Site-Specific Safety Training (SST)

Personnel working in environments with safety hazards will be required to document Site-specific Safety Training (SST) in the Ability LMS annually. The Site-Specific Safety Training course will be included in an assigned track if required for your area. 

Instructions by Unit

Select the heading below that best fits your work environment for detailed instructions. The annual site-specific training documentation process varies by worksite.

• IPF, Police

  Work with your supervisor or unit trainer to ensure you attend applicable training each year, including bloodborne pathogens training. Your supervisor or unit trainer will document your training in Ability. Do not download, complete, or upload an individual site-specific checklist.

  Unit Trainers

  See trainer resources for site-specific training

• Laboratories, Clinics, Vet Med Center, Nursing, Other Units

  Instructions

  1. Conduct site-specific training with your supervisor/trainer.
  2. Complete documentation of your training (see templates below) and save to your device (PDF, scan, photo). When naming your file, use convention sstc-[your NetID]-[4-digit year] - for example, sstc-sparty99-2026.pdf.
  3. Upload documentation to the Ability LMS system. Start on the Site-Specific Safety Training course homepage. If you have closed out of the course, check your Assignments tile to find and open the Site-Specific Safety Training course. The course contains two activities:
     
     1. Instructions: instructions to this page launch. Select the Complete, Let's Continue button.
     2. User Document Upload: select Choose File and attach your documentation (sstc-sparty99-2026.pdf), then select Submit Checkpoint. Select Home to return to the course hompage.

  
  Templates

  Form or Instructions	Worksites
  Site-Specific Safety Checklist (PDF)	Labs, including for faculty and staff in teaching labs; other environments with multiple safety hazards
  Bloodborne Pathogen Site-Specific Checklist (PDF)	Clinics, IM Sports, childcare, other environments with bloodborne pathogen hazard only
  Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (PDF)	VDL
  Veterinary Medical Center (PDF)	VMC (EHS will contact VMC employees and students for a large-group training event)
  Contact CON.HR@msu.edu	Nursing
  Other	Your supervisor/unit may provide you with a different form customized to your worksite.

Supervisor Responsibilities

• Provide Training

  It is the supervisor's responsibility to ensure adequate and timely training is provided to all persons conducting activities or in areas of safety risk. The supervisor is responsible for monitoring the training and taking steps to correct any gaps in knowledge, skills, and performance. Verify training is documented.

  To document their own annual SST, a PI or other higher level supervisor can review the risks in their projects or work areas** and review resources (EHS manuals, local guidelines, project protocols, location and condition of equipment, signage and other safety concerns...).  Upload documentation of your own site-specific safety review into the SST course space.

  **Changes that might impact environment, public health, or safety of personnel must be reported to EHS.

• Documentation

  Supervisors are required to provide training annually (or designate qualified person to provide the training). Supervisors can view relevant forms submitted by their team.

  Once training is completed for one work environment that year, no additional reminders or alerts will be sent. Remind team members that they must have additional documentation for any other work sites with associated safety risks. It is the manager or principal investigator's responsibility to verify annual site-specific training is documented. 

  Ways to monitor your subordinates' documentation of training:

  • Request your team members email certificates of completion (self-recorded site-specific training will include the actual form uploaded).
  • View your team members' records in Ability LMS.
  • Designate a proxy in the Ability system to assist you or your unit in monitoring.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Course not showing completed?

  If you are having trouble completing the course, try:

  Refresh your browser window - occasionally refreshing will trigger the completion.

  Ensure your file name:

  • uses naming convention sstc-[your NetID]-[4-digit year] - for example, sstc-sparty99-2026.pdf
  • is file type JPG, PNG, DOC, PDF, or GIF
  • does not have any unusual characters (no spaces, no periods, no commas, no slashes...)
  • is not too long (stay under 20 characters please).

  
  Cancel your enrollment and try again.

  Contact the Ability Help Desk.

• Checklist Form Date?

  On the form, record the actual date training was received. You will NOT receive credit UNTIL your form is uploaded into the training system.

  If you received training on different dates for different locations, you will upload separate forms for each. You first form does not expire for a year, so you will need to remember to log back in and upload another form if you have a different or new position within a year from the previous upload. See Multiple sites FAQ. 

  As soon as possible after the training, upload your form into the Ability system. The course record will reflect the date the form was uploaded. Upon request, the Ability helpdesk will modify the course date to match your form date if there is a significant discrepancy (more than a few weeks between the form date and upload date).

• MULTIPLE Work Sites?

  If you work in multiple environments with safety hazards, you are typically required to document SST for each location.

  In general, personnel working in multiple locations (including multiple labs) must complete site-specific training FOR EACH SITE, each year (even if those labs are under the same PI). If you work in multiple types of environments (multiple rooms, labs, clinics or buildings) with different risks and resources and separate training dates, then you must do a separate Site-specific Safety Training (SST) form for each.

  You will probably receive the training on different days which prompt a different record of training. See below for details and exceptions. 

