Managing staff training records (for free!)

There are many reasons why a modern business needs to keep a record of staff training. Your training records underpin standards, customer contracts and protect you if things go wrong.

If it is that important, why don't all companies do it properly - it all?

Why keep staff training records

There are important reasons to keep training records: having evidence of training could protect you and your company from heavy fines, or even worse. If there is a serious accident where your organisation could be responsible, then an investigation may focus on the competence of your staff - and that means their training. If you can't evidence a well organised approach to training in areas like health and safety then you could be at fault.

What information should you keep?

• Certifying body
  Which organisation is being the actual syllabus and guaranteeing quality of the course and its outcomes
• The training provider
  Who delivered the course
• Dates course attended
  When did the staff member undertake the learning
• Date learning outcome achieved
  This is the date the staff member achieved the aims of the training: it might just be completing the training, it might involve a formal assessment such as a multiple-choice exam.
• Date of expiry
  This is really important - when will the course or certificate expire. Unless someone received annual refreshers most learner becomes forgotten within three years.

Where could you keep training records?

Obviously you could keep your training records in paper files but that can be difficult to update and share, not to mention tricky to access if you are working from home. We would recommend keeping them online. Here are some good solutions:

• Use a cloud document system like Google Drive or Microsoft's OneDrive
  You will need to make a spreadsheet to store all the information, which can get out of hand if you have lots of staff.
• Customise an existing system
  If you have an existing cloud system, say for payroll or customer details, you could probably work around that and store a document or two there. However usually the compromises you have to make will make it harder to use.
• Purchase an online employee management or HR system
  You could go the whole way and subscribe to an online system to manage all the staff records, including payroll, contract and absence information. It can be a great system if you can afford it but you will still likely have to manually enter all the information.
• Or keep it simple and let your training provider do it for you!
  In our opinion this is the simplest solution. If you can find the right training provider, they should be able to handle your training and automatically store your training records for you in their Learner Management System.
  
  It is important to check that the Learner Management System will also let you store third party course and certificate information - ideally with automated expiry reminders

This is Personal Data. What about GDPR and Data Privacy?

GDPR shouldn't stop you storing stuff online - you just need to do it responsibly.
Our advice is store the records with a reputable online company, ensure they are protecting your data, and know where it is stored. Keeping stored everything in the UK and EU is simplest, as you avoid the need to check data sharing agreements, but not all providers can support that.
Also be mindful that most data privacy legislation includes the idea that you keep the minimal amount of information for the shortest time. Therefore keeping test scores and NI number in your training records may be unnecessary. Likewise you should delete training details of ex-employees in a timely fashion - perhaps after twelve months if you feel it is necessary for audit purposes.

Programme features:

The Digital College offers a simple "one stop shop" to manage all your workplace training. For our website you can invite your staff onto over 100 courses, many of which are accredited by a Ofqual recognised Awarding Organisation.

Online courses are a great way to provide training plans tailored to individuals and delivered to participants remotely on demand.