Author Archives: Monique

Worker Management 101: Onboarding New Workers

We’re all about safety—right from the very top, all the way down to each individual worker. In fact, it’s our focus on the safety of workers which makes Pegasus stand apart from other workforce management software solutions.

Your workers are your business’s greatest strength, and biggest weakness.

Highly qualified and well-trained workers lead to success. Under educated and poorly inducted workers lead to bad business outcomes, loss of revenue, and in severe cases, loss of life.

So, how do you make sure your workers are responsible for your business success? Properly onboard them.

The Importance of Onboarding

Onboarding new workers happens in every workplace. Or at least it should.

You must never underestimate its importance. In fact, we’d go as far as saying the first and most vital step in managing your workforce effectively is onboarding your workers well.

You need to make sure your workers have all the information they need to perform their roles and tasks with minimal risk to themselves and others. Do they have the right licences, insurances, and qualifications? Have they undertaken the right training? When was the last time they did training? Does it need to be reviewed?

You need to implement a thorough onboarding schedule for new workers and employees. By onboarding them properly to begin with, it’s a simple way for your business to manage risk.

How Do You Onboard Workers Successfully?

There are three different paths you can go down: classroom, online, or a combination of the two.

For site-specific induction, classroom (or in-person learning) on site is likely to be the most effective. Being able to physically walk your workers through their surroundings before they begin work can eliminate hazards and risks preemptively.

Though you should implement online learning and onboarding where possible. Research shows learning online boosts retention rates by 25 to 60 per cent, compared to 8 to 10 per cent with traditional classroom training (Source: SH!FT).

By incorporating mid-course exercises, quizzes, and summaries, you help workers retain what they’ve learned. An online onboarding environment also provides the option for workers to revisit and refresh their knowledge when they start to feel a little rusty.

Combining a combination of in-person and online induction modules, you can make sure everyone working for you has the same information about how you want your business to operate. It also fulfils your duties according to the Work Health and Safety Act.

So you’ve properly onboarded your new staff. But if you can’t report on and view their results, you’re missing out on vital feedback. This is where the Pegasus LMS comes in—and why you need a workforce management solution.

The Pegasus Difference

The Pegasus LMS empowers you to simplify the onboarding and ongoing training of your workers. You can setup automated reminders and gain access to insightful analytics about the education of your workforce. These reports also provide visibility over training blind spots among your workers.

You can ensure all induction materials and training are tied to safety outcomes and legislative requirements, both from the WHS Act and industry-specific legislation.

All of this can be combined and cross-checked against worker-specific roles in your workforce management solution with Pegasus.

So, what are you waiting for?

Talk to Pegasus today about implementing the Pegasus LMS for onboarding your workforce.

Big Data to Transform Mining Industry

As the world becomes more digital, emerging technologies are taking hold—especially in the mining industry. We’re well into a new year and one of the big trends predicted in the mining industry for 2022 is the focus on big data.

From Proactive Australia’s article “Emerging technologies that will transform mining in 2022”:

Some of the key technologies driving this transformation include blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data, where resource-intensive processes are being replaced by autonomous operations.

Big data

Across one site alone, stakeholders can include the mining company, governmental agencies, local communities, transport companies, contractors, suppliers and, eventually, the consumers.

Big data, if used effectively, can monitor all operations in the mining industry in real-time and help the company achieve a competitive and operational advantage.

What’s So Good About Big Data?

For your business to thrive and operate at maximum efficiency, you need a full view of your workforce. Who is working for you and where. What qualifications and training they have. How many people you have on site at any given time.

Good data helps to inform business decisions. The flow on effect being better workplace performance and improved safety outcomes on your sites and projects.

And how do you gather this data? With an integrated workforce management solution

Workforce Management Software

At Pegasus, we have over thirty years’ experience customising workforce management solutions for the mining industry.

In the strictly regulated, high-risk mining environment, our software can transform safety from a cost to an investment. If you need an integrated software platform, developed specifically for mining, Pegasus provides the complete solution.

We partner with our clients to pioneer new solutions to meet your workforce needs. When we kicked off a development partnership with Yancoal, the creation of the Pegasus Client Portal not only revolutionised their workforce management—we were able to extend this offering to our other clients, too.

Beyond Compliance

We know safety legislation like the back of our hand, and we work alongside you to make sure your business is compliant. Beyond this, Pegasus workforce management is used by our clients in the mining industry to provide certainty and insight into your workforce.

Through our software, you can pre-qualify contractors, verify the competency and training of your workers, control who is allowed on your sites and projects, teamed with complete visibility.

Do You Know What to Look for in a Workforce Management Solution?

