Is creating an equipment level training tracker like this possible?

I'm working on a project for Employee Equipment Level Training tracking. I am new to this role and new to Smartsheet. After some researching, I think the Employee Onboarding template (Setup: New Employee Onboarding - Smartsheet.com) is a great idea, however it doesn't meet the needs I’m looking to cover. I’ve also looked at the Healthcare Credential Tracking as a route as well.

I'm reaching out to the community to see if anyone has done this previously, and if so, how'd you do it?

Current Setup:

Using an excel file:

Enter the name of person doing the entry.

Search name of person who’s training record is being updated by company initials. If not present, then create new entry.

Select date, certification and cert type and level to be updated.

Then it run macros to update other sheets in the file.

The problem with current setup is this depends heavily upon checklists being printed, filled out and signed. Also, because of the paper hassle, most trainees wait until the entire thing is filled out before turning it in. If audited, this can be a problem because the training department doesn’t have an actual record of the tasks.

Background:

5+ departments each with multiple equipment families.

Each of those families have checklists leveled 1-6.

Each checklist has tasks to be completed.

Each task has a four-step process (plan, prepare, practice, preform) to reach a level of proficiency before being completely signed off on task.

So my questions:

1. Using the ease of the current excel setup, can this be replicated in Smartsheet but on a more microscopic level? By that I mean, each step from the small 4 step process to actual level completion would be dated and signed by both trainee and trainer with additional signature of supervisor/myself for the final level completion (I say signature but really, it’ll be a record of date signing by checking who edited the sheet.)

2. Since cross-training is a big goal for the upcoming few years, I want to be able to pull the data of all the employees on a specific piece of equipment and find they level. This will help with coverage due to manning shortage.

2a. Would I create a main sheet with all employees in rows and the equipment in the columns? If so, how would I pull that data?

TL:DR

I guess the easiest way to write what I’m trying to do is

Main metric of data that can be pulled for audit/man coverage/etc : equipment -> qualified personnel ->current level

With each employee (where that employee and trainer can access): list of all equipment -> level within each equipment ->tasks completed and dated within those levels ->4-part process and what step is completed(dated)

All of this to be linked to where once they put in a date by both the trainer and trainee for a task, the rest is automatically updated. This isn't as important

I hope all this make sense, as I am trying to break this project down as best as possible myself.

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Neil Watson

@aNewTPManager are you looking to replace the current paper checklists with electronic Smartsheet forms (that can be completed using a tablet)? Or retain the current paper forms and replace the excel system with Smartsheet?

aNewTPManager

@Neil Watson I guess my end goal would be both. I think that getting away from the paper checklists is more important because that leaves a huge margin for human error. My biggest desire is to have the tasks within those checklists tracked since they tend to be a mix of both situational tasks and routine tasks which is why employees wait to turn them in.

Neil Watson

@aNewTPManager in that case a few things to consider. Every time a form (checklist) is submitted, it creates a new row in a Smartsheet sheet. That row cannot be changed by the form again. For the process you describe above, there will be multiple changes for checklists, tasks and the four-step process. Here are a few options to do this:

Think about a way to ensure that each submission from a form clearly identifies the checklist, task(s) and the stage of the process. That way you can track for these which is most recent and keep students' records up to date
Use the update request automation to amend a single-row record along the four-step process. Without knowing your process this sounds harder and I find update requests don't work well if there is a big gap between the first submission and subsequent updates (the update request gets lost in emails).
If you have access to Dynamic View then you could think about a process to let the student or trainer update a created record as they move along the four-step process. This typically works best but does require Dynamic View which costs more

Not looking to overcomplicate your process but I find thinking about the capture and processing of data from the start helps a lot.

aNewTPManager

@Neil Watson First I want to say thank you for your response. After thinking about what it is I actually want out of this. I would like for everything to be automated based on the 4 step process for each task.

If I keep the paper route and try to replace the excel sheet I would like:

Once all 4 steps are dated, task is automatically marked complete.

Once all tasks have been automatically marked complete, the level for that equipment is updated automatically for the employee.

There is a master sheet that list all employees and the levels for each equipment that gets automatically updated as levels are complete.

There's a metric that can pull the data based on equipment to see who is qualified and to what level.

Is this doable?

The good thing is that is for the maintenance department so my headcount is a lot smaller than the entire company. Eventually, I would like to send a form for a new employee to fill out name and department, thus would automatically get assigned all the necessary equipment in that area but that can be thought about for a later project.

Neil Watson

@aNewTPManager all of the above seems doable.

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