5 Steps to Managing Contractors Effectively 

Managing your contractors is crucial for ensuring not only their safety, but also the success of your business.

The national authority for workplace health and safety in Britain is called the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). It guards against accidents, illnesses, and fatalities at work. The HSE recommends the Plan Do Check Act approach to safety.. This article applies this approach to demonstrate how to effectively manage contractors.

The 5 Key Steps to Managing Contractors

The rationale behind each step’s necessity for protecting your contractors’ safety and guaranteeing a reputable and successful business is explained in detail below.

Plan

Managing contractors involves a number of important considerations to ensure successful completion of the job while ensuring the safety of all involved. 

It is important to define the job and identify the resources and contractors needed to complete it. This may involve deciding whether to use contractors that have been used previously or hiring new ones. As well as determining whether they need to go through an onboarding procedure or have their health and safety questionnaire refreshed.

Additionally, responsibility for the contractor must be established. This includes who will be ensuring their safety while on site. It’s also important to clearly communicate the job details and responsibilities to the contractor. 

Moreover, any potential risks associated with the job and the environment/location in which it will be completed must be identified and measures put in place to mitigate these risks. This involves obtaining necessary Risk Assessment and Method Statement (RAMS) from the contractor, which should be reviewed and clarified by competent persons to ensure everyone understands the safety plans.

Do

Inducting contractors is necessary before any work even begins. This entails making sure the contractors are familiar with the location, the expectations, and the safety guidelines.

They should also be aware of who to report to in case of an incident or emergency. The importance of contractors’ safety cannot be overstated, particularly in light of the fact that more than 100,000 workers in the sector sustain injuries each year.

Learn more about what you should include in a contractor induction here.

Additionally, make sure the contractor is sending workers who are qualified for the job at hand. This will be clear from the education and credentials they possess.

The contractor should be accompanied when issuing Authorisation to Work and Permit to Work to ensure that work doesn’t begin until both parties are completely aware of the risks and ways to mitigate them.

Check

On-the-job audits must be conducted frequently. Verifying that the safety precautions that have been agreed upon are being followed and that the circumstances have not changed since the Permit’s issuance. 

Check that the assigned work has been completed in accordance with your initial plan and objective and that the work site has been left in a safe condition before you close or cancel a work permit.

Act

Make sure you document any improper behaviour or non-conformances by contractors. You must make sure that these are documented and supported for future reference.

As well, make sure you have an incident and accident management policy that requires all work to stop as soon as an incident or a safety breach is noticed or reported, until it is determined that it is safe to resume. This should state that every incident is thoroughly investigated with the goal of developing applicable learnings.

You should ensure that this policy is known and embraced by all contractors. It’s advisable to foster a culture of cooperation with your contractors to guarantee safety standards.

Repeat

We would add ‘Repeat’ to the Plan, Do, Check and Act; consistency is key to effective contractor management. It is crucial to have a reliable process in place that is consistently followed and is ingrained in your workplace culture. A system for managing contractors may be useful.

Verature’s built-in, simple, and required workflows, along with clear digital dashboards, alerts, and escalation, eliminate the labour-intensive admin required in the steps above, and the potential for human-error in achieving consistency.

Got any questions? Book a demo to see if Verature is a fit for you.