How to Build a Training & Competency Matrix for Contractors (With a Template)
How to build a training and competency matrix for contractors, with a free template to start from.
Mitchell BourneManaging Director - Published
- 10 min read
A contractor arrives at the gate of a distribution centre or a managed building, and the sign-in asks one question: is this person cleared for this job, on this site, today? A training and competency matrix is the grid that answers it before they turn up. This guide is for the WHS manager, safety lead or facilities manager who has been asked to build one, or who inherited a matrix that is green on every row and cannot be trusted. The template is a workbook and a CSV file you can download and change.
The examples come from property and facilities management and from transport and logistics. The rules on sighting a worker's licence and induction are in Why the Skills Gap Is Now a Safety Problem; this guide is about the grid that holds the proof.
What Is a Training Matrix, and What Is It For?
A training matrix is a grid with a person on every row and a requirement on every column. Each cell says whether that person holds the requirement and when it runs out. It answers three questions: who is cleared for this task on this site today, whose clearance lapses in the next 60 days, and where a requirement has nothing behind it but someone's word.
The terms overlap. A training matrix records the training a person has completed and when it expires. A skills matrix rates how well a person does a skill, often on a four-level scale, mostly for your own staff's development. A competency matrix records whether a person has been assessed as able to do a defined task safely. A safety manager needs something narrower for contractors: the authority to do the work, the induction for this site, the training for this task and the evidence for each. This guide treats that as one grid. An employee matrix assumes everyone is yours and trained by you; contractors break both.
Rows Are People, Columns Are Requirements.
Put one person on each row, never one company. A company can be approved while the technician at the door holds nothing current: company-level and worker-level checks are different jobs. Each row carries the name, employer, worker type (employee, contractor or labour hire), the site the person is booked at and the task they are booked on.
| Column group | Examples | What each cell holds |
|---|---|---|
| Licences and tickets | A high risk work licence for the class of plant used, a trade licence | Number and class, expiry as printed, where the evidence is |
| Inductions | A company induction, a site induction, emergency arrangements | Date completed, the site, who delivered it |
| Task training | Working at heights, manual handling, vehicle movements in a yard | Date, provider, the refresher date you set |
| Verified competency | An observed sign-off on one machine or task | Date, the named assessor, the scope signed off |
Every cell holds a date and a pointer to evidence, not a tick. A tick says someone once looked; a date says when it stops being true. Record who checked the evidence and when.
For high risk work, the model WHS Regulations ask for part of this. Under regulation 85 a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) at a workplace must not direct or allow a worker to carry out high risk work for which a licence is required unless it sees written evidence, provided by the worker, that they hold the relevant licence. The same regulation asks for sighted evidence about the person supervising certain high risk work, and for the record to be kept for at least 1 year after the work is carried out, or after the supervisor last supervised.1 Seeing the licence is the duty; the matrix is the proof. The model laws have been implemented in all jurisdictions except Victoria, and some have made variations, so check your own regulator's version.2
Keep the records flat, one row per person per requirement, and work the matrix out from them. A grid you type into cannot be filtered, audited or imported later.
How Do You Map a Requirement to a Task and a Site?
A requirement means something only against a job. Write the tasks first (operate a forklift on the dock, clean gutters from a roof, service a lift in a plant room), then what each needs on any site. Then list what each site adds: an induction for that building, a rule for a dock where pedestrians and trucks share a floor, a permit. A person's required list is their tasks plus their site, so changing a site rule changes the list for everyone there at once.
Take a made-up cold-storage distribution centre whose dock has its own forklift drivers, agency drivers and a contract cleaning crew. The warehouse operations manager needs these rows.
| Task | Holds, on any site | Added by this site |
|---|---|---|
| Drive a forklift on the dock | High risk work licence (forklift truck), familiarisation sign-off on the truck model | Site induction, vehicle and pedestrian movement induction |
| Drive an order-picking truck | High risk work licence (order-picking forklift truck), familiarisation sign-off | Site induction, vehicle and pedestrian movement induction |
| Clean the dock area | Manual handling training | Site induction, vehicle and pedestrian movement induction |
The order-picking row is not decoration. The model Regulations list a forklift truck and an order-picking forklift truck as separate licence classes, so a driver holding the first card has not shown they hold the second.1 A matrix with one column called forklift licence reads green for a driver whose card does not cover the picker. The cleaning crew needs no licence but still needs the movement induction, so a column per task beats one list for everybody.
