Contractors: A High-Risk Zone

Context: Why Contractors Remain a High-Risk Zone

Managing the safety of contractor organizations is one of the most complex tasks for any enterprise. Typically, the safety culture level of company employees is higher than that of hired contractors, who arrive with their own mentality and approaches to occupational safety. During the webinar, speakers Irina Tsvetkova and Nikita Vildt analyze practical tools for integrating contractors into the corporate safety system, share lessons learned, and demonstrate how to build a transparent assessment and control system.

Risk-Based Approach at the Contractor Selection Stage

The speaker examines in detail the process of planning contractual relations and selecting the contract regime depending on the specifics of the services provided. The company distinguishes three main regimes:

• Working according to customer standards: applied for high-risk repair, construction, and installation works. The contractor fully complies with the requirements of the company's safety system.
• Coordinated systems: the service provider (for example, in freight transport or raw material supply) operates within its own HSE system, which is synchronized with the customer's approaches on key issues.
• Working according to legislation: used for low-risk services (courier services, off-site events), where compliance with the basic requirements of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation is sufficient.

This division allows applying adequate requirements to different categories of contractors and avoids overloading those whose activities do not carry high risks with excessive inspections.

Pre-Tender Assessment and Checklists

An important element of the system is the procedure for applying audit checklists. A risk-based approach is used at the tender stage: the choice of checklist depends on the frequency of service provision, the potential severity of possible incidents, and the number of people involved. The assessment includes not only financial indicators but also a deep analysis of the contractor's safety system. The presence of critical non-conformities (for example, violation of basic legislative requirements) can become a blocking factor for admission to the tender.

Training and Admission to Work: From Formality to Awareness

The presentation details the process of admitting contractors to the site. The speaker emphasizes that demanding compliance with rules is pointless without providing people with the necessary knowledge. Therefore, the induction briefing is supplemented by comprehensive training on the company's basic safety standards.

The key tool for monitoring knowledge retention is mandatory testing. The contractor is not allowed to work until every employee correctly answers the checklist questions. At the same time, the process is not reduced to a formal test: in case of errors, additional study of the material is conducted with the participation of an HSE specialist and the contractor's work supervisor.

Automation of Audits and Control During Work

For daily control over the execution of works, an automated system (SUP/LITUM) is used, into which audit checklists are loaded. This allows:

• Moving away from paper routine: supervisors and HSE specialists enter data directly into the system.
• Promptly analyzing data: the ability to export statistics for any period helps to quickly identify systemic violations and adjust work.
• Forming a contractor rating: audit results affect the final assessment of the company when deciding on contract prolongation.

Involvement and Motivation of Contractor Organizations

The speaker demonstrates by example that effective contractor management is impossible without their involvement in the corporate safety culture. Contractor safety indicators are integrated into the overall enterprise KPIs. Heads of contractor organizations are invited to leadership training, participate in HSE Days and joint meetings, where work results are discussed with the participation of the plant's top management. This creates a shared understanding of the importance of safe work.

Lessons from the Crisis: The Cost of Management Mistakes

An honest analysis of mistakes is of particular value. The speaker shares a case when, during the pandemic, some HSE specialists and supervisors were transferred to remote work, while contractors continued activities on site. The decrease in control led to an increase in injury rates. This lesson forced the company to reconsider resource allocation, strengthen the focus on auditing, and make training 100% mandatory for all contractor employees.

Specifics of Mass Contractor Engagement (Experience of Ackermann Cement)

Nikita Vildt expands on the topic, talking about the experience of working during seasonal major overhauls, when hundreds of contractors of various profiles are simultaneously on site. Under such conditions, live communication becomes the key tool: joint analysis of work execution plans (WEP) and risk identification in dialogue with managers and engineers of contractor organizations. The varying levels of safety culture require a differentiated approach to each group of performers.

What You Will Learn from This Webinar:

• How to differentiate requirements for contractors depending on the risk level of their work?
• How to build a pre-tender assessment system and what criteria should be blocking?
• How to organize effective training and testing of contractor employees before work begins?
• How to automate the audit process and use the obtained data to evaluate contractors?
• How to involve heads of contractor organizations in developing a safety culture at your site?