Running a one-person safety consultancy for several companies: documentation, deadlines and life after spreadsheets

Short answer: the same as an OSH service employee in the equivalent position. The regulation requires external specialists to meet the qualification requirements of the service — for example, an OSH inspector needs at least secondary education with an OSH technician title, and an OSH specialist needs relevant higher education or postgraduate OSH studies plus at least one year of experience in the service. Senior positions require longer experience.

In addition, periodic training for OSH service staff and persons performing its tasks is repeated at least every 5 years under the regulation on OSH training. Clients may ask for diplomas and certificates, so it pays to keep them in one place.

Specialists who run periodic training for client employees should check the capacity in which they do so: periodic training is organised by the employer or, on its behalf, by an organisation conducting OSH training. Formal obligations of training providers should be verified individually.

Short answer: the employer. Art. 207 § 1 of the Labour Code states that the employer is responsible for safety and health in the workplace, and outsourcing the OSH service does not change that. The specialist is liable for proper performance of the contract, and where neglect of their own duties exposed workers to danger, criminal liability of a person responsible for occupational safety (art. 220 of the Polish Criminal Code) cannot be ruled out. Specific cases always require legal advice.

The most common worry is: “I reported a hazard, the employer didn't fix it, then an accident happened.” The best protection is proof of handover: when the hazard was found, to whom and how the recommendation was passed, what deadline was proposed and whether the employer responded. Verbal remarks leave no trail; a dated record with a photo and acknowledgement does.

In VIMS every finding from an inspection or walk is stored with date, author, photo and an assigned person at the client, and the change history shows when the recommendation was sent, read and closed. This does not shift responsibility, but it organises evidence for a labour inspection or accident investigation.

Short answer: a spreadsheet does not send reminders, does not link data and does not show which version is current. With one client, discipline is enough. With five, copies appear on the laptop, in email and on a USB stick; with ten, the specialist checks a dozen tabs every week to catch expiring training and medical examinations.

Typical problems: a new client employee is added late because HR did not pass the information on; a leaver still shows as “overdue”; dates from medical certificates are retyped with errors; the client cannot see the state of its records without being sent a file. None of this is a knowledge gap — it is the lack of a tool that keeps the data in order.

Many people search for a ready “training and medical exam register template in Excel”. A template solves the first client's problem, not the tenth's. We compare both approaches in Excel vs EHS software.

Short answer: in one dashboard that collects deadlines from all client companies and reminds you about expiring ones. Under Polish rules, induction training precedes work, periodic training for manual workers is repeated at least every 3 years (annually for particularly hazardous work) and every 5 or 6 years for other groups, while the occupational physician sets the next medical examination date. Details are in our safety training guide.

In VIMS the specialist sees each client separately but can review deadlines from all of them on one list. The training and qualifications module calculates next training dates and the medical examinations module keeps exam dates and certificate conclusions without storing medical details. Reminders go to the specialist and, if the client wishes, to a contact person at the company.

Splitting duties saves the most time: the client's HR adds or imports employees, and the specialist looks after deadlines and training content. New starters appear before their first day, not a month later.

Short answer: record findings on the phone during the walk instead of retyping notes afterwards. Inspection and audit checklist templates are among the most searched items by external specialists because documenting visits takes the most time.

In VIMS the audits and inspections checklist works on a phone. Each finding has a photo, location, hazard category, proposed deadline and responsible person at the client. When the walk ends, the report is built from the collected data, and open recommendations carry over to the next visit as items to verify.

The same findings support occupational risk assessment updates and the annual safety analysis the OSH service presents to the employer, without retyping.

Short answer: usually as a processor acting on behalf of the employer, under a data processing agreement compliant with art. 28 GDPR. The employer remains the controller, and the specialist processes only what OSH tasks require: name, position, training dates, exam deadlines and certificate conclusions.

Health data (art. 9 GDPR) needs particular care. Deadline tracking needs only the exam date, the next exam date and the conclusion “fit” or “not fit”. Diagnoses and medical details should not enter the specialist's register. Each client's data must also be kept separate — one shared spreadsheet for several companies is one of the easiest ways to breach confidentiality.

In VIMS partner plans every client company has a separate data space. The data belongs to the company, not the partner: the client can buy its own subscription at any time and take over the data with full history, while the partner keeps access as an invited specialist.

Short answer: the number of clients is limited by time for site visits, not by administration — provided administration is automated. Regulations set no limit on companies per specialist; they set tasks that must be performed properly for each client. The fewer hours spent retyping dates and writing reports, the more remain for presence on site, conversations with workers and training.

For one-person and small safety consultancies VIMS has a separate pricing track — partner plans. Partner Micro covers up to 5 client companies, Partner Standard up to 15 and Partner Pro up to 30; each company includes up to 50 employees and 1 site, with the employee limit extendable in Standard and Pro after an individual consultation. Current prices and features are on the pricing page.

Before deciding, count your own time: how many hours a month go on reviewing spreadsheets, reminding clients about deadlines and retyping walk notes. Consultant software makes sense when it gives those hours back to substantive work or to more clients. You can join the VIMS testing programme via the contact page.