When comparing workforce management systems, it’s important you understand what the latest digital solutions have to offer so you can choose what best suits your organisation, workers, and contractors.

So, how should a workforce management platform make your job easier? Download our checklist and find out.

Talk to Pegasus today about how we can help you gather workforce data.

What Are The Main Risks Facing Supply Chains?

To run a successful business, you need to be aware of your risks. Underpinning your workplace success should be a risk management process. After all, how can you manage risks you don’t know are there?

It’s no different when it comes to supply chains. As seen recently with bare supermarket shelves and delayed shipments and deliveries, productive and undisrupted supply chains are crucial for daily life and a thriving economy.

All risks to supply chains can have damaging effects to a business—impacting revenue, declining sales and leaving them vulnerable to liabilities.

Internal vs. External Risks

Every business has internal and external risks.

Internal risks are the ones you can control or influence—this can include cost estimates, staff assignments, schedule delays, and product design.

External risks are outside of your control—this can include governmental or regulatory actions, change in currency rates that impact the value of an international trade, and most recently, a global pandemic.

So, what are the main risks facing supply chains?

Financial Risks

Financial risks can be both internal and external. External factors like changing exchange rates can have a deep impact on trade with other countries. An often-overlooked financial risk is the cost of supplier instability or contractor bankruptcy. Internal factors such as going over budget finding the limitation, constructive changes, and missed milestones requiring additional funding can often be prevented.

Scheduling Risks

Poor project management, poor communication, and changes to the scope of work are all risks which can threaten a project timeline. They can also have serious cost implications. Other external factors, natural disasters like hurricanes, fires, and floods, can also greatly impact on project timeline.

Legal Risks

Legal and contractual risks happen due to disputes or differences in contractual obligations, or when there’s a difference in outcome and process than what can be found in the terms and conditions. Other legal risks include the misuse of intellectual property, especially when patent infringement is a possibility.

Environmental Risks

Sustainability is a huge priority for businesses—or it should be. It’s essential to evaluate the risk to the environment created by your business practices or third-party suppliers. Environmental risks can include a business’s negative impact on water, air, and soil due to improper discharge or release of emissions and other waste.

Sociopolitical Risks

The regulatory landscape can change in an instant—usually due to a new government or the increasing awareness of inequitable social conditions. Many companies experience difficulty adapting to these changes and are forced to re-evaluate their supply chain.

Human Behaviour Risks

Employee behaviour risks are the most difficult to assess. These risks can play out when you don’t have the right people with the right knowledge to do the job. Sometimes the project or activity may be impacted due to an illness or injury of key workers.

Top Risks to Watch in 2022

COVID-19—the pandemic has disrupted supply chains on a global level. You only need to visit the supermarket filled with empty shelves and businesses operating on reduced hours to see this. Workers testing positive and in isolation is forcing production to halt and businesses have to adjust to unprecedented circumstances. It will take months or maybe years for supply chain to recuperative from losses.

Natural Disasters—climate change is proving to have a major impact to supply chains. From hurricanes to wildfires, employees and manufacturing can be at risk of injury or damage.

Reputational Damage—customers are increasingly expecting transparency as to how and where their products are made. Modern slavery and child labour will continue to be issues, and more and more companies will be forced to be held accountable.

Regulatory—trade laws and exchange rates aren’t set in stone. And as countries continue to discuss their trade agreements with one another, there’s a possibility for significant changes.

Digital—the digital age is advancing, helped along by the pandemic. As more businesses go virtual and processes become automated and computerised, there’s always a risk of cyber security breaches, hacking, and other risks associated with digital technology.

Understanding supply risk management can encourage companies to take effective action in response to these risks and should be an integral part of your business plan.

Talk to Pegasus today about managing your supply chain.

A version of this blog first appeared on the Avetta blog here and has been republished with full permission.

Teaming Up: Pegasus and Yancoal Build Workplace Compliance Solution

The Mining industry is crucial to the Australian economy. So crucial in fact, that mining, drilling and civil infrastructure contributed $202 billion to the economy in 2019-20.

There are an estimated 256,000 people working in mining jobs across the country with varying degrees of difficulty and danger. Just last year, Queensland saw an increase of nearly 9,000 mining jobs when compared to 2020. It is essential you ensure the safety and training of your workforce.

It’s why Pegasus exists—to keep your workforce safe on site. It’s why we’ve been chosen by some of the world’s largest mining companies to manage the competency and compliance of their workforce.

One of those companies is Yancoal.

“We have a good track record of adoption of innovative safety solutions into our operations, many of which have come from listening and engaging with our workforce,” says Yancoal CEO David Moult in Mining Monthly.

