A Guide to Contractor Management Policies with PDF Template

Contractors

Farm Operations

Free Contractor Policy Template

Looking to document your contractor policy? Download our free Contractor Management Policy Template

A contractor management policy is a crucial document for any business that works with contractors. Understanding exactly what goes into these policies isn't easy.

That's why we've assembled a comprehensive guide with the information you need to create an effective contractor management policy. You can also use our policy PDF template to make creating your own policy even easier.

When using this template, remember to consider the specific requirements and regulatory obligations of your property and make any necessary adjustments.

What is a contractor management policy?

A contractor management policy is a document outlining how a business deals with contractors. These policies should cover the full scope of contractor management, including selection, pre-qualification, documentation, induction and beyond.

These documents serve many important functions for an agribusiness, including:

Helping to define the relationship between a person conducting business or undertaking (PCBU) and contractors.
Working towards compliance with legal and regulatory obligations.
Establishing the key procedures and processes contractors need to follow.
Clarifying the roles, responsibilities and expectations of the business and of its contractors.
Beginning the process of managing health and safety risks that can impact contractors engaged in work on your farm.

Why is a contractor management policy necessary?

A contractor management policy is essential for ensuring your business has a reliable consistent approach to working with contractors. This is important for multiple reasons:

Compliance: A contractor management policy helps to outline procedures for ensuring compliance with relevant regulations such as workplace safety laws and general labour laws.
Safety: Farms have many workplace health and safety requirements to abide by. By creating an in-depth contractor management policy, you ensure that contractors are in a position to follow these procedures.
Effective management: Your policy establishes your contractor management procedure for your whole team to see and refer back to. It ensures you have solid systems in place and that your team and contractors are on the same page.

For more help dealing with contractors on your property, check out our contractor management checklist guide.

What should a contractor management policy include?

Contractor management policies can look significantly different from one farm to another. We've assembled some of the key elements that you can address in your contractor management policy.

When creating your contractor management policy, be sure to consider the specific requirements of your agribusiness and relevant regulations of your jurisdiction.

Purpose

Kick off your contractor management policy by defining the exact purpose of it. Why do you need to have a contractor management policy in place?

This is useful for the writing process of the policy, as you can determine at the outset the specific reasons you are creating your policy. It's also important for readers to understand the document’s goals.

Some purposes you might touch on in this section of your policy include:

Ensuring contractor safety.
Ensuring contractor effectiveness.
Defining the essential procedures for effective contractor management.
Legal obligations and requirements the policy addresses.

Scope

This section of your policy needs to specifically outline what exactly the document applies to. What kinds of contractors are covered within your policy?

Some areas to focus on for this section include:

Identifying the types of contractors this policy applies to, such as on-site contractors, remote contractors and temporary contractors.
Mention any types of contractors that are not covered in your policy, such as subcontractors.
Some contractor management policies may be written with a different level of depth and comprehensiveness than others. Explain whether your policy is a holistic document, or if other documents must also be consulted to understand contractor management on your property.

Responsibilities

In this section, outline the role of individuals in your business for ensuring effective contractor management. In addition, you should define the role that contractors play in supporting your business' processes and remaining compliant.

This section should cover the following information:

The specific responsibilities that team members have in ensuring effective contractor management. Who is responsible for ensuring that contractors have access to all the information they need, or for performing critical reviews?
The role that contractors must play in complying with processes on your farm. Explain the areas in which they are expected to take initiative rather than be closely guided by your team.

Selection

Outline your process for finding appropriate contractors to work on your business. This will benefit your business by defining the best practices that work well for you, and ensuring a fair process for selecting contractors.

Specify the individuals in your business responsible for contractor selection.
Provide an overview of the methods by which contractors may come to the attention of your business, such as recommendations or online job boards.
Provide detail on the roles of interviews and reference checks in the selection process.

Pre-qualification

Next, go into detail about the process for pre-qualification of contractors. This can include the following elements:

Tools used for pre-qualification, such as farm management apps like Onside. Explain how these tools are used and how contractors will be informed on how to use them.
Explain various certifications that will be required for contractors to do particular tasks on your farm. This might relate to their ability to use particular pieces of machinery. Explain your process for verifying that contractors have the necessary certifications to do this work.
Explain the templates or forms that contractors are required to complete as part of the pre-qualification process.
Outline the timeline for pre-qualification. For example, how long before a contractor's start date are they required to submit their forms?

