Ensuring compliance with various industry standards requires meticulous documentation of processes and workforce qualifications. Employees must receive necessary training and their participation must be tracked efficiently. This is particularly critical for audits, such as the ISO 9001 certification, where up-to-date training records and competency matrices are essential.
Traditionally, preparing for audits involved significant manual effort from team leaders, who had to update training records and ensure compliance. This approach was not only time-consuming but also inefficient. Our goal was to establish a real-time, automated system that keeps training records continuously updated and aligned with current process instructions.
The Solution: Leveraging Microsoft Power Platform
Given our existing Microsoft 365 subscription, we decided to utilize its Power Platform tools—including Power Apps, Power Automate (formerly Flow), and SharePoint—to build a robust training and document management system. This solution streamlined approval workflows, training tracking, and competency matrix updates.
1. Document Management and Approval Process
To keep work instructions current and structured, we created a SharePoint-based document repository with three libraries:
- New Instructions (awaiting approval)
- Active Instructions (currently valid documents)
- Archived Instructions (previous versions for reference)
A multi-level approval workflow ensures that documents go through the necessary validation steps before becoming active. Depending on the criticality, documents pass through one to three approval levels before reaching the active state.
Once an instruction is approved and moved to the Active Instructions repository, a Power Automate workflow assigns relevant training to employees based on their job roles.
2. Training Assignment and Self-Service Portal
To facilitate training, we developed two Power Apps solutions:
- Self-Service Training App:
- Employees log in with their ID cards.
- They can view their assigned instructions, read them, and take a knowledge test.
- Completion records are automatically stored in SharePoint lists.
- Instructor-Led Training App:
- Replaces paper-based training records.
- Trainers create a training session in SharePoint.
- Participants scan their ID cards to register attendance.
- The system logs completed training, ensuring full traceability.
3. Automated Competency Matrix Updates
A training matrix is automatically generated using Excel and Power Automate. Every night, a workflow runs to:
- Cross-check job roles, required instructions, and completed training.
- Update the competency matrix in real-time.
This eliminates the need for manual updates and ensures that audit preparation is effortless.
4. Handling Organizational Changes
The system dynamically adjusts to employee changes:
- New hires: When a new employee is added to the SharePoint list, a workflow assigns necessary training based on their job role.
- Job transfers: If an employee moves to a different position, outdated instructions are unassigned, and new training is assigned automatically.
Key Benefits
- Real-Time Audit Readiness
- No last-minute rush to update training records.
- All documentation is up-to-date, reducing audit preparation time.
- Employee Accessibility
- Employees can access instructions from any device, anywhere.
- Ideal for remote workers and field employees.
- Paperless Compliance Management
- Eliminates manual paperwork and improves data accuracy.
- Ensures complete traceability of training records.
- Scalability and Integration
- Built using Microsoft 365 tools, ensuring easy adoption and integration with existing systems.
Conclusion
By leveraging Microsoft Power Platform, we transformed a manual, time-intensive training compliance process into an automated, self-sustaining system. This solution ensures continuous compliance, real-time visibility, and efficient audit preparation—all while enhancing the employee training experience.
Would you like to implement a similar solution in your organization? Let’s connect and explore how Power Platform can revolutionize your training and compliance processes.