Important People Every Contractor Needs To Hire

When we start advising clients on how to avoid risk, we get into every aspect of their business. We look at business processes, and we also take a long look at the personnel in the office and in the field. In order to properly handle risk, you need more than insurance to protect your business. As business experts, we advise our contractor clients to make sure that they have certain types of employees on staff, and in the proper quantities. In the end, it is good people who help keep a work place safe, and hiring good people is critical to a contractor’s success.

Competent Person

For certain types of projects, OSHA requires that a contractor have a certified competent person onsite to monitor all of the work. What we recommend to our customers is to have an OSHA certified competent person on every job site to protect against problems.

A competent person has to go through an OSHA certification process that makes them more able to identify risk. In our opinion, this is the kind of person you want on every job site no matter what size the job may be.

Attorney

Most contractors do not have an attorney on staff, and that makes economic sense. But you at least need to have a qualified attorney on speed dial if you want to survive in the contracting world. Your attorney needs to be well-versed in the labor laws, and they need to have plenty of experience in the types of cases you will need them to handle. A good attorney can be an investment that pays for itself over time, even with as much as attorneys get paid.

Experienced Supervisors

Your field supervisors are some of the most important people in your company, so they need to be qualified and reliable. You need to be sure that your supervisors all have their necessary certifications, and you should also do a safety review for each supervisor on a regular basis. Any supervisors that have bad safety records should have their work and their methods examined closely.

Contemporary Project Managers

The construction industry is notorious for avoiding advances in technology, and often to its own detriment. That is why it is important to make sure that your project managers are updated on all of the latest management methods and technology, to help ensure that safety is a priority on every job site. Project managers who understand the latest tools can also find subtle ways to improve job safety and increase profits at the same time.

Reliable Vendors

While you don’t hire vendors, your company success is still based on how reliable your vendors are with every delivery. If you have a rental vendor that constantly sends you equipment that has not been properly maintained, then stop using that vendor. It sounds like basic advice, but we always find it surprising how many of our clients are still using vendors with poor product histories.

When you run a contracting business of any size, you are constantly exposing yourself to risks. The best way to handle those risks is to work with our business experts on a regular basis, and be sure to have the right people on your staff. When you take risk seriously, then you can significantly reduce the amount of money you lose to common problems.