A long-term partnership

Yancoal is Australia’s largest pure coal producer. With over 12,000 workers and visitors to manage, it’s crucial they stay on top of worker safety and compliance. But with this many people, it’s no easy task.

As of now, Yancoal operates five producing mines, manages two mines, and has interests in another two joint venture mines across Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. Each hosts an array of workers and contractors, all of whom need clearances, inductions, training and certifications to be able to do their jobs safely. Creating a solution to do that effectively is where Pegasus and its Head of Mining Services, John Furner, comes in.

A considerable challenge

“Yancoal has 10 sites where Pegasus has been implemented, including head office. All up, there are thousands of worker profiles to manage. To do this successfully, Yancoal partners with Pegasus on an end-to-end solution, including online learning, worker competency management, company pre-qualification, and access control,” Furner says.

Developing, implementing and updating one system that can “do it all” is a considerable challenge.

Having used Pegasus systems previously at a number of mines, Yancoal saw something promising in our platform. They made a business decision to implement our software as a standard across all of their sites—and embark on a development partnership to build a brand new platform.

The result was the creation of the Pegasus Client Portal—something many of our clients use today.

A good track record

As leaders in their field, Yancoal utilised technology and innovation to safeguard the health and wellbeing of its workforce—and we were able to help them.

“In collaboration with Pegasus, Yancoal has developed and implemented a ‘Client Portal’ so Yancoal can report, analyse and make operational and safety decisions in real-time based on the information collected through a centralised employee and contractor management system.”

We love supporting our clients in achieving their workplace safety goals, and we’re excited when we can collaborate to create unique solutions for safety problems.

Learn more about our partnership with Yancoal.

Taking a Look: 4 Types of Supply Chains

We recently looked at supply chains and why they need to be managed.

To get you up to speed, a supply chain is the series of steps and activities required for a company to deliver goods and services to a consumer. Supply chain management oversees this by looking after coordination, management, and strategy, while collecting data, information, resources and materials to deliver the best product and service.

Now, we’re looking at the different types of supply chains that exist.

4 Types of Supply Chains

The four types of supply chain models all depend on the nature of the business and business goal.

  1. Integrated Make-to-Stock Model

This is your more traditional production strategy. Companies use it to match the inventory with what they anticipate will be the consumer demand.

For this model to work, your forecasting needs to be accurate to determine how much stock to produce. This is where a completely integrated enterprise system helps you. You can develop and modify production plans and schedules based on real-time consumer demand information.

What companies do this? Starbucks uses several distribution channels. Beyond selling coffee drinks, they sell coffee beans and grounds to large businesses. Starbucks successfully integrates all sources of demand using an automated information system for manufacturing. The system covers distribution planning, manufacturing scheduling, and inventory control.

  1. Build-to-order Model

This is when products are created only once an order is received. This model focuses on current demand and requires careful management of inventory and delivery methods needed to move supplies along the supply chain. All this can be done across several production lines and in several locations.

The benefit of this model is the perception of being custom made, rather than mass produced. Even though it’s mass customised. It also removes the overproduction of products where there might not be consumer demand.

What companies do this? Dell Computer is best known for its application of this model. The company positioned itself to offer enterprise-customised products at low prices by aggressively cutting internal operating costs, instead offering every customer the opportunity to order a unique product built to their needs.

  1. Continuous Replenishment Model

This is where you consistently replenish inventory or stock by notifying supplies daily of sales or warehouse shipments. It’s most applicable to environments with stable demand patterns, such as prescription medication.

It offers the potential for more efficient supply chain processes through a “pulled” system where inventory information is shared between companies and their suppliers.

What companies do this? McKesson Co. built a special distribution hub for generic pharmaceuticals and difficult to source products. They reduced the number of generic manufacturers and switched from weekly deliveries to monthly deliveries. Its success hinged on McKesson providing the manufacturer with a rolling three-month demand forecast.

  1. Channel Assembly Model

Similar to the build-to-order model, the parts of the product are gathered and assembled as the product moves through the distribution channel. This is usually achieved through strategic alliances with third party logistics.

For example, a computer company would have items such as the monitor shipped directly from its supplier to a third-party delivery facility. Other parts would be sourced from other suppliers. Only when all parts are together which make up an order would it be placed on a vehicle for delivery.

What companies do this? It’s popular in the computer technology industry as this model has low to zero inventory.

How we can help?

Pegasus, and our parent company Avetta, provides solutions to make maximise efficiency in your supply chain.

Talk to Pegasus today about managing your supply chain.

A version of this blog post first appeared on the Avetta blog here and has been republished with full permission.