Under performing contractors: is it time to let them go?

Contractors take on the jobs your regular employees are either not trained to perform or are too busy to handle. Engaging contractors can also be a successful risk mitigation strategy and a financially wise business strategy. This is what makes them essential to your business.

However, this doesn’t mean all of them are indispensable; there will always be some contractors who don’t perform as well as others. Keeping these under performing contractors on the payroll will not be good for your company in the long run.

How Do You Know When it’s Time to Let a Contractor Go?

Contractors need to be overseen just like a full-time employee to ensure they are working up to the standard of your business and meeting the deadlines agreed upon. Keeping the lines of communication open means you can catch a potentially bad contractor early on by observing some warning signs such as these:

Asking for early payment – If your contractor often looks for payment upfront or requests the majority of the funds soon after starting the job, take it as a red flag.

Rushing their job – Wanting to move on to another aspect of the job before they have even properly finished the first part indicates a poor worker and a lack of attention to detail.

Keeping unusual hours – Technically this isn’t a fault; a contractor might have unusual working hours out of necessity. However, if there is too much disparity between the hours your business opens and the hours the contractor is available, this may be disadvantageous to the business.

Displaying poor communication skills – Communication is essential if you want to convey exactly what you want the contractor to achieve. If the contractor is not willing to communicate or makes communication hard it may be best to replace that contractor.

Failing to follow contract guidelines – The contract is the binding agreement between you and your contractor. It specifies the exact work to be done and in some cases how it should be done. If you notice that the work being done is different from the work specified in the contract then you have a contractor that is not worth keeping.

It’s difficult to keep track of all the records involving your contractors without the right tools at your disposal, Rapid Contractor Management by Rapid Global makes it easy so you can focus on the big picture. The software allows managers to keep track of contractors’ records and can be combined with Rapid Auditor to monitor worker performance.

Use Rapid Contractor Management to ensure workplace standards are followed

Rapid Contractor Management has many features useful to staff who work with contractors. It can provide a method of communication with contractors to ensure workplace standards are being followed. The system has the following benefits:

Sends automated email reminders to let contractors know when documents or insurances are about to expire

Requests individual and company documents like licenses and certificates which are centrally stored with all records relating to contractors.

Ensures that important workplace safety information is accessible 24/7 to qualified contracting companies using online induction and online publications.

Has tools available that make it easy to rate the performance of contractors: Rapid Performance Review measures key performance indicators of contractors for an accurate assessment.

Keeping the right or wrong contractor can mean the difference between your business succeeding or failing. Make sure you have the tools to help you manage your workforce and the insights available to determine any potential threats to your business.