New employers are often surprised to learn that hiring contractors isn’t as simple as it seems.
There’s more to it than qualifying contractors, negotiating a contract, and making sure they have access to the worksite when they need it. Once you bring contractors into a project, you also open yourself up to legal liabilities and assume some responsibility for the contractor’s safety.
This where things get a bit more complicated. To help you get your bearings, let’s go over four fundamental things you should know before working with contractors.
Ignorance of the Law Doesn’t Absolve You of Responsibility
Your contractor safety program must meet a number of legal requirements and comply with all applicable standards. Getting it squared up can be a complex and overwhelming endeavor, especially if you don’t have a dedicated legal department.
But that’s no excuse for half-assing it. Not knowing or understanding your legal requirements won’t get you out of trouble if things go wrong.
It can be tempting to let the prime contractor handle all this themselves, but there are limits to how much you can delegate to them. Part of doing your due diligence is making sure you’re taking care of all the things that fall under your responsibility.
You Must Conduct a Hazard Assessment (Or Multiple Hazard Assessments)
When you hire contractors to work on your site, you will have to take reasonable steps to identify and control all the hazards they might encounter.
Suppose, for instance, that the contractors will need to access a confined space that none of your workers enter. Even though none of your employees will be facing the many risks associated with that area, you nevertheless need to conduct a hazard assessment and implement safety measures. The contractors are professionals, they’ve done this kind of work before, but it’s still up to you to make sure they can do it safely.
If the work environment is constantly changing (like on construction projects or sites where multiple contractors get involved), you will need to continue performing hazard assessments to keep up with the safety risks as they evolve. Keep ongoing communication with the contractors so they can be informed of all the hazards on the jobsite.
(Find out How to Conduct a Risk Assessment)
You Can’t Put Your Faith in the Contractor’s Safety Program
It’s up to the contractor to make sure their employees and subcontractors will comply with all regulations, follow best practices, and carry out their work safely. It’s their responsibility to put together a comprehensive safety program that checks all the boxes and covers all aspects of the job.
But it’s your responsibility to make sure they’ve done that.
Part of your qualification process should be to review the contractor’s health and safety program to ensure that it’s adequate and up to your standards. If it’s any less rigorous than the one you would have in place for your own employees, don’t accept it. Ask them to draft a more rigorous program to use while working for you, or simply find a contractor who already meets this requirement.
You Should Keep Tabs on Contractor Compliance
The contractor’s safety program looks good on paper, but how does it look in practice?
You won’t know unless you monitor them to ensure that they are complying with all applicable regulations while on your jobsite.
How closely you monitor contractors will depend on the nature of the work. The riskier the work, the more attention you should be paying to how they’re carrying it out. Likewise, you should double down on your monitoring if you have any evidence of possible non-compliance.
If the contractor fails to live up to their safety programs or your policies, you will need to issue a warning and discuss the matter with them. If the breach of policy is serious enough or continues after a warning, it may be necessary to remove the contractor from the site.
(Learn about 5 Common Contractor Management Challenges – And How to Overcome Them)
Know Your Role and Responsibilities
Many people assume that once the contract is signed and the work is about to start, you don’t have to worry about a thing. You’ll handle your employees, the contractor will handle theirs, and as long as you avoid stepping on each other’s toes, everything will go smoothly.
In reality, the contract between you and the contractor won’t relieve you of all legal liability. You still need to do your due diligence to make sure that everyone on your site is safe from harm and following all the safety policies. And that applies whether they’re your direct employees or external contractors you’ve hired to work on your project.