The same shape works in property. In a made-up portfolio of 14 commercial properties, a facilities manager's roof technician needs working-at-heights training everywhere, but only 3 buildings need a roof-access induction and permit briefing.
Expiry, Refreshers & the Renewal Trap.
A cell can run out three ways. The document carries its own expiry, such as a licence card. You set a refresher, such as an annual site induction. Or something happens: the person moves site, a new truck arrives, the task changes or there is an incident. Track all three. The template marks a record due soon inside a window you set, 60 days to start with, which is our practice and not a legal period; add reminders at 30 and 7 days if your teams need them.
Four statuses cover most cases: current, due soon, expired and missing (the template also flags a record with no date). A fifth catches a trap with licences. Under the model WHS Regulations a high risk work licence expires 5 years after the day it is granted unless cancelled earlier, and the licence document shows its expiry date.1 If the holder applies for renewal before it expires, the licence is taken to continue in force until they are told the decision.1 Once it has expired, the holder must not do the licensed work until it is renewed or a new licence is granted; they may apply to renew within 12 months of expiry, or later if the regulator is satisfied there are exceptional circumstances.1
A matrix that turns a worker red on the expiry date can stop someone who lodged a renewal in time, and one that ignores the date can wave through a genuine lapse. Give the cell a fifth state, renewal pending, shown in amber and needing a named person's decision, and record the outcome so a refused renewal turns the cell expired instead of staying amber. Ask for evidence the application was lodged before expiry, and check with your regulator before relying on it. Under the model Regulations a new starter can read missing and still be on the work lawfully: for 60 days after a certification in a specified VET course for high risk work is issued, and, if they apply for the licence within those 60 days, until it is granted or 28 days after notice of a refusal, no licence is required. The PCBU must see the certification and, after the 60 days, evidence that they applied in time.1 The template has columns for the renewal date and outcome, and works every status out from the dates against a visible as-at date.
Contractors and Employees Sit in the Same Matrix, With Different Columns.
Use one matrix, one row per person, whoever employs them. The model Act's definition of a worker includes contractors, subcontractors and their employees.3 A person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the provision of any information, training, instruction or supervision necessary to protect all persons from risks to their health and safety arising from work carried out as part of the conduct of the business or undertaking.3
What differs is who trains, and so who holds the evidence. For your own employees you deliver and record the training. For a contractor's workers the employer usually trains, though the duty stays with both of you, and you hold the evidence that the job's requirements are met, plus what only you can provide: your site induction, the hazards of your building or yard and the instruction for the task. Do not copy the contractor's matrix into yours; collect only what your tasks and sites need.
Labour hire adds a third pattern. Safe Work Australia says the provider and the host work together to ensure workers have the relevant qualifications, experience or licence, any extra training the work needs, and a safety induction.4 Record who delivered each, so a gap shows who was meant to supply it.
Who Owns the Matrix?
One person cannot own all of it. The structure belongs to the safety manager: the requirements, the task and site rules, the alert windows. The data belongs to a coordinator who checks each record against the original and signs it with the date. The gate belongs to whoever lets people on, a supervisor, dock lead or building manager, who looks at the matrix before the shift and not after an incident. The contractor owns their documents and renewals.
Each week, review what expires in the next 60 days. Each month, trace 3 random cells to the original card; if one cannot be found, treat that column as unverified.
Seven Mistakes That Make a Matrix Look Right and Be Wrong.
- Ticks instead of dates. The first lapse is found at the gate.
- One list for everyone. The cleaner is chased for a forklift licence; the picker driver is missed for the right one.
- Rows for companies. The company is filed while its new starter holds nothing.
- A class that does not match the task. The card is current, for another kind of plant.
- Evidence nobody opened. A number typed from a text message is not a check.
- Leavers left in. They keep the row green and inflate the percentage.
- A matrix the gate never sees. The supervisor who decides who starts has never opened it.
When Should You Move the Matrix Out of Excel?
