Credentials and competency

Field work runs on tickets: first aid, plant licences, site passes, accreditations. Maliru keeps who holds what, reminds people before a ticket runs out, and checks the tickets a job needs when someone is put on it or starts it.

Set up your credential types

Open Users, choose the gear (Settings) and then Credential types: "Define the licences and certifications your workforce carries, their validity, and when to remind before expiry." Choose + (Add type) or edit an existing one:

• Name, for example First Aid, Forklift Licence.
• Description (optional).
• Default validity in months (optional). When you record an issue date, Maliru suggests the expiry from this.
• Reminder days before expiry, for example 30, 7, 1. Each stage fires once. New types start on 30, 7 and 1.
• Requires evidence, for types that must have the certificate or card attached.
• Active. "Inactive types can't be added to new records." Credentials already recorded against an inactive type stay on file.
• Before it counts: what a credential of this type needs before it counts towards any work.
  • Recording it is enough.
  • A copy of it must be attached.
  • Someone must check and verify it: "Somebody with the compliance permission verifies each one from the person's Credentials tab, after checking the card or the issuing body's register." See Verifying a credential, below.

The list of types shows each one's validity and reminders, and adds Evidence required or Must be verified where they apply.

A new workspace may already have types in this list: the trade pack for your trade and country is added when the workspace is created. Some pack types arrive needing to be verified and set so that nobody can allow the work without them. Check each one before your first roster.

The editor opens on a type's real settings, and saving keeps what you didn't change. Changes to how hard a type bites, or to what it needs before it counts, are recorded in the audit trail with the old and new setting.

How hard each type bites

Enforcement is set on each type, not on the workspace, so a missing licence can stop the work while a lapsed refresher only warns. In the type's dialog, under When someone has not got this:

• What happens: Nothing — just keep track of it, Show a warning, let the work go ahead, Stop the work; a supervisor can allow it or Stop the work; nobody can allow it. New types start on the warning.
• From when: As soon as someone is put on the job, When the roster is published or When they start the work. The strictest level is always checked as soon as someone is put on the job.

Where requirements come from, what the refusals say and how a supervisor allows a start are covered in Eligibility: who is allowed to do the work.

The old workspace-wide switch has been retired. If you still see "When a required credential is missing or expired:" with Allow, Warn and Block above the list of types, it no longer changes anything. Each type's own setting decides.

Units on a card

Some credentials are one card with several parts that each expire on their own date. Choose Units on this card on the type to list them, then record which units a person holds from the same icon on their credential. Most types need none of this. See Eligibility for how units and their dependencies are checked.

Recording a credential

Open the person in Users and go to the Credentials tab, then Add credential:

• Credential type.
• Reference / number (optional).
• Issued and Expires. Setting Issued fills in the expiry from the type's default validity, if it has one. "No expiry date means this credential is never flagged as expiring."
• Notes (optional).
• Evidence: attach the certificate or card as a JPEG, PNG, WebP or PDF. It is marked (required) on types that need it.
• Level, only for a type that has levels, such as a low, medium or high-risk version of the same ticket. Choose the level it was issued at, or Not recorded. Work that asks for a particular level needs this filled in.
• Only counts for some work, for a card that is only valid for one client, contract, site or line of work: "Leave these on Any unless the card is only valid for one client, contract, site or line of work. Elsewhere it will not count." Pick a Client, Contract, Site or Workstream.

Each credential shows Valid, Expiring soon or Expired, then its level, Some work only if it's limited, its reference and its expiry. Edit and Remove sit on the row. Removing a credential archives it rather than deleting it.

Setting up credential types, recording credentials and reviewing them all need Manage users. Verifying one needs Manage compliance.

Verifying a credential

Verifying means a named person has checked the real card, or the issuing body's register, and says so on the record. For a type set to Someone must check and verify it, nothing else counts: until it's verified, the credential's row says "Not verified — does not count until somebody checks it", and any work that needs it treats it as not held, with the reason "… has not been verified". Whether that warns or stops the work depends on the type's What happens setting.

On the person's Credentials tab, choose Verify on the credential. Verify {type} asks you to "Confirm you have checked {name}'s {type} — the card itself or the issuing body's register. Your name goes on the record." Add How you checked (optional), for example Register search, card seen on site, and choose Verify. The credential then shows Verified with the date.

• It needs Manage compliance. Owners can always do it.
• Nobody can verify their own credential: "Somebody else has to verify your own credential." In a business with nobody else to check, lower the type's Before it counts setting instead.
• Only an approved credential can be verified. Approve a self-submitted one first.
• Each verification is recorded in the audit trail with who did it, the credential and how it was checked.
• Editing a verified credential's dates or notes later doesn't undo the verification.

Remove verification takes it back off, if the card turned out to be wrong or was checked against the wrong person: "Anything that needs this verified will stop counting it until somebody checks it again." A credential with a copy attached still counts wherever a copy is enough.

When workers add their own

Workers can add credentials from the phone: Me › My credentials › Add. "Add your licences and certifications. An administrator reviews each one before it counts."

• The credential arrives on their record as Pending review, and everyone with Manage users is told there is a credential to review.
• An administrator opens it on the Credentials tab and chooses Approve, or Reject with an optional reason in Reject credential.
• Until it is approved it doesn't count. A job that needs it reads the credential as "still waiting to be reviewed".
• The worker can edit or remove their own credential while it is pending, but not after.

Expiry reminders

As a credential approaches its expiry date, Maliru sends a reminder at each of the type's reminder days, and a final one when it expires. Each reminder goes to:

• the worker: "Your First Aid expires on {date}. Arrange a renewal.";
• everyone with Manage users, with the worker's name.

Reminders go only to active people, and only for active types. Units on a card are chased on their own dates.

Expired and expiring credentials also show on the worker's Today screen ("1 credential expired"). The Dashboard has Credentials expired and Credentials expiring cards, which open the Users list narrowed to those people.

Where credentials count

• Putting someone on work. A job's own Required credentials (on the job form: "Workers without a valid one are flagged when assigned."), the person's Position, and the job's workstream, site, client and contract can all require credentials. The type's setting decides whether it warns, stops the work until a supervisor allows it, or can't be passed at all. Shifts, routes, visits and bulk changes are all checked the same way. When one is refused, the schedule says who can't go and why. Someone with Override eligibility is asked Assign anyway? and must give a reason; the override is recorded against their name and lasts until that piece of work ends. Nobody can pass a type set so that nobody can allow it.
• Publishing. A type set to bite When the roster is published is checked when you publish. Shifts with someone who can't go stay as drafts and the rest publish; the schedule says which were held and why, with Publish anyway for people allowed to override.
• Checking a digital ID card. The verdict is Not cleared to work only when an expired credential belongs to a type set to stop the work. An expired credential on a type that only warns still reads Cleared to work, with the expired count shown. See Digital ID cards.

Tip: set the reminder days to match how long a renewal really takes. If a ticket takes six weeks to renew, 45, 14, 1 is better than the default 30 days.