Why Your Contractor Risk Management Program is About More Than Saying No

Background Screening | Risk Management | August 8, 2022

In today’s litigious society, having a strong compliance and risk management program is a must for organizations. Unfortunately, the creation and maintenance of a compliance program can often be met with internal and external resistance that must be overcome. With contractor risk management programs, this could not be truer, but this blog will talk about how your program is about more than creating barriers and does serve a valuable purpose.

In this post, the term “contractors” refers to the network of individuals who are engaged by your organization to conduct specific tasks but who are not directly employed by you. They are not supervised or managed by your staff, and you may never even meet them, so completing a background check can be a valuable way to mitigate operational, legal, and compliance risks. Any present-day organization needs to be sure they have such a program in place to mitigate the risks associated with such a hands-off workforce. 

Establishing Clear Guidelines

Establishing clear and consistent guidelines around the type of contractors the organization will engage ensures that individual, subjective decisions are not being made in the face of the increasing potential risk these arrangements may carry. A robust background check program is a solid first step in ensuring your contactor risk management program is addressing the more pressing risks that may face the organization. Ensuring all contractors who may represent your organization participate in the program, using a consistent process to review the results of the background checks, and then continuing to recheck their backgrounds throughout their engagement ensures that decisions are made on an objective, relevant and consistent information. 

What’s the Purpose of Your Risk Mitigation Program?

With any compliance risk mitigation program, the underlying goal is to protect the organization, it is not simply to slow down the service network, create barriers for individuals or restrict the ability of the organization to attract contracted individuals. The fact that some individuals will not meet the organization’s requirements related to criminal records, driving, or sex offender searches means the program is working as intended. If everyone was accepted, that would be an issue, and would not provide any measure of risk mitigation for the organization.  

By working with internal and external stakeholders to explain the purpose of the program, the overall acceptance of it is more likely to increase. The swift and impactful damage an incident in the contractor network can cause is one example of why a program like this is important. Social media takes an accident or otherwise isolated incident, and profiles it for all the world to see in mere seconds, and when the organization is asked “what did you do to reduce the risk of this happening?”, the answer had better be good. The public understands mistakes happen but not having a policy or process in place, or not being able to demonstrate that due diligence was exercised by contemplating and guarding against issues is not an acceptable response. 

The individuals responsible for the contractor risk management program in your organization are doing their best to protect the whole organization and are eager to work with everyone they can to ensure the program is understood and followed and they don’t want to be seen as the “department of no.” 

Contents are provided for information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. Users are reminded to seek legal counsel with respect to their obligations and use of PlusOne Solutions services.

About PlusOne Solutions

PlusOne Solutions has been an industry leader in the risk management field by specializing in compliance programs that meet the complex challenges of geographically dispersed contractors, vendors, and employee networks. PlusOne Solutions protects companies from possible financial, legal, and reputational risks associated with contractor and vendor relationships while creating safer work environments. To learn more, visit https://www.PlusOneSolutions.net.