Competency Barrier

Competency Barrier: How to Filter Out Unqualified Contractors

Safety management at large industrial facilities inevitably faces the problem of contractor personnel qualification. When thousands of employees from third-party companies work on site simultaneously, traditional induction briefings are no longer sufficient. In this webinar, Vladislav Shinkarenko, Chief HSE Specialist at Gazprom Neft ONPZ JSC, analyzes a practical case of implementing a competency barrier — a system for preliminary testing and assessing the practical skills of contractors.

Multi-Stage Admission System

Using his enterprise as an example, the speaker shows how a phased approach to competency assessment was implemented. The process is divided into several levels, which helps avoid a collapse during site admission:

• Risk Appetite Assessment. Prior to the induction briefing stage, workers take tests for cognitive abilities, attentiveness, and propensity for risky behavior. This is a basic filter that screens out individuals who are potentially dangerous to the production environment.
• Remote Testing by Work Types. For admission to high-risk work (hot work, gas-hazardous work, work at height, etc.), remote testing via a cloud platform has been implemented. The worker must confirm their knowledge of safety requirements before entering the site.
• Practical Skills Verification. Having a certificate does not guarantee the ability to perform work safely. The presentation details an approach where an assessor uses a checklist to verify the employee's actual skills directly on site or at a specialized training ground.

Admission Passport and Coupon System

For on-site control, a physical admission passport with a unique stamp and three tear-off coupons has been introduced. This system works as a disciplinary tool: in case of a safety violation, a coupon is withdrawn, the worker is assigned an extraordinary knowledge check, and sanctions are applied to the organization. The loss of three coupons means a permanent block of the pass to the enterprise.

The Problem of Cheating and Remote Proctoring

Any testing system faces attempts to bypass it. The speaker openly discusses the problem of collective test-taking and cheating. To solve this issue, a remote proctoring system is being implemented, which records audio, video, and user actions on the screen, blocking attempts to use hints or outside help.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to organize remote testing for thousands of contractor employees without stopping production processes?
• Which tests help identify a worker's propensity for risky behavior before their admission to the site?
• How does the system of tear-off warning coupons work in practice?
• How to combat cheating during remote knowledge checks using proctoring?
• How to assess the actual practical skills of workers, rather than just the presence of certificates?