Enhance Your Contractor Management with Our Self-Assessment Tool

Are you a small or medium-sized general contractor operating in high-risk industries such as construction, energy, or industrial maintenance?

Do you want to ensure your contractor management systems are robust and effective?

Look no further than our proprietary Contractor Management Systems Self-Assessment tool.

With over two decades of experience in the contractor management business, we understand the complexities and challenges faced by organizations like yours.

Our self-assessment tool is designed to help you evaluate your current contractor management programs and systems.

Understanding the Assessment

The assessment comprises 30 questions covering seven critical categories of contractor management:

1. Internal Responsibility System
2. Stakeholder Knowledge
3. Prequalification, Assessment, and Approval
4. Kickoff and Mobilization
5. Monitoring and Reporting
6. Post-Contract Phase
7. Process and List...

Here’s a common thing that contractors deal with every day. You’ve completed a prequalification questionnaire for a potential new client. Typically, you are answering a WORD form, maybe a formatted pdf, or more and more frequently, an online questionnaire ranging from 2 to 50 screens and hundreds of individual data fields. Of all this content, do you know what clients actually look at? If you suspect that they don’t look at all the data, you’d be right. Particularly with online platforms, lots of information is being requested, but little of it is consistently looked at.  

User analytics over nearly two decades show that three focus areas get more client attention than all the other categories combined. Roughly, 60% of client page views are in these three areas:

• Incidents, workplace injuries
• Workers Compensation performance, and
• Regulatory compliance

Let’s unpack each of these.

First, what’s meant by incident experience. Here we’re...

Contractor Management Leadership: Your Process Owner

Do you have a person who owns your contractor management process? Nearly every organization has subject matter experts in various roles necessary to make the company run. Think about your payroll, maintenance, cyber security, or new hire onboarding. All of these functions likely have an official or unofficial process owner. Yet, many companies don't have an in-house expert to guide their contractor management.

In most high-risk industries, contractors play a pivotal role in the success of owners and prime contractors. An effective contractor management process is essential that contractors are well-managed. This article explores the role of the Contractor Management Process Owner (CMPO) and how to identify and support one.

What is a Contractor Management Process Owner?

First, let's define a process. A process is a structured and repeatable series of steps that achieve a business outcome.

Therefore, a process owner manages a...

Four Key Success Factors

As a global trend, more organizations in nearly all sectors of the economy are outsourcing more work. Currently, contractors fill one in every five jobs in the United States. Contractors are projected to make up half the workforce within the next decade. This trend is common across industrialized and emerging countries around the world.

No matter the industry, a key factor is workplace health and safety. The following is an introduction to the main elements of contractor management with an occupational health and safety focus.

Contractor management is a business process implemented by purchasing organizations to maximize efficiency and reduce sources of loss with their contracted services. This article will focus on common systems and activities in high-risk workplaces.

High-risk workplaces are physical locations and work activities that expose workers to significant or unusual hazards. Examples include:

• operating machinery,
• work on or near high-pressure or...

Understanding Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions of a contract refer to the specific rules, requirements, and provisions that govern the legal agreement between two or more parties. These terms and conditions may include a wide range of provisions, such as payment terms, delivery schedules, warranties, limitations of liability, dispute resolution procedures, and termination clauses.

In a typical contract, the terms and conditions serve as the framework for the parties to agree upon and execute the agreement's details. They help define the scope and limitations of the agreement and provide a reference point in case of any dispute or disagreement that may arise during the contract.

The terms and conditions are typically included in a written contract. Both parties often negotiate and agree upon them before signing the agreement. They are legally binding and enforceable, and failure to comply can result in legal action or termination of the contract.

It's essential for all...

‍High-risk industries require a unique and proactive approach to managing safe behaviors and promoting a positive safety culture.

With the potential for severe consequences, organizations must take a proactive stance to ensure the safety and well-being of their workers. Organizations can create a safe and secure environment for their employees by implementing the following strategies.

Anticipating and Planning for At-Risk Work Conditions

 Proactive employers identify the at-risk behaviors and the conditions their workforce face so that mitigation strategies are developed. While every organization and industry will have different at-risk behaviors, a few are more common across industries. These include:

• Substance abuse. Substance abuse is an issue that many organizations must tackle, particularly those in industries with a higher risk of injuries, such as construction and manufacturing. Employers must ensure their employees are free from substances that could impair their...

The Critical Role of the Contractor Management Process Sponsor 

If you want a company initiative, program, or process to be successful, it needs support up and down the organization. This article is about the critical role of the Contractor Management Process Sponsor. It explains how the Sponsor guides and supports the contractor management process and the stakeholders that make it run.

The Business Process Glossary defines the process sponsor as the person responsible for the entire process. The individual monitors the process as a whole and its inputs and outcomes.

In contractor management, the sponsor provides feedback and helps department leaders manage specific sub-processes or activities in their areas of responsibility. Access to the C-Suite is critical to the long-term success of contractor management. Therefore, the sponsor is typically a company executive, senior manager, or team leader.

An effective Sponsor shapes the process and the organization while moving the...

Do You Have a Quarterback for Your Contractor Management Process?

Contractors play a pivotal role in the success of owners and prime contractors in high-risk industries. And an effective management process is essential to ensure that contractors are well-coordinated. This article explores the role of the Contractor Management Process Owner (CMPO) and how to identify and support one. Read on!

What is a Contractor Management Process Owner?

First, let's define 'process.' A process is a structured and repeatable series of steps that accomplish a defined business objective — for example, contractor management has seven steps spread across three phases.

Therefore, a process owner is accountable for designing a system, using the right combination of people, technical knowledge, and organizational support to effectively run the process.

A Contractor Management Process Owner (CMPO) is a person who is responsible for the oversight, development, and implementation of a contractor...

The issue:

Knowing Contractor Insurance Status is Critical Risk Management

Your organization is at risk if your contractor is involved in an incident and has inadequate insurance. It's worse, obviously, if they have no policy at all.

Common incidents are property damage, vehicle crashes, material or equipment losses due to theft or vandalism, or, increasingly likely, due to extreme weather or a cyber security event.

Losses and claims involving uninsured contractors are an everyday thing. Your insurance agent can likely give you multiple examples from your industry and region.

Many purchasers don't know contractor insurance status in real-time. Meaning unquantified risk is unmanaged risk. The primary exposure here is financial liability.   

Obviously, litigation or an action by an involved third party further drives up costs and sometimes reputational damage.

The good news is that the effort, knowledge, and cost to control these exposures are relatively moderate...

Let’s Talk Day is January 25, 2023.  

Let’s Talk (letstalk.bell.ca/) is Bell Canada’s campaign to raise awareness and combat stigma surrounding mental illness in Canada.  

Bell has contributed $129M since 2010 that has been used to fund various non-profit organizations and initiatives across the country. More than 5 million impacted Canadians have been assisted by more than 1300 organizations funded by the initiative. Bell’s is the largest corporate commitment to mental health in Canada.  

Grants under the initiative include: 

·  Community Fund Grants for grassroots mental health programs. 

·  Culturally specific programs, including $3.8 for Indigenous communities 

·  Student mental health support at 127 post-secondary institutions across the country 

·  $2.4 million to support military Veterans and their families, and 

·  $9.7 million invested...