Insurance and liability

One of the most important elements of contractor management is insurance and liability. Understanding where responsibility falls between businesses and contractors is critical.

In this section of your policy, address:

The type of insurance required for contractors, such as public liability and commercial vehicle insurance.
Minimum coverage amounts for each insurance type.
Details of the liabilities assumed by employers and by contractors.

Induction

Describe the process for inducting contractors into your work environment. This could include:

Company policies contractors will be required to familiarise themselves with. Direct the reader to where they can access these policies. This might include your farm health and safety policy.
Explain the measures in place to ensure that your farm induction provides a comprehensive introduction to safety procedures on your farm.
Describe how your induction process can involve different members of your workplace.
Detail how induction will be documented, such as with sign-off sheets or with the help of a contractor management app like Onside.

Compliance with laws and regulations

Just like permanent members of staff, contractors are required to comply with all relevant laws and regulations when they are working on your property. Your business also needs to ensure that it is following laws and regulations in its dealings with contractors.

You can incorporate these considerations into your contractor management policy with these measures:

List some of the key laws and regulations that contractors must comply with, such as workplace safety laws and environmental protection regulations.
Detail the processes on your farm that ensure that these processes are followed.
Describe how compliance will be monitored, such as with regular audits and reports.
Outline penalties for non-compliance, such as suspension of work or termination of the contract.
Explain the legal responsibilities of your business. You can cover everything from proper breaks to providing a safe work environment.

Risk assessments

Risk assessments should be a regular feature of your farm. When it comes to contractor management, conducting and recording up-to-date risk assessments can be especially important.

Address risk assessments in your contractor management policy in the following ways:

Detail your business' approach for conducting risk assessments if contractors are set to begin work on your property. How do you decide if it is appropriate for a new risk assessment to be conducted?
Give an overview of how risk assessments are conducted on your farm. Is it necessary for contractors to be involved in the risk assessment process?
Direct the reader to where they can find an up-to-date risk assessment.

Monitoring and evaluation

It's important to establish how contractors will be monitored and evaluated. This ensures that work is done in a compliant way and to a high standard. Evaluation also enables your business to determine how effective a contractor is and if they should be re-contracted in future.

In your contractor management policy, you should:

Establish how contractors are monitored from a health and safety perspective. For example, you can use Onside's check-in features to ensure employees are checking in and out when expected.
Detail how contractor performance will be reviewed.
List key performance indicators (KPIs) used to measure success.
Specify which members of your team are responsible for monitoring contractors and conducting evaluations.

Incident reporting and management

Having straightforward and effective incident reporting procedures on your farm is crucial. For contractors to work effectively and safely, they must be aware of and have access to your reporting procedures.

Address this within your contractor management policy in the following ways:

Outline how reporting works on your farm. Is it done using manual pen and paper or methods, or do you rely on a digital solution? How do you collect supporting evidence like photos and witness statements?
List the types of incidents that must be reported, including injuries and near misses.
Explain your process for ensuring that all contractors are familiar with and can access your reporting systems.
Outline follow-up processes including investigations and corrective actions.

Termination and exit procedures

Your end-to-end contractor management policy should conclude with an outline of termination and exit procedures for your work with contractors. This can include:

Processes for conducting a final inspection of the completed work.
A final review of compliance processes followed during the work of contractors, including contractor safety performance.
Close-out procedures for contractor work, including final payments.
An outline of grounds for early contractor termination, such as safety violations and breach of contract.
An overview of how contract disputes will be handled, such as mediation and legal action.

Three tips for simple contractor management

Your contractor management policy is only as good as your business procedures. Here are three tips for smoother contractor management on your business:

Regular check-in: Prioritise regular check-ins with contractors on your property. This provides an opportunity to identify and manage issues as they arise and before they become more significant.
Farm mapping: Farm mapping tools such as Onside offer an easy way to keep contractors up to speed with risks on your property. These maps are accessible for anyone, including contractors, and can be updated by anyone in real-time.
Go digital: Digital solutions offered by Onside's contractor management features make it easy to wrangle your contractor management records, helping work to get done more quickly and effectively.