VR FleetCare supports its business with structured competence management

Images: ©VR Group

VR FleetCare manages employee competence with Qreform’s Rego HSEQ system, which ensures that the necessary skills are always available for each shift. The system has also made it easier to plan competence management in the long term.

VR FleetCare is a rail fleet maintenance and wagon manufacturing company that provides rolling stock and freight wagon maintenance services to its customers. Its services include fleet maintenance, modernisation projects, component services, lifecycle management and digital services. VR FleetCare is a subsidiary of the VR Group, a passenger, logistics and maintenance service company owned by the Finnish state.

VR FleetCare chose Qreform’s Rego HSEQ system to better support its competence and qualifications management. The system has been used across the VR Group since October 2021 as an information system for safety and quality management. At VR Group, Rego goes by the name TUUMA, and it currently provides a comprehensive set of safety and quality management tools that work together seamlessly.

VR FleetCare operates in compliance with rail fleet maintenance requirements. The industry is subject to requirements such as the ECM standard and certain certifications that require high-quality, documented competence management.

“With the system extension, we wanted to replace Excel sheets and develop our maintenance competence management using a system that is more in line with the legal requirements. With Rego, we can demonstrate compliance while also monitoring and planning competence management measures in the long term,” says Heidi Varpula, Head of Sustainability and Competence Management at VR FleetCare.

Rego supports the big picture of competence management

VR FleetCare uses the Rego HSEQ system to monitor and maintain employees’ competence and the training programmes they undergo to achieve qualifications. In addition to maintenance staff, the system also provides information on the competence of managers and specialists, for example.

Qualifications and competence management forms a significant part of VR FleetCare’s operations, and supporting the company’s operations requires a clear system. In particular, Rego’s visual matrix views have been much appreciated, as the summary directly shows employees’ competences by job category.

“The system has made it significantly easier to manage competence and successors at an organisational level. Monitoring is now easy and up to date and can be managed flexibly. We have clear visibility of how many of our employees have specific competence and when new people need to be trained,” Varpula says.

VR FleetCare’s next step is to develop competence development metrics based on the system’s data. This also involves data from the system being imported into Power BI metrics for the organisation’s various needs.

“Collaboration with Qreform has been smooth. The system is updated regularly, and we have also been able to develop functionalities based on our own needs. The collaboration has led to new ideas on how we can improve our operations,” Varpula says.