How To Manage Contractor Risks
Contractors are often associated with workplace incidents and therefore assumed to be the cause, whereas they are more often poorly briefed on site-specific hazards, safety rules, and work practice expectations.
The answer to this situation is to have a clear process to ensure we only engage competent contractor firms and have an efficient means of confirming all workers have the necessary qualifications for the work they are to undertake, and have been trained in our safety rules and any site-specific hazards or precautions.
So, let’s understand the key principles for contractor management, and then explore how we can deliver these principles in simple terms.
Key Principles for Contractor System
Only engage competent contractor firms eg pre-qualified.
Every worker to complete our safety induction and upload a copy of their credentials, as relevant for their work.
System confirms above and does not issue of Work Orders if non-compliant.
Each Work Order to attach or reference our contractor safety rules.
Site manager to sign-in contractors and brief them on any site-specific rules, hazards and associated instructions.
Contractor firm to; complete a risk assessment for high-risk work, have safe work procedure(s) eg SWMS for all work, and supervise their own workers.
Company staff co-ordinate or manage projects (not supervise contractors).
Deliveries and visitors, or “emergency” contractors who are not inducted, are to be escorted if enter work areas.
How Do We Select a Competent Contractor Firm?
The process of confirming contractor firms are competent and appropriate for our work is often called “pre-qualification”.
This involves confirming things like;
Legal identity of the firm and matching ABN number,
Role and contact details for key contractor personnel,
Planned tasks, list of credentials required for planned tasks, certificates of currency for specified insurances and levels, safety policy and systems in place.
In addition, pre-qualification seeks details of any recent or pending prosecutions or legal action, and any serious workplace accidents or government authority notices.
How Do We Know the Workers are Competent?
Most businesses utilise online safety inductions and systems to record individual worker credentials. This speeds up daily sign-in and ensures no contractor is allowed to start work until the QR code confirms “all compliant” eg big green tick.
In this way, site staff only have to confirm the contractors scan in and get green OK tick, and brief workers on any site-specific hazards, rules, work permits required, or unusual risks eg asbestos on site or underground utilities.
Risk Assessment & SWMS for Work
All contractor work needs to be covered by an appropriate safe work procedure. This is consistent with the general duty of care eg Vic OHS Act S.21 & WHS S.19 requires a safe system of work, and safety regulations require a safe work method statement (SWMS) for all high-risk construction work. However, it is best practice to require a SWMS or SWP for all contractor tasks.
Whilst preparation of safe work procedures essentially involves assessment of the immediate risks associated with a task, a project risk assessment should also be completed so the contractor firm can be confident they have identified all significant risks and have the necessary controls in place. Some businesses also provide contractors with a copy of their risk assessment for projects.
How Do We Know They Are Working Safely?
The only way to be confident that safe and compliant work practices are being followed is to supervise and support the people doing the job.
The person best placed to understand the safety of any specialist tasks or equipment being used is for the contractor firm to supervise their own team.
Therefore, host site staff are not “contractor supervisors”, but project co-ordinators or similar title. Let’s not confuse anyone about who is actually supervising the work.
What About Visitors and Emergency Use of Contractors?
For irregular deliveries to site, which are typically brief and low-risk, we primarily rely on our entry signage to convey our site rules and key directions eg deliveries to Main Office or Warehouse. If the deliveries need to enter restricted areas escort them.
Where a contractor is required for emergency repairs eg water or gas leak, and our regular pre-qualified contractor is not available, escort the contractor while on site. This allows us to alert them to any site-specific hazards, precautions or unusual risks.
Best Practice Online Systems
We at Safety Action work with one of the leading online contractor management firms, Linksafe - Civica. We also design, support and audit contractor activities for a number of clients, large and small.
If interested in upgrading your contractor system, training for your team, or an independent contractor audit call us on 03 8544 4300 or email.
