National Exploration Wells and Pumps uses GroundHog LMS
to issue 260 + annual refresher training 5000-23s electronically.
National Exploration Wells and Pumps is a mineral exploration drilling company with over 250 employees working on drilling projects spread out across the western U.S. Our clients include some of the largest mining companies in the world with some of the most stringent safety standards in the industry. To that end, we are always looking for new ways to improve our safety culture and systems. One of the most effective ways we keep our employees safe is to ensure that they have access to the best and most up to date training and safety resources available.
When it comes to training our people, we have been faced with two main challenges.National Exploration Wells and Pumps is a mineral exploration drilling
company with over 250 employees working on drilling projects spread out across the western U.S. Our clients include some of the largest mining companies in the world with
some of the most stringent safety standards in the industry. To that end, we are always looking for new ways to improve our safety culture and systems. One of the most effective ways we keep our employees safe is to ensure that they have access to the best and most up to date training and safety resources available. When it comes to training our people,
we have been faced with two main challenges.
COMPANY
OBJECTIVE:
Digitization of Safety Training Material
OUTCOME:
One stop shop for all things safety from training to completing permits to reviewing procedures
CHALLENGE
Our first solution was to develop paper Training Packages for our mobile equipment. The Training Packages contained all the information we as a company decided our crews needed to know to safely inspect, operate and maintain our equipment. This information is captured in our written procedures which meant that the Training Packages were created by combining multiple written procedures.
Meaning many of these Training Packages were 20 or more pages long. While we did notice improvement in the quality of our training, all that paperwork was difficult to manage and once completed was difficult to scan and manually input into our system.
Our projects are almost always in remote areas with limited cell service and scanning and uploading documents into personnel training files was a major challenge and time drain. In fact, a small percentage of completed training would never make it back to the safety office for uploading and the process itself meant countless hours of scanning, uploading and matrix creation to track who had what training.
SOLUTION
After searching for a solution, we discovered GroundHog LMS and began working with them in early 2020.
After watching a demonstration and talking with the GroundHog team we decided to do a pilot test of their system on a handful of our projects and people to see how it would work. Now instead of printing and sending out hundreds of pages of Training Packages, the field supervisors had the most up to date packages on their phones. Once the Packages were completed, both the Trainee and Trainer would sign the app using their fingers or a stylus, an electronic 5000-23 would be created and then the training records would be automatically uploaded into the correct training file.
What attracted us to GroundHog LMS at first was that it allowed us to create Training Plans which could be accessed in the field by the drill crews using the GroundHog app. After watching a demonstration and talking with the GroundHog team we decided to do a pilot test of their system on a handful of our projects and people to see how it would work.
Now instead of printing and sending out hundreds of pages of Training Packages, the field supervisors had the most up to date packages on their phones. Once the Packages were completed, both the Trainee and Trainer would sign the app using their fingers or a stylus, an electronic 5000-23 would be created and then the training records would be automatically uploaded into the correct training file.
The field supervisors have a lot on their plates as it is and by eliminating the cumbersome process of dealing with paper training records, it allowed them more time in the field on their rigs. There is also a significant cost savings that comes from eliminating the need to manage all the completed training certificatescoming in from the field and then to manually create and maintain training matrices to monitor who needs what training. GroundHog was an instant hit in the field with our personnel and we have gone from testing GroundHog LMS on several projects to rolling it out company wide in 2021 and completely moving away from paper training records.
RESULTS
This year we have had such a good experience with GroundHog that we are using their app to issue all 260 + annual refresher training 5000-23s electronically.
This completely eliminates the paper copies we have always used. We also have issued each employee a card with their name,
employee ID number and a QR code that when scanned with a cell phone or tablet camera shows all that employee’s training records. This means we no longer have to worry about an employee losing their copy of their paper training record or hoping that it was turned in and scanned into our system so it could be replaced.
Not only is the technology that GroundHog provides reliable and user friendly, but one of the reasons that our partnership with GroundHog has been so strong has been because of the outstanding relationship we have with the company.We have never worked with a company that has been so flexible and willing to workwith us to make sure their product does exactly what we want. In fact, we feel so comfortable with GroundHog and their dependability, flexibility, and willingness to customize their product for us that we are using their platform as the foundation of our career progression system that lays out the pathway to advancement from a new driller assistant to a senior driller. At the end of the day, safety comes down to the decisions that people make every day.
To be a safe company you need the best people with the best training who will make the decisions that will keep themselves and their crews safe. National has the best people in the industry and GroundHog allows us to provide them with the best, most consistent and up to date training and resources available. Then, easily capture that training as it is completed.
The flexibility of GroundHog allows National to make it a one stop shop for all things safety from training to completing permits to reviewing procedures. The partnership between National and GroundHog allows us to support our crews with the best safety information and
resources. This in turn, allows us to lead the industry in safety and professionalism.
When we are working with GroundHog, it almost feels like they are a part of our company because of the very personal services they provide. When feedback comes in from the field, we communicate it to their team and then work with them to customize their product so it is even more functional and user friendly. It is this flexibility and feeling of partnership that has led to our decision to use GroundHog not just for training, but as a platform for all our safety paperwork and all of our written procedures. We have begun incorporating quizzes as part of our electronic Training Packages and in the future are planning to add longer tests and even videos as we take more and more advantage of all that their LMS platform has to offer.
