The IRS is a system, within an organization, where everyone has direct responsibility for health and safety as an essential part of his or her job. It does not matter who or where the person is in the organization, they achieve health and safety in a way that suits the kind of work they do.

The legal requirement to have a Joint Health and Safety Committee is:
0-5 workers – not required
6-19 workers – a Health and Safety Representative is required
20 + - a JHSC is required with a minimum of two (2) members
50+- a JHSC is required with a minimum of four (4) members

In special cases where there are some significant health and safety hazards, a MILTSD inspector can order a JHSC to be formed before with fewer than twenty workers.

It is recommended to perform a gap analysis on what is being done and what needs to be done to get the COR™ certification. It is a good option to use the services of an expert external COR™ consultant for the gap analysis. Apart from serving as a vital OHS due diligence document, gap analysis by an expert external consultant provides you with an unbiased clear opinion on your program.

In fact, they will also make relevant recommendations if your program has gaps. Further, they will provide you with a clear roadmap of where the organization is and where it needs to go for becoming COR certified in Ontario.

Implementing an online safety training and management system will help you capture and store records largely for documentation. An online safety training and management system will make it much easier to maintain information, communicate with your workers, and keep your health and safety program alive.

You can map your job hazard analysis with an online system, which is an important feature. Apart from helping you with due diligence, online systems make it easier to track the progress of your health and safety initiatives, which is vital for COR™.

It’s good to ensure that all your employees undergo all the mandatory training and hazard-specific training. It’s also important to ensure that they get trained in all the new ways of carrying out their daily activities as well as filling in the required forms and checklists. Regular training conducted by you constantly reinforces your company’s message in the minds of the employees, slowly making it a part of your organizational culture. Technology plays a big role in making the training process seamless, user-friendly, measurable, and efficiently manageable.

You can use online systems to train employees, manage their records, and monitor their performance easily and effectively. Regular training of employees is one of the best engagement strategies that you can adopt. It helps you in constantly reinforcing your safety message in the minds of your employees.

Interactive training goes a long way in terms of creating the right atmosphere to build a workplace safety culture within your organization. COR™ is all about creating a health and safety culture within your organization over a long term, which is not dependent on individuals. Employee training will help you in this regard.

COR™ accreditation is a process for consistency throughout the organization. You need to start by looking at each element of the COR™ requirements as setting up a process to capture and maintain that information. That’s where it becomes an integral part of your ‘business strategy’. Thus, you cannot just perceive COR™ as just another ‘business tactic’.