More and more organizations are finding they don’t have employees with the skills or expertise to perform certain types of work. In some cases, it’s by choice. Employing people throughout the year when their skills are only required for two months is not cost effective. It’s often easier to pick up the phone and call a contractor that supplies temporary labor and tell the contractor what resources are required.
However, just because a company enlists the help of contractors shouldn’t mean the company is free and clear of actually managing them. The cost of employing contract labor is almost always more than employing your own labor. As such, employers need to make sure contractors are managed in much the same way as their own employees. If jobs are to be completed safely and on time, contractors must have the same set of expectations that in-house employees do.
Expectations and engagement
Organizations and contractors alike should see and understand the value of doing business together and therefore want to be engaged with each other. Respecting each other’s interests will build the long-term commitment and dedication that is often sought. If the contractor does a good job, it’s very likely the contractor will be brought in the next time a need arises as the hiring organization wants people familiar with its equipment and site. This familiarity should lead to higher productivity and could result in lower safety incidents as risks may also be known ahead of time.
It’s also easier to hold contractors accountable when they’re engaged. In most cases, they want to do a good job, but many companies that hire contractors have no clear way of determining that. The easiest way to accomplish this is to set clear expectations up front, preferably before any contract is signed. Some companies refer to these as performance agreements. Setting these expectations will allow the hiring organization to hold contractors accountable to predetermined service levels against specific performance-based metrics, such as safety incidents, productivity of workers, rework, quality of work being performed and, depending on the type of contract, cost. It should also spell out consequences if the goals outlined in the agreement are not met.
Regular reviews
To say contractors are going to be held accountable and actually holding them accountable are two different things. To administer accountability, contractors need to be met with on a regular basis. Performance on all agreed-upon indicators should be reviewed at this time. In addition, if goals are not being met, both sides should strive to understand why. Contract site managers should also have regular meetings with their foremen and general foremen before meeting with their client for these reviews. The transfer of information from the middle levels of the organization to the top is central to understanding why things are going the way they are. Employees at the ground level also need to be involved because they’re often the ones who know the specifics of the work being performed and potential ways to do it better.
The frequency of these reviews can vary as well. A highly paid contractor with a large scope of work may be met with more frequently than one that is only on site a couple of times during the year to perform smaller jobs. Yearly reviews might suffice in those instances. Larger contractors, however, should probably be met with monthly. The shorter increment allows the hiring organization to be more hands on and force changes on the short term rather than waiting, resulting in performance lagging for a greater amount of time.
Consistent methodology
At the end of the day, the methodology behind managing contractors is not that different than managing your own employees. Everyone needs to know their roles and what they’re being held accountable for, as well as how to determine whether they’re doing well or not. The process may be slightly altered, but the purpose of managing an employee remains the same. After all, the end goal — the job being completed safely and in a reasonable amount of time — will always be mutual.
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