
- Protecting your campus, students and staff, with visibility of who’s onsite at any given time
Fujifilm Upstream Solutions will assist you to identify the positives, along with the challenges, and help provide you the ability to assess your risk and determine next best steps.
If those next steps require a technology solution, then you know you are working with a partner that can support your needs and protect you from the risks that have arisen in this new Covid-impacted environment.
Reach out to learn more about how we can help you.