A spreadsheet is often right for one site. Three signs say it is time to leave. Several people edit it, so there are several versions. Contractors from many employers hold records only they can renew, and you chase them by email. Or the question at the gate cannot wait for someone to open a file. A spreadsheet does nothing when a date passes; it cannot ask the contractor to renew or stop an uncleared person at the gate.
Moving Contractor Compliance Off Spreadsheets covers the order to move things in, what to automate and how to clean the file first. Workforce compliance is the part of contractor management that holds licences and expiry dates; training and induction covers courses.
Where ComplyFlow Fits.
ComplyFlow is contractor management software. Its Help Centre describes requirement sets for workers, for sites and for plant and operator competency, each naming the documents and training that audience must hold; the platform sends the invitations and reminders and chases renewals, and saving a change re-checks everyone the set covers.5 Training can be assigned by category or by site and project, a course can carry an expiry period with a warning before it, and a Compliance Matrix report can be filtered by date and exported to Excel or PDF.6 The people on your side still decide who may start.
What to Do This Week With the Template.
Download the training and competency matrix template, or the flat records file as CSV, and clear the sample rows. List the 10 tasks your contractors most often do, what each needs and what each site adds. Load one site first, set the as-at date, and name an owner for the structure, the data and the gate.
By Friday you will know who is cleared for tomorrow's shift and which records you cannot prove.
Sources
- Model Work Health and Safety Regulations, regulations 82, 85, 92, 93, 101, 102 and 103 and Schedule 3, table 3.1
- Model WHS laws: implemented in all jurisdictions except Victoria
- Model Work Health and Safety Act, sections 7, 14, 16 and 19
- Labour hire: WHS duties
- Onboarding Requirements
- Training Module Overview
See It Against Your Own Contractors, Sites & Rules.
Book a 30-minute demo. We will show ComplyFlow working with your kind of sites, your kind of contractors, and your requirements. No slides, no hard sell.
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Written by
Mitchell BourneManaging Director, ComplyFlow
Mitchell has run ComplyFlow since 2009 and has spent that time inside the contractor, site, and safety problems of Australian operators. He writes about where compliance actually fails, and what the people responsible for it can do about it.
Writes about: Contractor compliance, WHS duty and proof, Running a compliance program
Questions
Questions People Ask About This.
What is the difference between a training matrix, a skills matrix and a competency matrix?
A training matrix records what training and tickets a person holds and when each expires. A skills matrix rates how well a person does a skill, usually on a scale of levels, and is mostly a development tool for your own staff. A competency matrix records whether a person has been assessed as able to do a defined task safely. For contractors a single grid usually carries all three jobs: the person, the requirement, a date and the evidence.
What should a training matrix include?
A row for each person, with their employer and the site and task they are booked on. A column for each requirement, grouped as licences and tickets, inductions, task training and verified competency. In each cell, the expiry or refresher date, a reference to the evidence, who checked it and when. Add a status that is worked out from the dates, rather than typed: current, due soon, renewal pending, expired or missing.
How do I create a training matrix in Excel?
Keep the records flat on one sheet, one row per person per requirement, with the date obtained and the expiry date. Build the matrix on a second sheet, with people down the side and requirements across the top, and let a formula look up each person's expiry date and set the status. Add a sheet of rules that says which requirements each task and each site needs. The free template on this page is built that way.
Do contractors and employees go in the same training matrix?
Yes, with a column that records the employer and the worker type. The checks that follow from the job are the same for both. What differs is who trains and who holds the evidence: you for your employees, usually the employer for a contractor's workers, with you providing what only you can, such as your site induction. The duty stays with both of you.
How often should a training matrix be reviewed?
Look at what expires in the next 60 days every week, and trace 3 cells back to their evidence every month. Review the whole list of requirements when a task, a site rule or a piece of equipment changes, because those changes move who is required to hold what.
Is a training matrix a legal requirement?
Neither the model WHS Act nor the model WHS Regulations use the term. They ask for outcomes: information, training, instruction and supervision that protect people, so far as is reasonably practicable, and sighted written evidence of a licence before high risk work, with a record of it kept for at least 1 year. State and territory laws vary, so check your regulator. A matrix is a practical way to show you did that, and to catch a lapse before it reaches the site.
