Site induction records: prove who completed it

After an incident, or in the middle of an audit, the question is always the same: did this person get the induction, when, and did they understand it? A folder of signatures only answers the first part. Here is what belongs in your site induction records, how long to keep them, and what an auditor actually asks for.

Why keep records at all

Three moments where it matters, each placing a different demand on the record.

The audit. An auditor samples: they pick a name and ask for the file. You need it within a couple of minutes, not after an afternoon of searching.
After an incident. Now it is not a sample but one person, one date and one version. Which text did they actually see? If you have revised the induction since without keeping versions, you cannot answer.
Liability. CDM 2015 puts the duty to ensure a suitable induction is provided on the principal contractor. Your record is the only thing that shows you discharged it.

What to record

Four fields are enough, provided all four are complete.

Field	What belongs in it	Where it goes wrong
Who	First and last name, company, and the capacity they came in (visitor, driver, contractor).	An attendance sheet of illegible names, or one signature from a foreman covering the whole gang.
When	Date and time of completion, not of invitation.	A sheet with a single date at the top of the page.
Which version	The version number or date of the induction text this person actually saw.	The induction was updated and the old text overwritten.
Test result	The questions asked, the answers given and the score.	Just “completed”, with nothing showing what that was based on.

Why questions beat a signature

A signature proves attendance. Three to five questions show the message landed, and that difference is what counts after an incident.

Ask about what can go wrong here rather than about definitions, and in the same language as the induction. Which topics lend themselves to it is covered in the site induction checklist.

How long does an induction stay valid?

Neither CDM 2015 nor MHSWR 1999 sets a period, so there is no number to quote. What the regulations do imply is a trigger: the induction has to be revisited when the information it contains stops being accurate.

In practice that means three moments, whatever interval you otherwise settle on: when the induction itself changes, when the site changes around it, and after an incident that exposes a new hazard. Write that into your policy, or it becomes a matter of who happens to remember. If you do set a fixed interval, base it on how fast your site changes rather than on what another organisation does.

What an auditor looks for

Under ISO 45001 the emphasis is on awareness and competence: the auditor wants to see not only that the induction was given but that you check whether it works and act when it does not. Under CDM 2015 the question is narrower and harder: can the principal contractor show that a suitable induction was provided to everyone who went on site?

Either way the same practical rule applies: what you cannot produce within the length of the conversation does not count. For tracking instructions beyond the gate, see how to track who received which safety instruction.

Recorded automatically, exportable on demand

The difference between a usable and an unusable record is rarely what you capture, but whether capturing it is automatic. A register somebody has to retype falls behind the moment the site gets busy.

With E-lia the record is created as the induction is completed: name, company, date, language, version and score, per person, in your dashboard. Export it to Excel or PDF, or share a link so the auditor can search it themselves. When the same driver comes back eight months later, you can see at a glance whether their induction still stands. Jan De Nul runs its gates on E-lia.