Third Party Contractors

Many organisations require the services of 3rd party or external contractors to assist them in producing their own products or services. The benefits may include achieving production outcomes, conducting specialised tasks and also supplementing capacity.

The use of any contractor can create additional risk for an organisation in areas such as compliance, performance and reputation. Safety can also a considerable risk, and it is important that a contractor has an effective safety management system that can protect people within their own organisation, their client’s organisation and the community.

Our qualified and highly experienced consultants work with organisations to assist them to establish and implement effective processes for managing H&S risks associated with their use of contractors.

Our approach for reviewing an organisation’s contractor H&S management system involves examining the effectiveness of the organisation’s processes for the management of H&S risks associated with the use of contractors over the life cycle of a contract, which can include the following key events:

• the initial stages of an organisation specifying its H&S requirements of a contractor in procurement documentation;
• the organisation’s evaluation of a tender;
• the onboarding of a contractor’s personnel and plant;
• the organisation’s monitoring and auditing of a contractor’s performance; and
• ending with the organisation’s review of the contractor’s H&S performance on contract closure,

Our approach is to examine an organisation’s practices at three distinct phases of the contract life cycle as shown below. We conduct desktop reviews of key documentation and also conduct interviews with relevant management and contractor representatives to examine practical issues when using contractors.

Our consultants can help you to establish robust and effective management processes to help manage contractor H&S risks through process development and training during the following three phases:

• tender and contract specification – to establish clear statements of the organisation’s H&S requirements of contractors;
• tender Evaluation – to establish processes to evaluate a tenderer’s capability of complying with the organisation’s H&S requirements and to select the tenderer who best meets the requirements;
• contract management – to establish robust processes for the organisation to:
• induct and mobilise a contractor;
• monitor and audit a contractor’s conformance with contractual H&S requirements;
• report a contractor’s H&S performance to the organisation’s governance forums;
• manage instances of non-conformance including contract termination; and
• evaluate a contractor’s H&S performance on contract closure.

If you use contractors within your product or service lifecycle and would like to have the confidence that your organisation has the right systems in place to engage them productively, then contact us today for an obligation free discussion.