Issue PPE and answer requests

The PPE page is where you record the personal protective equipment you give each employee, see whether they confirmed receiving it, answer their requests for a replacement or a damaged or lost item, and record when an item comes back. It records what each person was issued. It does not keep a stock of the PPE in your stores.

To open it, in the menu, under Health & Safety, open Risk management and select PPE. Any Management AZ user of your organisation can issue PPE, answer requests and record returns.

The page at a glance

The summary at the top counts Requests (how many are waiting and how many are being handled), PPE in use (with how many receipts are confirmed) and Past replacement date. The Watchlist beside it lists what to chase: Waiting for an answer, Receipt not confirmed, Past replacement date and Past use-by date. Below the summary come the requests from employees, the PPE in use and, when there are any, the requests answered in the last 90 days. The form to issue PPE is at the bottom.

If part of the page could not be read, a banner names what is missing and says that an empty list is not a statement that there is nothing there. Select the refresh button on a list to try again.

Issue PPE to an employee

1. Select Issue PPE above the list of PPE in use, or scroll to Issue PPE at the bottom of the page.

2. In Employee, choose the person. The list holds your organisation's current employees: not people who have left.

3. In Kind, choose the kind of item, for example a hard hat, safety boots, a respirator or a fall-arrest harness, or Other. Add a Description and a Size if they help the employee recognise it. Quantity is 1 to 99.

4. Optionally, record the Manufacturer, Model and Serial number.

5. Issued on is today; change it if you handed the item over earlier. It cannot be in the future. Optionally, set Replace by, the day the item should be replaced, and Expiry date, the day it may be used until. Neither can be before the issue date.

6. Tick Training given if the employee was shown how to use the item. Fit test required is ticked for you when you choose a respirator or breathing apparatus; untick it if it does not apply.

7. Select Issue PPE. The page confirms the item was issued and that the employee confirms receiving it in Employee AZ.

The form says: The item is in use from the issue date. The employee sees it in Employee AZ and confirms they received it. You are recorded as the person who issued it. If a field is wrong, the page says Please correct the fields below. Your entries have been kept. and shows the field's own message, for example The issue date cannot be in the future. or This date cannot be before the issue date. Nothing is issued until you send the form again.

• To issue an item to one person from their record, open Employees under People, open the person and their Safety tab, then, under Protective equipment, select Issue PPE to this person. The form opens with that person chosen. Open the PPE register opens the whole page.
• A ticked Fit test required shows the item to the employee and on their record as Fit test needed. Management AZ does not record the fit test itself: keep its result with your own records.
• If the person left the organisation while the form was open, the page says This person no longer works for the organisation, so no PPE was issued. With no current employee, the form is replaced by Nobody works for the organisation yet, so there is no one to issue PPE to. If the employee list cannot be read, it says The employee list could not be read, so PPE cannot be issued right now. Please try again in a few minutes.

See who confirmed receiving their PPE

The list PPE in use has one row per item in use, with the Employee, the Item, when it was Issued and by whom, the Receipt, and the Replace by and Use by days. Use by is the Expiry date you gave when you issued it. A day that has passed is shown in red.

• Receipt reads Not confirmed yet until the employee confirms in Employee AZ that they received the item; then it shows the day they confirmed. Items not confirmed yet are listed first. As the page says: Employees confirm receipt themselves, in Employee AZ. You cannot confirm a receipt for them.
• To list only one kind of row, use the chips Not confirmed yet and Receipt confirmed. Select Filter to filter by Replacement date or Use-by date: past, ahead, or none recorded.
• A past replacement or use-by day means only that the day has passed. Decide yourself whether the item must be replaced.

With nothing issued, the list says No PPE is recorded as in use. For what the employee sees and does, see Confirm your PPE and ask for a replacement.

Answer a request

From Employee AZ, an employee can ask about an item in use: for a Replacement, or to report it damaged or lost, always with a reason. They can have one open request per item. Their requests are listed under Requests from employees, those Waiting for an answer first and the oldest first. The same requests are counted as PPE requests in Approvals; see Work through the Approvals inbox.

1. Read the row: the Employee, the Item, What they asked (Replacement, Reported damaged or Reported lost, with the reason they gave) and when it was Sent. To list one kind of request only, select Filter and choose it under What they asked.

2. Under Your answer, choose an Answer:

   • Being handled: you have seen it and are dealing with it. The request stays in the list. This answer is offered only while the request is waiting.
   • Issue a replacement now: a new item is issued to the employee at once. It is a copy of the old one (kind, description, size, quantity, manufacturer and model), dated today, with no serial number and no replacement or use-by day. The old item stops being in use: it is marked replaced, or damaged or lost as the employee reported it. This answer is offered only while the old item is still in use.
   • Done: the request is dealt with and nothing is issued on this page, for example because you issued the new item with Issue PPE and recorded the old one's return yourself.
   • Decline: the request is not taken forward. A note is required.

3. Optionally, write a Note to the employee, up to 1,000 characters. The employee reads it on the item in Employee AZ.

4. Select Send answer.

The page confirms each answer: The request is marked as being handled., The replacement was issued and the request is done., The request is marked as done. or The request was declined. The employee sees your reason. As the list says: Sent from Employee AZ. The employee sees your answer on their Safety page. With no request open, the list says No request is waiting for an answer.

A request answered Done or Declined moves to Answered in the last 90 days, with your note, the day it was Answered and who answered it. An answer cannot be changed afterwards.

Record a return

When an item comes back or is lost, record it so it no longer counts as in use. Nothing is ever deleted: an item issued by mistake is also recorded as returned, with a note saying why.

1. On the item's row in PPE in use, select Record a return.

2. In What happened to it, choose Returned, Damaged or Lost.

3. For an item handed back, Handed back on is today; change it if needed. It must be between the issue date and today. As the form says: A lost item has no return date.

4. Optionally, add a Note about its condition or how it was lost, then select Record the return.

The page confirms The item is recorded as returned., The item is recorded as returned damaged. or The item is recorded as lost. The item leaves the list and stays on the employee's record as no longer in use. If the date is outside the allowed range, the page says The return date must be between the issue date and today. Nothing was changed. If the item was already returned or replaced, it says This item is no longer in use. Nothing was changed.