What Does Contractor Management Look Like Post-Pandemic?
The Covid-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges to the world. Operations in nearly all industries were impacted, including the industries in which contractors operate in. The health and safety sectors faced many challenges which forced a rapid adaptation of new practices to address ongoing issues. While the Covid-19 pandemic gradually transitions into an endemic state. The world is collectively defining what the new normal will look like and how it will affect the procedures of how we operate. The contractor management field is no stranger to changing policies, risk mitigation protocol, and frequent uncertainty. Using the learning outcomes of the pandemic, Contractor Compliance is spearheading the movement of a renewed culture of health and safety. So what will contractor management look like in a post-covid world? What has changed in the way organizations operate and furthermore, what are the expectations put on contractors? Let’s deep dive into the topic of how the concept of occupational health and safety has transformed the very nature of contractor management.
Increasing Efficiency
Managing the Covid-19 pandemic required a coordinated effort that saw the use of multiple systems aimed at increasing accessibility, time management, and efficiency. This was witnessed in action in numerous settings such as healthcare facilities, essential services, and the efforts of the general public. So what does that look like for contractor management? Today more than ever, organizations are seeking out processes that achieve safety and efficiency at the highest levels. Contractors are looking to implement modern practices that address safety related issues in an effort to keep up with the renewed sense of health and safety being pioneered by organizations across the board.
Automating & Communicating the Contractor Management Process
As countless companies pivot their strategies to adapt to new practices, many organizations have turned to Contractor Compliance to automate their contractor management systems. This technology is a primary driver in increasing the efficiency of your organization by allowing you to free up admin time while limiting unnecessary contact. The role that automation has played in remote work has also benefited EHS professionals by allowing them to review and verify contractor credentials from any place at any time. Furthermore, hiring organizations are able to make changes within their compliance strategies with just a click of a button. This has eliminated the need to follow up on lengthy documentation and multistep processes to make a single adjustment. Perhaps one of the most important features of Contractor Compliance is the ease of communication. If the pandemic has provided us with one learning lesson, it is that communication is the key to success. Contractor Compliance has paved the way for a modernized form of communication that is simple, quick, and intuitive. Now, contractor credentials can be easily shared with the hiring organization on a single platform, relevant documents are easily accessible by all parties involved, and changing policies and updates are quickly communicated across an organization. Contractor Compliance has created an environment in which contractor management processes require minimal contact both within the organization and with third party contractors. As a ‘single source of truth’ Contractor Compliance is a platform that provides real time visibility on the aforementioned aspects of contractor management. For example, Contractor Compliance automatically tracks and updates the validity of contractors’ credentials, eliminating the need for manual upkeep.
Throughout the pandemic, the most common form of communication used was signage. Whether it was the social distancing stickers placed in grocery store queues, or the signage signalling limits on the amount of people in an elevator, such signage was present in all public spaces. However, the form of communication found at job sites differed. Within a job site, both internal and external workers are focused on completing the tasks at hand, so stopping to read signage and then implement that practice required an approach that was not consistent with the nature of processes at a job site. In other words, signage in this context didn’t work. Efficient contractor management is defined by upholding a form of communication that effectively aids contractors in ensuring they follow national health and safety guidelines in a consistent manner. Many organizations opted for Contractor Compliance’ digital solution to implement said guidelines. This digital solution ensures that contractors are able to view all guidelines and regulations prior to arriving at the job site and have all instructions readily accessible at any time. Contractor Compliance also enables hiring organizations to include all relevant guidelines within the onboarding process to save time while still maintaining a high standard of compliance.
Doubling Down on Health and Safety
The job of an EHS professional is now more important than ever, it has become a multifaceted role that requires the proactive upkeep of changing policies and full time oversight of operations. As more companies pledge to practice heightened safety measures, contractors are following suit. All industries are now carrying a more centralized focus on health and safety culture within the workplace by implementing new standards regarding onsite protocols, onboarding processes, and upkeep with credentials, to name a few. Through the Contractor Compliance platform, organizations are able to implement health and safety measures that can easily be tracked, measured, and executed on. The knowledge of having a definitive health and safety framework that is visible to all relevant parties allows operations to run smoother, faster, and most importantly, safer. Doubling down on health and safety also means knowing how your efforts are reflecting within the organization, how contractors are remaining compliant, and how you can continue to maintain a safe work environment. Contractor Compliance’ real time dashboard answers all that and more. The dashboard displays all relevant compliance measures on a single page, enabling safety managers to produce data-backed actionable items at any given time.
We learnt through the pandemic that the actions of one person have the ability to affect everyone else. This statement stands true even in the field of contractor management. Doubling down on health and safety means ensuring that there are no gaps within the framework you have implemented. Furthermore, it is important to also ensure that you have a protocol in place, should a gap occur. The gap refers to a non-compliant worker within a job site that violates national or company guidelines. Even as the world recovers from the pandemic, these practices will remain commonplace within organizations as they push towards stricter compliance standards. Contractor management software like Contractor Compliance offers organizations the ability to maintain full visibility over every single one of their contractors, ensuring that compliance standards are met at an individual level.
Closing Remarks
As the world gradually enters a post-pandemic recovery phase, organizations are relearning and adapting to new structures of health and safety and adopting new processes to implement. The challenges presented by the pandemic forced both hiring organizations and contractors to rethink their strategies and aim for higher levels of compliance. Organizations used the pandemic to level up safety standards and utilized Contractor Compliance’ software to do that. Subsequently, contractors had to follow suit. The combination of stricter regulations and a general aim for increased compliance targets birthed a culture of health and safety that has taken precedence over outdated practices that organizations formerly followed.
If you’ve been exploring the idea of implementing heightened safety measures to improve efficiency and reduce risk, now is the right time to implement Contractor Compliance at your organization. The onboarding process is fairly quick, simple, and convenient. Enjoy the convenience of audit-ready insights, real time compliance data, fully configurable functionality, and many more features at your fingertips. Ready to take the next step? Get in touch with one of our safety experts today!
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