Report 2017-119 Recommendation 42 Responses
Report 2017-119: California State University: It Has Not Provided Adequate Oversight of the Safety of Employees and Students Who Work With Hazardous Materials (Release Date: April 2018)
Recommendation #42 To: San Diego, California State University
To ensure the health and safety of employees working with hazardous materials, San Diego should, going forward, regularly monitor employee training records to ensure that all employees have received the required trainings.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2020
San Diego State University has developed and implemented a process to ensure all employees receive training. EH&S has revised its process to regularly monitor employee training records and follow up with relevant departments to ensure employees receive required trainings. The procedures include annual monitoring of required employee safety training to ensure completion. In addition, the University continues to utilize the CSU Learn LMS which will automate the employee training monitoring process.
- Completion Date: September 2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented
San Diego provided evidence demonstrating that it established procedures for how it would monitor the completion of trainings to ensure that all employees have received the required trainings. In addition, the procedures indicate how, and how regularly, it tracks and monitors employee training records for all required trainings.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019
The recommendation has been fully implemented. Procedures have been strengthened to ensure employees receive all required training either in-person or on-line. The procedures describe how new and current employees are assigned to safety training and the notification process. The campus is now utilizing the many features of the CSU Learn (SumTotal) learning management system (LMS) to ensure employees receive the required training and that it is appropriately tracked by the campus. When employees are identified for training by academic and non-academic departments, that information is entered into the LMS. The system provides biweekly employee status monitoring to Environmental Health and Safety Department (EHS) and reminder notifications to employees and supervisors. On a monthly basis, EHS informs department management of training deficiencies identified by CSU Learn for follow-up resolution.
- Completion Date: October 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented
San Diego provided evidence demonstrating that it established procedures indicating that it would monitor the completion of trainings and that it monitors some employee training records to ensure that all employees have received the required trainings. However, the procedures it established do not indicate how, or how regularly, it tracks and monitors employee training records for all required trainings. Until it does so, we will continue to assess this as partially implemented.
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
1-Year Agency Response
The procedures document identified in Recommendation 38 is used to regularly monitor employee training records. Monthly, SDSU's Center for Human Resources provides EHS with a roster of employees who attended New Employee Orientation training. EHS reviews the list and identifies those employees who require hazardous materials training. They are contacted and scheduled to attend training, which is provided monthly. As referenced in Recommendation 38, at the systemwide level, the Chancellor's Office is implementing a learning management system, "Sum Total", which will track and administer health and safety training requirements for employees. This will improve the current manual tracking with a modern automated tool.
- Completion Date: March 2019
- Response Date: April 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented
San Diego provided evidence demonstrating that it established procedures indicating that it would monitor the completion of trainings and that it monitors some employee training records to ensure that all employees have received the required trainings. However, the procedures it established do not indicate how, or how regularly, it tracks and monitors employee training records for all required trainings. Until it does so, we will continue to assess this as partially implemented.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
6-Month Agency Response
Implementation is in progress. Once training has been completed for those employees required to take and complete training by March 2019, the campus will then regularly monitor training records. To ensure compliance, procedures will be developed utilizing "Sum Total", the CSU systemwide learning management system.
- Estimated Completion Date: March 2019
- Response Date: October 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
60-Day Agency Response
Implementation is in progress. The campus is developing procedures to regularly monitor training records to ensure that employees have received required trainings.
- Estimated Completion Date: January 2019
- Response Date: June 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2017-119
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.