Four Key Success Factors

As a global trend, more organizations in nearly all sectors of the economy are outsourcing more work. Currently, contractors fill one in every five jobs in the United States. Contractors are projected to make up half the workforce within the next decade. This trend is common across industrialized and emerging countries around the world.

No matter the industry, a key factor is workplace health and safety. The following is an introduction to the main elements of contractor management with an occupational health and safety focus.

Contractor management is a business process implemented by purchasing organizations to maximize efficiency and reduce sources of loss with their contracted services. This article will focus on common systems and activities in high-risk workplaces.

High-risk workplaces are physical locations and work activities that expose workers to significant or unusual hazards. Examples include:

• operating machinery,
• work on or near high-pressur
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