Businesses that are busy and effective frequently outsource work to contractors . This makes sense and can result in positive results for a variety of organisations. However, if a contract is to be successful and productive, contractual obligations must be fulfilled and expectations and guidelines put in place. Contractor management can be a complex area and contractor compliance can often be best managed by an external agency.
What is contractor compliance?
This refers to specific processes used by an organisation to make sure that its contractors fulfill their obligations as defined in the contract.
What sorts of businesses are affected by it?
Fundamentally, contractor compliance is important for and relevant to many different types of organisations. Any business that accesses the services of contractors will benefit from the development, implementation and monitoring of the compliance strategies and procedures. For example, government departments and agencies that use contractors to meet service needs benefit from contractor compliance arrangements. While ‘ contractor compliance’ may outwardly seem intricately involved, it may actually be as straightforward as a department developing and using its own policies and procedures to guide contractors to meet their obligations and fulfill work requirements.
What are some of the advantages of these procedures?
Contractor management and compliance strategies and processes can not only support businesses and contractors to understand their expectations and obligations, they can also help businesses to determine the costs and expenses of particular contracts. To further explain this, some organisations have long-term contracts in place but may find that of the long-term contractors that are used, some become more expensive at a more rapid rate than others.
When a contractor’s cost inflation is too high and has a negative impact on an organisation’s profitability, the organisation will usually seek someone else.
When cost inflation is closely monitored, a business can avoid procuring services and products from contractors whose costs increase dramatically from year to year.
Examples of situations where contractor compliance makes a difference…
It is an unfortunate reality that some businesses endeavor to make more from their contracts by cutting corners on labour costs. Contract compliance strategies can help to ensure that contracted employees are treated fairly and lawfully, and also that the contractors that deliver services have the correct insurances and qualifications.
Contractor compliance helps to ensure that the work that is carried out is completely in line with what is expected and what has been promised. But, more than this, it also provide businesses with the peace of mind that the contractors they appoint have the necessary and appropriate qualifications and attributes to carry out the work safely, legally and effectively. With so many businesses pushed to the limit in carrying out their day to day activities, it makes sense to use a contractor management and contractor compliance service to oversee the appropriateness of the contractors used.
