Insights
While prioritising the health, safety and wellbeing of workers is a legal obligation for any organisation, it also makes good business sense, especially as the financial and indirect costs of getting it wrong continues to rise. The injury of a sub-contractor who broke his jaw while working at Tesla’s California facility is just one high profile example which contributed to the value of the company dropping by two percent (equivalent to more than $1 billion dollars at the time).
With many industries characterised by a large number of contractors, one of the most challenging aspects is how to manage and source contractors and suppliers. So, how important is it to assess contractors and what are businesses doing to manage health and safety compliance?
Our new White Paper helps to answer those questions through research carried out with the Safety and Health Practitioner, designed to understand the specific challenges and risks around contractor management, as well as exploring the tools and techniques to address these challenges.
For most businesses, zero accidents and lost working days is the ultimate goal to achieve. Nobody goes to work to get injured. However, the reality in the statistics serves as an apt reminder that we need to do more to prevent workplace accidents:
- 581,000 workers sustained injuries in 2018/2019, 147 fatally
- 28.2 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury
- £15 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2017/18)
Many organisations use contractors for a whole host of reasons, in fact, despite the ongoing pandemic, 47% of businesses expect to increase or significantly increase their use of contractors in the coming two years, with only 9% saying they expected the use of contractors to decrease.
However temporary workers may be at increased risk of work-related illness and injury compared to permanent employees, because they are unfamiliar with the business and any hazards. Better understanding of contractor management and sourcing safe, reliable contractors could have a significant impact on achieving ‘target zero’ and helping to create better workplaces.
Never has it been more important to have clear considered risk assessments that are specific to your business and activities, so that you and your people can work safely and to best manage and mitigate COVID-19 risk exposures.
Our research will help you to:
- Understand the specific challenges and risks around contractor management
- Explore the tools and techniques businesses are using to address these challenges
- Benchmark how other businesses manage and source their contractors and suppliers
You can download the full report Benchmarking Contractor Management here.