  • If you work in multiple sites, or take on responsibilities in an additional site, you must remember to log your new Site training in Ability. You will NOT be reminded to complete additional site training after you have completed the first site training for that year. See exceptions for labs below. 
  • If you work in multiple clinics, you must have a separate checklist for each site. Every clinic is different, using different safety devices, spill kits, disinfectants, PPE, etc. So anyone at least in the BBP program that works in more than one location (even if one is a lab and one is a clinic) must have a separate checklist for each site. See Exceptions below. 
  • If you change jobs, you must record your SST again.
  • If you take on new responsibilities in a new location, you must remember to upload documentation of new SST form for that location. 
    
    

  EXCEPTIONS for multiple forms requirement

  • If you work under the same PI for different labs, the PI may elect to provide training for both sites together. You can record both sites on a single form.
  • If you work in a single clinic, but individual suites and rooms, you and your supervisor can combine training specific to to those suites and rooms. 
    
    

  HOW to Upload Another Form

  Select My Assignments to access the Site-specific Safety Training course, then follow the exact same process used when uploading the first form.

• Multiple TRACKS have Site-Specific course listed?

  Many work risks (equipment, materials, activities) have regulatory requirements for site-specific training. So several tracks include the course. If you complete site-specific training that covers all related risks for your responsibilities at that site, you will only need to upload one form per site. 

  You must still complete and document site-specific training for each site annually.

• Do I have to do Site-Specific Training?

  Several federal regulations require site-specific safety training (SST) to address hazards specific to a work environment.

  If you are at-risk of exposure to certain workplace risks* (evidenced by a track requirement in Ability system) you must complete site-specific safety training (SST) annually. As of Fall 2023, you must also document that training in the Ability system.

  If you are no longer at risk (or never were)**, please update your training requirements by contact ORRS.train@msu.edu. Copy your supervisor who can remove the online training requirement for that subject also. 

  *People who are typically required to complete the SST

  • You are a MSU employee, including student paid workers and you work in a healthcare setting, where there is a potential to come into contact with human blood or other human potentially infectious materials, or you are a potential blood spill responder and/or may perform first-aid (Police/Security, SLE, Child Care Centers, Psychiatry, Sports and Recreational facilities), then State and federal OSHA law requires you to be in the bloodborne pathogen program and complete bloodborne pathogens site-specific training.  You can mark N/A if as you go through the training with your supervisor or designated training for anything that is not applicable.
    
    • State and federal law require you to be in the bloodborne pathogen program. You can simply mark spill response as what is applicable. The rest appear to be NA. The chances of it happening are not a factor. If you are deemed a spill responder and first aid provider you must be in the program. ~MSU EHS Biosafety
  • You conduct activities at FRIB that put you at risk 
    • Your FRIB safety training personnel will direct you on how to document some safety training. Document site-specific safety training for radiation in the Ability system.
  • You work at VMC or other large building where it is difficult to simplify your training because there are so many sites (rooms, suites, wings) with different equipment, protocols... 
    • See details at the top of this page for VMC
  • You are an MSU employee working on a non-MSU owned site where there are work-related risks including activities, equipment, materials that are covered by regulation. 
    • For example if you are working in Midland or the Grand Rapids Research Center
  • You are not a MSU employee, but you are working at an MSU site where there are work-related risks covered by regulation. If you are a Blue coat, Resident, or Henry Ford employee in a healthcare setting, contact the EHS Biosafety team or your bloodborne pathogens trainer to determine if you are required to complete the Bloodborne pathogens site-specific training 
    
    

  **People who are typically not required to complete the SST

  • You do not have the Site-Specific Safety Training listed in your Ability Assignments list
  • You are a student only and are only taking a course for your academic program and not employed (not a student worker) and are not in a lab or other assistant position and are not in the VMC or other group mentioned in the site instructions above, then you may not be required to complete Site-Specific Safety Training. 
• What was the schedule and process for this change?

  Site-specific Safety Training (SST) has been a federal requirement for many years. Documention was the responsibility of supervisors to store locally. Increasing concern over the thoroughness of documentation and the need for faster reporting for any auditors led to changing the way SST is documented going forward. 

  Starting August 2023:

  • Learners will be required to upload documentation of their SST activity (as a pdf file or image of a printed form) directly into Ability compliance training system. This will serve as an electronic record of the training.
  • After uploading current SST activity for individual lab personnel, labs will no longer be required to retain printed records.
  • Emails were sent to a list of current PI in early August and meetings. 
    
    

  March 2023:

  • Site-Specific Training course is added to other tracks that cover other work environments, including all employees required to complete Bloodborne Pathogens training. 
  • Meetings were initiated with key unit representatives including SLE, IPF, Clinic managers, and others with follow-up emails and meetings to help clarify the process for their units' personnel to document the training.  
    
    

  August 2022:

  • Lab groups are notified of the option to immediately begin documenting training in Ability system. Personnel can now upload documentation of their SST activity directly into Ability compliance training system. How-to materials developed for supervisors and workers. 
  • Hard copies of past SST should be retained until new training is recorded in Ability. Printed hardcopy documentation may used in lieu of the online system until September 2023. Past completions should not be uploaded unless they occurred very recently.