Contractor HSE Management System

Engaging contractors is an integral part of any large-scale production. However, statistics show that the interaction between the client and the contractor often becomes a high-risk zone. In his presentation, Alexander Isakov, HSE Expert for Contractor Management at SIBUR LLC, details a large-scale safety management system covering about 40,000 contractor employees at the company's production and construction sites.

Evolution of Approaches: Shifting Focus to the Preparation Stage

In 2020, the company re-engineered its contractor interaction system based on global best practices. The key change was the redistribution of labor costs: while previously the main efforts were directed at controlling an already working contractor, now about 40% of the time is spent on risk management before the organization enters the site. The speaker emphasizes that preventive work during the stages of forming requirements and selecting a contractor is significantly more effective than trying to fix the situation during the execution of work.

Separating Perimeters: Production and Construction

For more precise risk management, all contractors are divided into two large perimeters:

• Company contractors (production perimeter): ensure production continuity (repairs, maintenance, security). This is a stable pool of organizations whose risks are associated with active production.
• Construction contractors: engaged for investment projects. The risks in this segment are fundamentally different and are related to construction and installation works, which requires separate control elements and tracking of injury rates (LTIF).

Five Elements of the Contractor Lifecycle

Alexander Isakov analyzes the architecture of the management system, which consists of five sequential stages. Special attention is paid to forming requirements: the client does not just request personnel, but details the requirements for qualifications, technical equipment, and the presence of a dedicated HSE specialist from the contractor. This specialist must undergo an interview with the client's HSE department to confirm their competencies.

At the completion stage, a comprehensive assessment of the contractor is conducted. Organizations that have worked more than 20,000 man-hours receive a rating that directly affects their chances in future tender procedures. This creates transparent motivation for complying with safety requirements.

Fines, Sanctions, and Focus During Investigations

The presentation details the policy of applying sanctions. The speaker shows by the company's example that fines are not an end in themselves. Moreover, there is a penalty forgiveness mechanism: if the violation is not critical (did not threaten life) and the contractor has demonstrated systematic work on mistakes, the sanction can be canceled. This builds partnerships rather than just a punitive environment.

A fundamental approach is also applied when investigating incidents involving contractors. The commission's focus is not on finding the guilty parties within the contracting organization, but on auditing the client's own management system: how correctly the contractor was selected, how their qualifications were checked, and how admission was granted.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to properly structure a technical specification to weed out unqualified contractors before the tender?
• Why a penalty forgiveness mechanism can be more effective than strict financial discipline?
• How to build an internal investigation procedure for contractor incidents to improve your own management system?
• What criteria are used for the final assessment of a contracting organization and how do they affect future contracts?
• How to organize control over compliance with key safety rules when performing high-risk work?