Contractor compliance
Contractor site induction: what to cover and when it expires.
An induction done once, filed in a drawer, and never checked again protects nobody. What belongs in a contractor site induction, how long it should stay valid, what should force a redo, and how the gate becomes the enforcement point.
What the induction must cover
The content test is simple: could this person work safely on this site today without being shadowed? The core modules:
- Site hazards. The specific ones: traffic routes and pedestrian segregation, overhead cranes, chemical storage, high-noise zones, live plant. Generic construction-safety video content does not cover the site the contractor is standing on.
- Emergency procedures. Alarm sounds, evacuation routes, and the contractor's assembly point by name. In an evacuation, contractors are the population most often missing from the count; the induction is where that gets fixed in advance.
- Permit-to-work rules. Which tasks need a permit (hot work, confined spaces, work at height, isolation), and who issues them.
- PPE requirements per zone, including anything the site issues versus what the contractor must bring.
- Reporting. How to report incidents, near misses, and unsafe conditions, and who the site contact is.
Close with a short comprehension check. A signature under a wall of text proves attendance; five questions prove the content landed, and the answers are worth far more if an incident is ever investigated.
How long an induction stays valid
There is no single statutory validity period; the site sets one and defends it in its risk assessment. Common practice:
- 12 months for standard commercial and office environments.
- 6 months for manufacturing, logistics, and higher-hazard sites, or wherever the site changes quickly.
- Per-visit briefings on top for permit-controlled tasks, regardless of induction currency.
Validity windows only matter if something expires them early when the ground truth changes. Re-induction triggers worth writing into the policy: site layout or traffic route changes, a new hazard introduced, an incident involving the contractor's trade, a change in the emergency plan or assembly points, and any return after a long gap.
Enforcement at the gate
The spreadsheet version of induction tracking fails the same way contractor insurance does: the record lives in an office file while the person walks through the gate. The enforcement design that works is the same one described in insurance verification at the gate: the induction record, with its expiry date, lives in the sign-in system; check-in blocks automatically when the induction has lapsed; and the contractor completes the refresher at the kiosk or on their phone before entry proceeds. Induction, insurance, and trade certifications then form one gate check with one answer: cleared to enter, or not.
Related reading
No induction, no insurance, no entry.
Build your induction in the demo, set the validity window, and watch a lapsed contractor get stopped at the kiosk.