A contractor is anyone who works for you who is not a direct employee – in many industries they are commonly found on site, and it is essential that they are managed properly in order to avoid risks to themselves and others on site.
1. Identify the job and its hazards
To be able to plan the contractor’s job so it can be carried out safely, you need to be able to define what the job is, and how it can be achieved safely.
Once you know what the job will be, you can then carry out a risk assessment by identifying potential hazards that could cause harm, and evaluating the level of risk these hazards carry.
2. Eliminate or reduce risks
The best way to manage a risk is to eliminate it completely. If there is a way to avoid the hazard by changing the way you do things, then this should be the first step.
If this is not possible, then you must seek ways to reduce the risks as much as possible.
Precautions should meet legal standards, follow good industry practice, comply with recognised industry standards, and reduce risk as much as reasonably practicable.
3. Use permit to work systems
Permits to work are used for unusual jobs and those that are highly hazardous, such as demolition or hot works, specifying the work to be carried out and the precautions that must be taken and providing a record of the consideration of all foreseeable hazards.
Having these systems in place can help to protect contactors by ensuring they cannot start works without a permit or confirmation that one is not needed.
4. Assess contractor experience
By ensuring any contractors you hire have the right competencies, you can reduce the risk of accidents occurring due to inexperience.
Consider finding out what experience they have in your area of business, their familiarity with common industry hazards, if they have any existing risk assessments or safety method statements for a previous job.
5. Check contractor health and safety policies and procedures
A good way to assess contractor suitability is to request and inspect their health and safety policy. A good policy should include how the policy will be put into practice, and be supported by sensible working practices and procedures.
6. Check contractor training records
Before bringing in a contractor, you should ensure they have the proper training and competencies, and that these are recorded and most importantly, in date.
You should also find out their procedures for checking subcontractor competencies as how they pass on important health and safety information to staff.
7. Manage contractors on site
It is important that contractors sign in and out of site so that they are kept informed of any changes from day to day and so that you know who is present on site in case of an emergency.
Contractors should also have a named site contact that they can in regularly in touch with, who should be someone in a managerial position with sufficient authority and competence.
8. Check in periodically
Supervision and monitoring are essential parts of managing contractor safety and ensuring the job is being carried out in the way that was agreed.
9. Review the job
Once a job has been completed, you should review the work to assess how effective your planning was, contractor performance, and how well the job went.
10. Record lessons learnt
Record the results of the review for future reference so that you can implement your findings in the next job.
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