by Kathy Bimber
In her latest blog on the Auto Glass Safety Council™ (AGSC) website, “The Learning Curve,” Penny Ouellette of Orion Registrar states that the most common error (non-compliance) found during last year’s audits was that companies “did not have training records on AGRSS™ Standard for all applicable staff.”
The ANSI/AGSC/AGRSS 003-2015 Standard was approved in early 2015 and AGSC began auditing companies to this Standard in 2016. One of the new requirements that went into effect was the addition of an educational requirement to Section 9 – Education.
This new requirement states:
9.2 Training with respect to the content and requirements of the current version of this standard shall be required for all personnel directly involved in the automotive glass replacement process (examples: scheduling, purchasing, installing, customer service, quality control, management). Records of this training detailing content, date, participants and acknowledgement of the participant’s successful completion of the training and receipt of a printed copy of the current standard shall be maintained.
This means that all company employees involved in the auto glass replacement process (i.e. the person who schedules the job, the person who prepares the invoice, the person who orders the urethane product, etc.) must receive a copy of the current AGRSS Standard and they must be trained to this Standard as it relates to their positions. For example, the person who orders the urethane products, in addition to being familiar with the Standard, must know to follow all of the requirements of the Standard as stated in Section 5 – Selection of Glass and Retention Systems.
The company must keep a record of this training that includes all of the elements stated above in 9.2. A company employee, such as the shop manager, can provide the training that is required or the company may use an outside source to provide the training should it so choose. All of the company employees directly involved in the auto glass replacement process, including the auto glass replacement technicians, must be included on this record of training.
At the time of the company’s audit, the auditor will ask for this training record to verify compliance to the current AGRSS Standard.
In order to assist companies with providing this proof of training, AGSC has created the “Training Acknowledgement Form.” You are not required to use this form, but it may be helpful to you to do so. You can find a copy of this form in the Member Resources section on the AGSC website. It is located in the AGSC Document Library under Registration Forms and under Validation Documents.
If you would like further clarification regarding this new training requirement or the proof of training required, feel free to contact me at kbimber@agsc.org or 540/602-3263.