How to Grant Contractor Site Access and Be Confident in Their Actions

Granting contractor access to the site is one of the most complex and critical stages of our work.

Looking at examples from most companies, contractor site admission begins with a formal check of qualification certificates and orders, and ends with pointing out the work location where exactly to perform them. The site is handed over via a Site Handover Certificate and it's "no more headaches."

Contractor site admission should include several stages:

• verifying qualifications and appointment orders;
• conducting necessary safety culture training;
• organizing contractor access to the client's electronic systems;
• conducting knowledge checks for contractor employees – testing within the client's system;
• issuing work permits in the client's electronic system.

I will share the practice of knowledge testing for contractors before personnel are allowed to start work.

We all know that a contractor's qualification certificate is not proof of their skills and knowledge, but merely a "piece of paper." When speaking with contractor personnel on-site and asking basic questions about the types of work being performed, we find that over 30% cannot answer. Based on this, it can be assumed that many certificates are issued as a formality, likely without knowledge checks or perhaps even without any training at all.

By including a testing tool in your procedure, you protect yourself from the possibility of unqualified personnel performing work, which significantly reduces the risks of potential negative consequences at the enterprise.

The process itself is not difficult to set up:

• receiving personnel data from the contractor (a list of names specifying qualifications and types of work);
• automatically uploading qualification and work type data into the testing system;
• providing personal access to each employee;
• tests are assigned automatically;
• the contractor's employee studies presentation materials before each test and takes the exam;
• after successfully passing the test, the information is uploaded into the work permit issuance system;
• the issuer can select this employee when drafting the work permit.

In our case, the work permit issuance system takes data from the testing system into account; i.e., an employee who has not passed the test cannot be included in the work permit and, consequently, cannot perform work on-site.

Regarding the physical organization of the testing process, you can proceed based on your capabilities.

Options:

1. Using terminals. Installing vandal-proof terminals in a separate room.
2. Using tablets. The advantage is compactness, and no separate room is required.
3. Using the client's PCs. Requires a computer lab.
4. Allowing testing from the contractor's PCs. High risk of the test being taken by another person.

The main difficulty in organizing the testing process turned out not to be testing new contractors, but organizing testing for existing ones. There was some resistance from current contractors when transitioning to the new work permit issuance system. First, it is always difficult to move away from the familiar issuance method; second, there is a fear that an employee will fail the test and won't be able to work; third, there is the inability to add an additional worker to the work permit manually. All these difficulties are surmountable. Determine the optimal timeframe for adapting this tool. Agree on this with the contractor.

The described practice is one of the most effective ways to build barriers against admitting untrained personnel to the site.