Construction

Contractor HSE Prequalification and Monitoring

A construction firm operating multiple sites with a rotating base of subcontractors.

We built a subcontractor prequalification and site scorecard program that screened out repeat offenders before award.

Recurring subcontractors with adverse safety histories excluded before award

Situation

Whoever controls a construction site carries safety duties toward everyone working on it. In Canada, provincial occupational health and safety legislation places obligations on the prime contractor and the owner. In the United States, OSHA's multi-employer citation policy can hold a controlling employer responsible for hazards that affect another employer's workers.

For this firm, around 60 percent of the people on its sites worked for subcontractors. An incident involving a subcontracted crew showed that its exposure reached well past its own payroll. It also showed a gap. The credentials a subcontractor submitted with a bid were never compared with how that subcontractor performed once work began.

What we did

We designed a program in three parts, so that entry checks and ongoing performance were finally connected.

Program stage	What it verifies	Mechanism
Pre-award screening	Safety history before a contract is awarded	Prequalification against defined safety-performance criteria
Contract terms	Accountability after award	Safety requirements written in as enforceable provisions
Site-visit scorecard	Performance in the field, for the length of the project	A standard check at every site visit

Impact

Screening identified two subcontractors the firm had used repeatedly whose safety histories were poor. Both were excluded from later awards.
Incident reports involving subcontractors fell across the monitored sites during the program's first full year. The case study does not put a figure on that reduction.
The scorecard replaced a lengthy audit, and every site manager in the portfolio adopted it.

What made it work

Five minutes, by design

Site managers told us how long they would realistically spend, and we built the scorecard to that limit. A thorough check that gets skipped protects nobody.

Putting safety requirements in the contract mattered as much. It gave the firm a basis to act on what the scorecard found.

Results

Two recurring subcontractors excluded from future awards on their safety history

Fewer subcontractor-related incident reports across monitored sites in the first full year

A five-minute scorecard that every site manager uses

Engagement facts

Sector: Construction
Practice area: HSE Advisory
Client profile: Construction firm with multiple active sites
Services: Contractor prequalification, contract safety terms, site monitoring scorecard
Key phases: Results tracked through the first full year of the program

This case study is a composite drawn from multiple engagements. Client details have been changed and combined to protect confidentiality, and figures are representative rather than attributable to any single client.