Sustainability & Risk/ Health & Safety / Work Categories / Track Employee Work Categories task

Assign Work Categories to Employees

To ensure a consistent safety plan in which all employees performing the same work have the same safety program elements, you can define work categories and then assign an employee to one or more work categories based on the specific work that they perform.

You can assign an employee to as many work categories as required. For example, the manager of a laboratory might be assigned to the Manager category and also to the Laboratory Tech work category; each of these categories might have different PPE, training, and medical monitoring requirements. As employees change positions within the company, are promoted, or are transferred to new departments, you must update their work category assignments.

A work category assignment can cover an infinite or set time period. For example, you might have a generic work categories to which all employees are assigned when hired, regardless of their position. In this case, you would complete Start Date with the employee's first day of work and leave End Date empty. Other work categories may be assigned on a temporary basis; for example, employees may take two-year positions on internal committees. If being on a committee requires an additional work category, you would complete its Start Date and End Date to reflect the term of committee membership.

When you schedule requirements for an individual employee, the system considers the date ranges of the employee's work category assignments. For example, if a requirement is defined to be scheduled every 6 months for the next 5 years but the employee is assigned to this work category for only one year, the scheduling routine will schedule this requirement for one year for this employee.  For more information, see Scheduling Routine (Concept).

To assign an employee to a work category:

1. Select Work Categories / Track Employee Work Categories.
2. In the Filter pane, select a name for the Employee Name field and click Show. The system lists work categories to which this employee is already assigned.
3. To assign a new category to this employee, click Add New in the left pane.
4. In the right pane, complete the Work Category Code field by selecting an a work category from the list.

• Start Date: Enter the date on which this assignment takes effect. You must complete this field. Suppose an employee will be taking on new responsibilities as of the next quarter and this change requires association with a new work category. In this case, you would enter the first date of the next quarter as the Start Date.
• End Date: If the assignment is for a specified period, you can also enter the End Date. For example, an employee might be assigned to this work category on a temporary basis (for example, they are taking over a co-worker's responsibilities while she is on maternity leave).

5. Click Save to assign the employee to the selected work category.
6. When you save the assignment, the system displays additional buttons for scheduling the work category's PPE, medical monitoring, and training requirements to this employee. For information, see:

•  Schedule PPE Delivery for an Employee via Work Category
• Schedule Medical Monitoring for an Employee via Work Category
• Schedule Training for an Employee via Work Category