Contractor Management Guidelines in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The measures to limit the prevalence of COVID-19 have included maintaining social distancing, and implementing preventative measures in production and economic activities, mainly to counteract the spread of the virus. Many countries have decided to suspend non-essential activities. Tourism, retail, aviation, oil and gas, automobiles, and mining were the industries most affected by the crisis. 
If your business has a large number of employees working in multiple locations, operating in a constantly changing regulatory environment can be challenging. Adding contractors to the portfolio further complicates these challenges. As an illustration, the movements between the working locations are constantly updated, COVID-19 regulations for businesses are changing every day, and contractors would always be in confusion. Let’s review some contractor management steps you can take to navigate through the pandemic.
 
Providing necessities and building up conventions

During Covid, the first crucial steps of contractor management are recognizing the necessities that temporary workers have to meet to work onsite and to travel over numerous destinations, and guaranteeing that everybody complies with the current controls. These might include:

• The collection of particular information depending on work carried out by contractors such as: health and safety skills, licenses, certification and insurance.
• Ensure contractor compliance with all legal documents. For example, up to date with tax payments etc. 
• Check to see if all contractors are meeting their job obligations, such as paying social security payments.

Recognizing additional factors of managing contractors in changing times

On top of existing compliance guidelines, the following factors should be considered to effectively manage contractors amidst uncertainties.  

• Health risks – The risks associated with COVID must be identified and assessed, and preventive or mitigating measures must be implemented.
• New legislations – Companies and their contractors must keep up with new laws and government guidelines.
• Shared responsibilities – Contractors must be aware of potential hazards they will face and understand their responsibilities in avoiding and managing hazards.
• Updated operation plans – For every location in which a firm operates, a COVID plan must be produced, and such plans must be clearly defined and readily accessed.
• Revised induction training – For incoming to existing contractors, the on-site induction training needs to be modified to include COVID prevention training.
• Additional equipment – Personal protection equipment (PPE), both full time employees and contractors will have to be given and worn.
• Complete Records – Each site visit must accurately record and collect information about all of the contractor’s activities. Continuous monitoring measures should be in place to monitor performance and ensure that contractors meet their obligations.

In the end, the way firms function is now under a stricter scrutiny. This also involves the capacity to comply with long-standing norms and new steps to defend against the pandemic. Businesses are not only responsible for the safety and health of all workers on site but are also responsible for ensuring compliance in the workplace. It may be difficult to achieve 100% compliance at first, but you may come a lot closer with the correct contractor management system in place if you start considering those extra factors from now on.

Setting your new standard

The COVID19 pandemic has brought some permanent changes to the way we work and our companies must adapt to these changes. New processes, new security measures and new strategies to live in the new normal are necessary. First, build a safe work environment reduces the risks of COVID, and protects your company from the disastrous effects. Second, set up a system that manages the contractor pool efficiently if you continue to rely on contractors as a significant asset. Those two dimensions in turn produce an efficient and resilient contractor force that will be ready to adapt, perform work independently and bring noticeable results to the company.

What we learned last year was that we all have an uncertain future. However, we have a chance to establish a new now and prosper by being ready to adapt with abrupt changes. Talentnet has been helping organizations tackle entrepreneurs’ management difficulties for more than a decade. With a large and diverse pool of nearly 10,000 contractors across industries and geographical areas in Vietnam, we support organizations to accelerate their change through standardized and seamless process with contractors. Our contractor management solution is not only efficient but also money and time-saving for your organization. Visit our HR outsourcing page to learn more about our offers.