How to sort your contractors before they arrive on site

What’s Contractor management?

Contractor Management is simply ensuring your contractors are competent, qualified, licenced and inducted before visiting your site.

How does it apply to me?

If you own a building company, chances are you’re the Principal Contractor of the building site. This means it’s your responsibility to check that all contractors meet the requirements to work on your project. This involves making sure everyone is appropriately licenced, competent and compliant before jumping into any work on-site.

It’s also vital to closely observe contractors, especially anyone unfamiliar with your site, to make sure work is conducted safely.

Digitally documenting everything is the easiest way to avoid landing in hot water over lost paperwork or abandoned inductions. 

Here’s what you should check:

Check company info annually

• ABN and company details
• Insurance (work cover, public liability and income protection)
• What’s their current health and safety policy?
• Can they prove they follow good processes? 

Induction of workers

• Check white cards are current, as well as any other trade qualifications or licence
• 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?

On-site health and safety 

As a general benchmark, we recommend these steps to stay up to date:

• Start off on the right foot with a Risk Assessment prior to starting a new task or activity: Contractors can check that the work area / site is safe and any new hazards are identified and managed. 
• Complete a SWMS before performing high-risk construction work: Contractors completing a SWMS may need to provide a copy to the Principal Contractor before starting work.
• Consult and communicate with a Toolbox meeting once a week/fortnight: Share and capture what’s happening on-site, including hazards, incidents and corrective actions with workers and contractors.
• Report all incidents as they happen, including near misses: Reporting and investigating incidents helps you take action to minimise the chance of it happening again. 
• Check your vehicle once a month: Check when your service is due, check the emergency equipment such as the first aid kit and fire extinguisher and the condition of the vehicle. 
• Review and monitor: Regularly take stock of your site or work area by completing a Site Review.

How to keep track of it all

Unannounced visits, along with contractors turning up ahead of schedule hours can throw a spanner in the works at the best of times. Between checks, questions, confirmations and on-site monitoring, things can get hectic really fast.

The HazardCo App features a simple, guided health and safety system that automatically handles contractor management for you. It even sends automatic reminders to contractors to complete and submit documents and notifies you the minute someone tries accessing your site who’s not yet permitted to.

No alerts? Great! Everything’s set.