How DocuSign Helped Make Injury Prevention Plans at UC Davis Much Easier

Most UC Davis employees are familiar with the annual Injury and Illness Prevention Program, at least as a task to check off their to-do list each year — whether that means completing an IIPP training or signing off on a document.

Behind that routine process is a significant shift in how the university manages workplace safety compliance. UC Davis has recently reached a near-perfect 99% completion rate for departmental IIPPs, a dramatic improvement driven by a redesigned system led by the Environmental Health and Safety team. 

The new system uses DocuSign and was developed with Kim Stephens from Administrative Innovation and Technology in partnership with Safety Services. She worked closely with Steve Ball, a safety specialist who has led the UC Davis IIPP program for more than 20 years. 

Ball knows that any time a Cal/OSHA inspector arrives on campus, there’s always one thing they ask for first.

“Every time they show up, the first thing they ask for is to see a departmental IIPP,” said Ball. If a department didn’t have one, the consequence is immediate: a $5,000 fine. Even incomplete or outdated programs could result in $500-$2,000 penalties. IIPP violations are consistently the most frequent citations issued by Cal/OSHA. Those repeat encounters revealed a larger issue.

“We discovered we had a problem and a challenge,” Ball said. “We had no way of tracking departmental IIPPs and ensuring departments were in compliance with California regulations.”

That challenge — largely invisible to most employees — became the starting point for a years-long effort to modernize one of the university’s most important safety requirements. The results were highlighted during the first FOA Efficiency Series webinar, which focused on innovative uses of DocuSign across FOA units.

Challenges in meeting California’s annual IIPP requirements 

An IIPP is required by California law and serves as the foundation for workplace safety programs, outlining how an organization identifies hazards, trains employees and prevents injuries. At UC Davis, every department must complete and maintain its own plan annually.

Watch this story's video from the FOA Efficiency Series

You can watch Steve Ball's presentation on improving the IIPP process on YouTube (less than 10 minutes). 

Explore slides and other resources from the FOA Efficiency Webinars, hosted by the Administrative Innovation and Technology team.

For years, that process relied on Microsoft Word templates and repeated, manual follow-ups with the 300+ department safety coordinators on campus. While the DSCs were given the tools to comply, there was little visibility into who had completed their plans or whether they were up to date.

Ball and his EH&S colleagues began exploring solutions, including commercial software. But they quickly ran into a limitation.

“The IIPP is specific to California,” Ball said. “So as you can guess, we found no software available.”

Instead, the EH&S team partnered with Admin IT to build a system tailored to UC Davis’ needs, with assistance from Lisa Johnston and Ramesh Chinnam. In 2018, they launched an electronic version that used multiple programs with the hope of increasing efficiency, but the experience fell short.

“The softwares were just not playing nice together,” Ball said, and the process “was just not working to our satisfaction.” 

In 2020, the team paused and reimagined the approach, consolidating the entire workflow into DocuSign with support from Kim Stephens of Admin IT. The team launched a redesigned system in 2021 that guided each department’s designated safety coordinator through a structured process: entering data, generating a completed IIPP, routing it for signatures and returning it for final review and approval.

Further improvements made the process even more efficient, including the ability to carry forward the previous year’s information — reducing the burden on departments and making annual updates easier.  For employees, the improvements also help make the process feel simpler and more consistent from year to year.

Improving user experience helped get campus to 99% compliance

The impact has been significant. UC Davis achieved a 99% completion rate for departmental IIPPs in both 2024 and 2025, with a goal of reaching full compliance.

“I always brag about this accomplishment because the injury and illness prevention program is such an important regulatory document,” said Veronica Thron, a program manager with EH&S who oversees occupational safety. “In the past we struggled to meet this compliance goal, so the fact that Steve has been able to accomplish 99% compliance is incredible.”

The success reflects more than just a technical solution. For project partners, it required aligning multiple priorities — from regulatory compliance to user experience.

“In working with Steve to develop this DocuSign process, compliance was indeed the goal,” said Stephens, the Admin IT project manager with DocuSign expertise. “But the second and third goals of improving customer experience and improving how teams communicate about this effort were also critical to, ultimately, success in increasing compliance. Bringing those three goals together was crucial.”

Today, the IIPP process gets started each January, with clear tracking, defined responsibilities and a system that supports departments from start to finish.

For Ball, the outcome is both practical and ongoing. “We’re aiming for 100% this year,” he said.

For more information:

• More about UC Davis’ Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP)
• DocuSign resources for FOA teams
• FOA Efficiency Series webinars (Upcoming webinar topic will be AI: Practical Use Cases)