A friend who works for a large consulting firm recently had an employee pass out in the office. This employee was a landed immigrant whose wife did not speak very good English.

The information in the employee’s file was out of date since he had moved after starting the job. In order to contact his family my friend had to phone the man’s parents in Africa since that was the only valid number on the file. Needless to say with language difficulties and time differences it was some time before the man’s wife here in Canada was notified. The home country government ended up contacting their embassy in Ottawa who in turn contacted the Canadian Foreign Affairs and you can image the hassle and needless confusion and heartache for the man’s wife.

It turned out that the man had undiagnosed diabetes, serious but treatable and controllable.

Are all your employees’ files up to date with accurate and current contact information as well as alternate phone numbers and contact personnel?

If you are working is an field office this is especially important since you often do not know anyone’s families or where they live and people are from widely scattered residences.

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com