5 Pre-Holiday Compliance Checks Every Training Manager Should Run

The holiday season is almost here, and for many organisations, that means one thing: a skeleton crew holding the fort while operations slow to a crawl. But before your team clocks off and the out-of-office emails start rolling in, there's a critical task that can't wait until January—compliance.

Whether you manage a mining site, a healthcare facility, or a distributed workforce across multiple locations, the holidays present a unique risk window. Staff turnover peaks. Certifications lapse. Training records slip through the cracks. When operations resume in the new year, you don't want to discover that half your workforce can't legally be on-site.

Running a pre-holiday compliance check isn't just about ticking boxes. It's about protecting your people, your operations, and your organisation from avoidable risks. Below are five essential checks every training manager should complete before the festive break.

1. Audit expiring certifications and licences

Start with the basics: who's certified to do what, and for how long?

Mining safety courses, first aid tickets, high-risk work licences—many qualifications come with expiry dates. If these lapse over the holiday period, you could be facing a compliance gap when work resumes. Worse, you might not even know until someone tries to access a site or operate equipment.

A corporate LMS like LAAMP makes this process straightforward. The platform provides automated alerts and centralised visibility across your entire workforce. You can filter by location, role, or certification type to identify who needs refresher training before year-end. This removes the guesswork and reduces the admin burden on your team.

Don't wait until the last week of December to find out that your leading hand's confined space ticket expired three months ago.

2. Review site access permissions and digital records

Who has access to what—and is that access still valid?

Over the course of a year, people move between sites, roles change, and contractors come and go. The result? A patchwork of access permissions that may no longer reflect current needs or compliance requirements.

Before the holiday shutdown, review your site access records. Are contractors still listed who haven't been on-site in months? Are there employees with elevated permissions who've since moved to desk-based roles? These discrepancies don't just create security risks—they can also muddy your audit trail.

3. Verify contractor compliance and qualifications

Contractors are often the weak link in compliance management—not because they're less competent, but because their records are harder to track.

If you rely on external labour during peak periods or project work, you need to ensure every contractor on-site has completed the required safety training and holds valid certifications. This becomes even more critical during the holidays, when your internal oversight may be reduced.

Check that all contractors have completed site-specific inductions, hold current tickets for high-risk work, and meet any additional requirements mandated by your organisation or industry body. If they're using equipment or entering restricted areas, their qualifications need to be documented and verifiable.

A centralised online LMS can store contractor records alongside your permanent workforce, giving you a single source of truth. Some platforms, including LAAMP, support transferable passports—digital credentials that travel with the worker across sites and employers. This reduces onboarding time and ensures compliance is portable and provable.

4. Confirm toolbox talks and incident reports are up to date

Toolbox talks and incident reports are often treated as "nice to have" rather than "must have." But they form a critical part of your compliance framework—and they're scrutinised during audits.

Before the break, ensure all required toolbox talks have been delivered and documented. These short, site-based safety briefings are your frontline defence against workplace incidents. If they're not logged properly, they didn't happen—at least not in the eyes of an auditor.

Similarly, review any outstanding incident reports. Were near-misses investigated? Were corrective actions documented and closed out? Leaving these tasks unresolved over the holidays can lead to gaps in your safety record and leave you exposed if a regulator comes knocking in January.

Workforce training platforms with built-in forms and digital evidence capture can streamline this process. You can track who attended which session, capture sign-offs in real time, and store everything in a tamper-proof audit trail. No more chasing paper forms or hunting through email threads.

5. Test your system's offline functionality and data integrity

Here's a scenario: your team is spread across remote sites with patchy or non-existent internet. The holidays hit. Someone needs to complete an urgent induction or refresher course. Your system requires a live connection to function.

Now you've got a problem.

Before the break, test your platform's offline functionality. Can users access training materials, complete assessments, and capture evidence without an internet connection? Will that data sync correctly once they're back online?

This isn't just a convenience issue—it's a compliance issue. If your workforce can't access training when they need it, you're introducing delays and potential safety risks. And if offline data doesn't sync properly, you've got gaps in your records that could undermine your entire audit trail.

LAAMP was built with this exact challenge in mind. The platform supports full offline functionality, allowing users to complete training, assessments, and practical tasks in remote locations. Once connectivity is restored, all data syncs automatically, preserving the integrity of your records and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

Stay compliant, stay protected

The holidays shouldn't be a compliance black hole. With the right preparation and the right tools, you can close out the year with confidence—knowing your workforce is trained, your records are up to date, and your organisation is protected.

Whether you're managing safety training on a mine site or rolling out workforce training across multiple locations, the principles remain the same: automate where you can, verify what matters, and maintain a clear audit trail.

If you're looking for an online LMS that supports offline functionality, digital evidence capture, and transferable compliance records, learn more about LAAMP and how it can help you stay ahead of compliance demands year-round.