H&S tasks to tick off for new contractors

What is Contractor Management?

Contractor management is a health and safety term used by any company that uses contractors to assist with work or workplace activities. It refers to the process of checking if your contractors are competent and work safely.

As a building company, what do I need to do?

Your obligations as the main contractor are pretty straightforward. First, you need to make sure contractors have the right skills and experience to do the job, and second, you need to make sure they are going to carry out the work safely. Once they are on board, you must also monitor if the contractor is following good health and safety practices on-site. Ensure you are including contractors in Toolbox Meetings to give them the opportunity to have input into health and safety.

Collecting evidence of this process is important so we recommend putting a system in place, so nothing falls through the cracks:

What you should be asking your contractors for:

Pre-qualification company checks once a year: • Insurance (public liability). • A policy and procedures document and evidence they follow good processes.

Pre-site induction of workers:

• Trade qualifications and experience.

On-site induction of workers:

• Have they read and agreed to the Site Specific Safety Plan? • Have they been made aware of any hazards on-site? • Are they bringing any hazards on-site? • Have they been made aware of the on-site incident reporting process and emergency procedures?

On-site health and safety As a yardstick, good health and safety on-site would be your contractor completing at least two Toolbox Meetings and four Risk Assessments each month, and a Task Analysis anytime high-risk work is carried out.

The on-site induction is your opportunity to set expectations of how you expect the contractor to participate in risk identification and management. New workers are at a greater risk of injuring themself than your existing crew, so a good induction is vital in avoiding injuries and downtime.

Stay on top of these checks with an automated system

When you’ve got a lot of contractors coming and going, it can turn into a bit of a headache trying to stay on top of checking all these documents. HazardCo has created a simple, automated system to nail contractor management. We will send reminders to complete the documentation, you will get alerts if someone scans into a site who hasn’t been approved, and we will even send notifications if the documents are about to expire. Unless you hear otherwise, you can be sure everyone on-site is good to go.

Find out more about HazardCo Contractor Management on our website at www.hazardco.com/nz or give us a call on 0800 555 339.

The HazardCo Team. HazardCo is a NZCB Affinity Partner and, as your trusted safety partner, we provide you with the tools and support you need to #SortYourSafety.