How Outsourcing Safety Resources Can Work For Your Project

Allow flexibility and freedom

Most times, the need for safety management is not permanent. Therefore, when you are hiring a safety consultant or a team for a short time, it can help ease the tension in the workplace. Hence, your employees would have more time to focus on other important tasks. 

For instance, if an issue needs urgent attention in the workplace, the contractors can work on the problem. You can be sure they will handle this professionally and promptly because they were paid for it. This would allow your employees to focus on the project and ensure its smooth completion with little or no distractions. 

In most cases, the contractors/consultants will inform you before discovering the problem. And they might be midway into resolving the issue before informing you. 

To save money

It might seem like outsourcing safety resources for your projects might make you spend more. However, you are likely to save money in the long term. When you hire a consultant adept at complying with your territory’s safety acts and regulations, you will avoid making unnecessary expenses. This means that you will not take steps that will make you incur double expenses. 

If you decide to hire and train someone on your team, it might take a long time before their expertise begins to deliver optimally. During this time, you might keep making some unforeseen and unplanned expenses. 

Reduces risk in the workplace

When working on a project, the last thing you need is to incur any risk because you might have to spend more money. Hence, outsourcing safety resources might be your best move to reduce the chances of encountering risks while you work towards your project’s goals. 

With non-compliance, your company and reputation face a potential threat or damage, which might be a huge financial burden for you. Additionally, you will avoid the legal hazards of not operating within the safety law. 

Tips for outsourcing the right way

Before outsourcing safety resources for your project, it is important to know how to do it correctly. 

Select the right hiring approach

When you want to outsource safety resources for your project, remember not to act on impulse. One of the things to bear in mind is, many lives are at stake including yours. Therefore, employ a more strategic and informed approach to outsource the right way. 

One of the questions you need to answer internally is, what are your motives? Are you concerned about saving costs alone at the expense of your safety? Do you want someone to take some work off your hands so that you can do other things? Or do you need a specialist to handle a particular aspect of your business that needs much attention? 

When you understand your motives, knowing the right approach to take and where to look to begin searching becomes easier. Selecting the right approach and understanding your motives would help you save money because your expectations will be clearly defined. 

Set clear expectations and requirements for the projects

Since you’re outsourcing safety resources for your projects, straightforward expectations and well-defined specifications for the contract have to be set. Safety, in itself, is a sensitive issue that should attract well-defined requirements if you’re bringing someone on board. To begin with, you can start by determining the duration of the contract, whether long or short. Doing this will help to set the terms to ensure a smooth understanding between both parties. 

When the project specifications and requirements have been clarified, both parties will play their roles correctly without confusion or conflict. Importantly, ensure you hear from the safety consultant on their terms to understand where they are coming from. 

Find the right talents

One of the mistakes organizations make is hiring safety professionals who don’t meet up to expectations. This is usually because many employees don’t know where to find the right talents. There is no dearth of talent, especially in the safety industry. Hence, you can easily find them if you search the right way. 

You can locate them by exploring platforms where many outsourced talents are likely to be. Search for a platform with a track record of producing talents that help business owners or project managers achieve their goals. Alternatively, you can use online job boards or some classified advertisements websites to find top-notch safety consultants

Screen your candidates

After you have a shortlist of safety professional candidates that might fit the role, the next step is to screen them. It is important to check their portfolios and references and even give them test projects to see if they will fit the job. Also, don’t skip the oral interview process with them. This will allow you to relay your company culture to see if they align with it. 

One of the basic goals of an interview is to clear any doubts that may come with outsourcing safety resources to them. Also, the interview is an opportunity for any serious candidate to ask questions about the project. 

Manage your outsourced team

Once you have completed the outsourcing process, you need to find a way to keep in touch with your newly hired safety professionals. Remember that they are not full-time employees but are available for a period. 

Therefore, you might have to set up a different system for managing them, so it doesn’t affect how you manage your in-house staff. A good safety consultant will save you time and energy when they are working with you. They will constantly give you progress reports allowing you to focus on your project. 

Common mistakes to avoid when outsourcing

When outsourcing safety resources, there are some mistakes that business owners or project managers make that should be avoided. Here are some of them:

Assuming that you don’t need managers after outsourcing

One of the mistakes that business owners make is assuming that their independent safety contractors do not need managers. Even though some of them are experts at managing their internal processes, remember their overall actions can make or mar your project. Therefore, do not undermine the essence of having managers cater to your business/project. 

Looking for cheap work

Another mistake to avoid is thinking that cheap work will bring the best hands. Therefore, if you bring in a safety consultant with cheaper wages, even though they are not good at what they do, you are putting the lives of many people at risk. If you want to get the right hands to ensure safety for your project or workplace, ensure your rates/compensation are slightly above the market rate. This will keep them more focused and prevent them from getting poached. 

Assuming that they will instantly adapt to your culture

No matter how good an outsourced staff might be, they might not instantly conform to your work culture. Therefore, don’t be in a hurry to expect changes when they come on board. 

Remember that the primary reason why you outsourced is for you to achieve your project goals. In addition, success in the project depends on how you accept their differences and your attitude towards outsourced staff. 

Conclusion

It is important to mention that while you begin to outsource safety resources for your project, get ready to provide a profound safety training strategy for your in-house staff. This would help you prevent common mistakes and increase the success rate of your project. 

Outsourcing can be a profound way to provide spare time for yourself to allow you to focus on meeting your project goals. Therefore, as you try to outsource, develop a process to allow you to manage them properly. Also, remember to apply the tips mentioned in this post for you to achieve success in your project. 

Have you considered outsourcing safety resources for your project? If you need help on how to go about this, feel free to contact us. Give us a call and get a free consultation.