Go Group has been a VITS client since 2022 and they agreed to share with us their experience of implementing VITS.
Company profile:
Number of employees in the group: 1200
Field of activity: logistics, real estate, national defence, tourism
Location: head office is in Tallinn, but there are operations all over Estonia
What were the main occupational health and safety challenges before implementing VITS?
Go Group has always taken occupational safety instruction very seriously, but it took a long time. Instructions were read on paper and supplementary instructions were done rather rarely. In addition, the accounting for work clothes and personal protective equipment was done on paper, which is also time-consuming and where there is a risk of losing documents. One of the tools was also Excel, where among other things, health check deadlines were monitored. In a company with such a large number of employees, where there are also many units across Estonia, it is necessary to manually check Excel tables constantly, because otherwise important deadlines may be overlooked.
What has improved since using VITS?
Since VITS is integrated with the HR software Directo, the information about employees in the VITS system is always up-to-date. The safety instruction process has become significantly more convenient, as instructions can be sent to employees by email and they can read them at a time and place that suits them. For each instruction, they have also added videos on the use of tools and tests, which make the instruction more substantive. They definitely want to increase the proportion of safety tests.
Since employee instruction through VITS is smooth and easy, Go Group has started to conduct more supplementary instructions, for example before the start of a season.
Excel tables are no longer used to monitor health checks. VITS helps to maintain a good overview of health checks and as deadlines approach, corresponding reminders are sent by email.
The accounting for personal protective equipment and work clothes has been completely moved to VITS. Confirmations for receiving PPE and work clothes are taken from employees digitally and the system gives a signal when some piece of PPE or clothing needs to be replaced.
Since Go Group also has many first aiders, the monitoring of their training certificates takes place in VITS. The user receives a reminder about the expiration of the training certificate, as well as about the absence of a first aider.
What are the main functions you use in VITS?
- Safety instruction
- Monitoring of health checks
- Issuing of work clothes and personal protective equipment
Usually implementing a new platform is time-consuming and complicated, so we are asking how you got employees to use VITS?
The implementation of VITS went very smoothly, as a lot of necessary information is already shared by email anyway. Therefore, employees are used to using email, through which confirmations are taken from employees for both instructions and the receipt of personal protective equipment and work clothes.
Why is dealing with occupational health and safety important to you?
Railway and machine building are high-risk fields. We want to offer the employees of our companies a safe work environment so that they would be healthy and could contribute to the company’s development over as many years as possible.