DATS Keeps Mowi team on track
The Digital Action Tracking System (DATS) is not just a Learning Management System (LMS), but it is an entire safety program solution.
Michelle Bluhm, Site Manager at Mowi’s Monday Rock farm, says the way DATS has been used by the company has increased over the years. “I have been with Mowi since 2011 and using DATS for training and learning management has allowed me to keep current and to advance my career at my pace.”
Now, new elements of the system are being used so that it can be used as an investigation tool – not just as an LMS. “Using DATS for Health & Safety has become key,” she says. “Streamlining all of our monthly reports and investigations into DATS will allow for a one stop shop, once we are familiar and confident with the process.
“DATS is incredibly easy to use for staying current with training and tracking progress- I receive weekly email updates for myself and my team. I also use DATS as a tool for career growth during performance reviews- both personally and for my team.
Bluhm uses Dylan Criddle, who has been with Monday Rock since the middle of May, as an example of an employee using DATS in a proactive way.
“He’s a total rock star,” she says. “He’s been working on DATS on his own time (often), leading and expediting his training.”
Mowi Canada West started utilizing the DATS system in 2012 for all of its internal and external training. Employees learn about DATS on their first day as part of their orientation with the company and begin their training immediately within their own user account, managed by Mowi’s DATS administrators. The DATS system utilizes ‘dots’ in its traffic control method for training compliance:
- Green dots means Complete;
- Yellow: Due soon;
- Red: Due now.
Mowi Canada West Health and Safety Manager Blaine Tremblay, says “Employees are quick to catch on to our company drive and exciting positive culture to turn dots green. A key reason for the positive culture is simply because the DATS system is fun, as employees can personalize their account, and it has proven itself to be an effective system overall for employees and managers.
“It is a very user-friendly, interactive way to complete training as an LMS, using computer based courses with quizzes. It also has external upload capabilities to manage training for contractors.”
Managers are directly linked with their direct reports and receive an automated training summary compliance report from the DATS system on a weekly basis. This has allowed managers to review employees’ training and compliance simply and easily on the fly, or by simply logging in to their account and reviewing compliance or actions that may be due soon.
This level of oversight is very useful when demonstrating compliance with 3rd party standards. One of the first requests the HR department receives during an audit is a review of the site, company or department compliance level. They can easily tell if employees have completed training and reviewed documents as required by the standard.
Mowi Canada West has developed many customized training courses thanks to the Course and Quiz Making program. Custom training in DATS has been created for PPE, eye checks, bullying and harassment and more. Thanks to the quiz making program, employees receive a much higher quality training experience.
In 2018, the Mowi Canada West Safety Department started a development strategy to move key elements of its safety program and reporting to the DATS system in order to gain much needed efficiency, streamline communications, reduce emails and achieve a higher standard of operation.
This included the following:
- November 2018. All UIC reporting was moved to DATS. The organizational structure already built from the existing LMS system supported an efficient roll out process. Now, when an employee reports a UIC, management teams up to SMT and supporting departments are automatically included and form part of the investigation or reporting team and participate together to complete. This includes management for actions created up to completion by a team leader.
- As of August, 2019, Mowi Canada West has moved all of its site safety meetings and scheduled safety drills to the DATS system to increase efficiency for the reporting and management of actions created from the meetings.
By year end, the company plans to move its inspection reporting and auditing to the DATS system, which will standardize the entire process.