Automating Contractor Management Workflows

Key Takeaways:

• Upkeeping compliance is a vital aspect of contractor management that serves a substantial function of every safety conscious company, but it requires a massive collective commitment from all relevant parties involved.
• Modern contractor management technology helps eliminate many of the constraints that come with dealing with the compliance of your third-party vendors.
• The most effective way to put time back into your day and valuable resources back into your business is by automating your existing workflows.
• Businesses can automate the most vital aspects of their workflows such as the document collection processes, the processing of real time audit reports, and reminders for credential renewals.

Even for the most safety conscious companies, tracking compliance can be a large and strenuous task. This is because compliance is a multifaceted ordeal that requires the shared effort of numerous departments and a complex set of standards to upkeep safety. However, modern contractor management tools have made it so it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. In addition to safety-driven features such as compliance tracking and security check-ins, contractor management softwares have made an upended effort to disrupt the traditional flow of human admin by automating much of the contractor management process in a bid to save time and increase efficiency. In this blog post, we’ll discuss three vital factors of contractor management and how they can be automated to better manage your overall workflow.

Document Collection Process

Do you ever find yourself chasing after your contractors in order for them to submit their required credentials for the job? This is an unfortunate yet common occurrence that almost all safety professionals have dealt with at least once within their career. This manual method of outreach can quickly feel like a never-ending cycle of individual follow up, repeated reminders, and data provided in staggered or delayed timeframes. Before you know it, you’ve spent numerous hours on administrative tasks using time that you can’t get back.

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In this case, automation is the prime solution as it allows you to almost completely remove yourself from the manual handling of document collection. Automating this workflow means that all your contractors are automatically contacted, reminded, and followed up with in regard to submitting required documentation. This workflow keeps track of every worker on an individual basis to maximize accuracy and minimize delays in operations. Furthermore, automation enables you to build a predetermined framework for every worker to go through prior to arriving at your job site, so when they get there there’s nothing left to do besides begin their work.

Real Time Audit Reports

In safety, data is king. Having the right data can provide you with valuable guidance and insight on how your safety program is performing. However, garnering good data takes real work. For many organizations however, that work may come in the form of a gargantuan spreadsheet with missing fields, incorrect data and a near-impossible navigation system. To make matters worse, a great portion of relevant data is often siloed to its respective department, making communication and information processing that much more difficult. Furthermore, manually tracking this data means that you will always experience a backlog of information, which you must constantly update.

Automating your data reporting workflow eliminates much of the human constraints that safety professionals face. For one, all pertinent information is stored securely in one place, this makes it more accessible, reduces the likelihood of duplicate data, and provides full visibility at any given time. Automating this aspect of contractor management ensures that whatever data comes in is processed and displayed in real time. Rather than scrambling prior to an audit, automation affords you the benefit of visualizing your safety program through the comfort of your own, accurate data.

Automating Reminders for Expiring Credentials

There’s nothing worse than dealing with a contractor with unknowingly expired credentials, it is a surefire way to delay progress on your project and put a dent in productivity. If you’re only dealing with a small pool of vendors, it may be viable to track the validity of their credentials manually without it taking too much time. But this traditional method isn’t built to scale. Down the line, you’ll eventually find yourself rummaging through an endless swath of documents that you must verify in a nick of time.

An automated workflow will ensure that your contractors are automatically reminded of expiring credentials before their date. This way, you can put all your efforts into increasing productivity while knowing that any third parties you utilize have been made aware of their requirements and will be followed up with. This also makes it easier for contracted companies to keep a steady pulse on their compliance status and provide themselves with a tool to track their documents.

Conclusion

The world of contractor management software has made great strides in ensuring that hiring organizations and their respective vendors are able to maximize their time and resources to contribute to the efficiency of their projects, rather than getting bogged down by unnecessary administrative tasks. By automating your workflows, you’re able to take a hands off approach while still being proactive about safety. Not only will these changes ensure you have more time and resources on your hands, they will also make a significant contribution to the strength of your safety program by providing you with real time, accurate insights.

If you’ve made it this far, that means you’ve probably experienced having to deal with a subpar safety workflow in the past. Take this as a sign that you no longer need to look through outdated spreadsheets and manually chase contractors down just to complete a project safely. Automation has ushered in a new wave of maximized efficiency that you can capitalize on. Contractor Compliance can help automate your safety program so you can get back to doing what matters the most, nurturing your business and excelling at every project your company takes on. Are you ready to take the next step in transforming your contractor management process? Book a demo with one of our compliance experts today!