Organisations across every sector employ contractors because they are flexible, often available immediately, or have specialist expertise. They’re an essential resource in a tight labour market, with every indication showing that more people will choose to become contractors in the future.
The risks involved in using contractors
Yet contractors are a major source of compliance and safety risk. Being new to your operation, they are unfamiliar with your safety processes and may not be as committed to your safety culture as your employees. Contractors may not hold themselves or their employees to the same level of professional standards as you do, and are typically less supervised than an organisation’s own employees.
These factors can lead to contractors injuring themselves or others and exposing your organisation to reputational damage and financial penalties.
Under the Workplace Health & Safety Act, you are responsible for the health and safety of contractors while they are on your site. You have an obligation to provide them with information (onboarding), training and supervision while putting safe systems in place to reduce the risk of exposure to hazards.
How to reduce contractor risk
Maximise the benefits of using contractors while reducing the risks involved by following these five tips.
1. Focus on contractor (supplier) pre-qualification
There’s a lot more involved in selecting a supplier than finding out if they have the expertise required to get the job done.
- Review and collect copies of compliance documentation such as up-to-date licences and registrations, trade qualifications and insurances.
- Assess the supplier’s knowledge of workplace health & safety issues relevant to your industry.
- Ask for references from previous employers.
- Review the supplier’s safety policy or safety statement.
- If a team is involved, ensure the entire team is qualified and compliant.
2. Embed safety agreements in the contract
Ensure your safety policies are binding by embedding a clause in the contract that requires the contractor and their team to follow your protocols and procedures, including incident reporting. Track, measure and report on KPIs such as safety practices and adherence to site procedures.
3. Get safety inductions right
The induction is your organisations main opportunity to fulfil its obligation to provide contractors with the information they need to keep themselves and others safe on site. Find the right balance between user experience and governance by ensuring the onboarding system is easy to use, delivers the right outcomes, is accessible from any device and tracks individual progress. Automated notifications should prompt candidates (and alert managers) to complete induction tasks.
4. Monitor and supervise contractors on-site
Contractors tend to work with less supervision than employees, even though their lack of familiarity with your safety policies and procedures should mean they are more carefully supervised. Assign an employee to oversee the contractor’s compliance with your safety protocols. Technology can also be used to help monitor a contractor’s location and determine when they are on-site.
5. Reduce risk with the Cited Platform
Onboard and deploy your contractors efficiently and enhance your compliance with the Cited Platform. With our contractor management features, you will be able to systemise the onboarding, induction and screening process, while significantly reducing costs at the same time. Cited enables all workers to upload credentials and complete any training right from their device.
Get in touch
Contact Cited to access simpler, faster, and more cost-effective vendor and contractor workforce management.