Inducting a contract engineer so they're useful on day one

It's 6am. The contract engineer you booked for two weeks of cover is at the gatehouse. Security doesn't have their name. The shift manager is in a meeting. Your own fitter is on a breakdown on line 4.

At 7.30 someone finds them a chair in the canteen and puts on the site safety video. Forty minutes on fire exits, hand washing and the visitor car park.

By 10am they've got a pass and a hi-vis. They still haven't seen a machine. At 10.15 line 2 stops, and they're sent to fix it with no drawings, no idea where the isolators are and no one to ask.

You're paying for an engineer from 6am. You got one at 10.15, and an unsafe one at that.

Two jobs, one hour

A good induction for a contract engineer does two things. It keeps them safe on a site they've never seen. And it gets them useful on the tools quickly.

Most sites manage one or the other. Some do the full staff induction, which is safe but takes half a day and covers things a cover engineer will never need. Others skip it and send them straight to the breakdown, which is fast but dangerous.

Here's our view. An hour, planned in advance, does both. Anything longer is mostly the wrong content.

What you owe them before they start

The law is clear that a contractor on your site still needs your information. You must give the contractor's employer "comprehensible information" on the risks from your work and the measures you've taken (Management Regulations 1999, regulation 12). Anyone working on your site who isn't your employee must get "appropriate instructions and comprehensible information" on those risks. When two employers share a workplace, even for a short time, each must co-operate with the other (regulation 11).

If the engineer comes through an agency, tell the agency up front what skills and tickets the job needs, and what it involves that could affect their safety (regulation 15). That saves you sending away a fitter who isn't cut out for your panels. Our post on health and safety duties to agency workers goes further.

HSE's leaflet on using contractors adds a simple test. Make sure they have information on the risks they may face, the measures in place, and "your emergency procedures" (INDG368). It also says the more risk there is, the more you need to do. For a cover engineer on live plant, that's a lot.

The legal side of contractors is covered in contractors on site: what you owe them. The rest of this post is about doing it in a way that works.

Send it before they set off

Half the induction can happen before they reach the gate.

The day before, send them:

• the site address, the gate to use and who'll meet them
• parking and where to sign in
• the shift times, breaks and who they report to
• the PPE you expect, and anything you'll supply
• the machines they'll be covering, with makes and models
• your site rules on permits, hot work and phones

Tell security their name and arrival time. Have the pass printed. Have someone at the gate at the agreed time, even if it's 6am.

Ask them to send you copies of their tickets before they arrive, not on the day. Then you know they're right for the job before you've paid for a shift.

The hour on site

Start with a walk, not a video. Take them round the area they'll be covering with your engineer.

Show them, in this order:

1. The fire exits, the muster point and the first aid kit for that area. That's the emergency part done in five minutes.
2. Every isolator for the machines they'll cover, and any machine with more than one supply or stored energy.
3. Where the drawings and manuals are, and which ones are wrong.
4. The spares cage and how to book a part out.
5. How breakdowns come in, who logs them and who signs off the restart.
6. Who to ring when they're stuck, with the number written down.

Then go through your permit to work rules and lock-off system. Give them their own lock. Make sure they know whose permits they need, and who signs them off on nights.

Don't assume they'll turn up with the right kit for your site either. INDG368 is blunt about it: "Don't assume that the contractor will have the right equipment to carry out the job safely." Agree what they bring and what you supply.

Get them to sign the induction record, and keep a copy. If something goes wrong in week two, you'll want to show what they were told.

Put them on a planned job first

If you can, start them on a planned job rather than a breakdown. A PPM on the machine they'll be covering is ideal. They learn the kit with no one shouting "how long?"

Then give them their first breakdown with your engineer close by. By the second shift they can take the lead. By the end of the week they should be holding the shift.

Check in at the end of the first shift. What have they found? What don't they know yet? A good cover engineer will tell you, and will have spotted something your team walks past every day. Our post on what a good cover engineer looks like on the first shift has more on what to expect from them.

It's cheaper than you think

An hour of induction feels like a cost when the line's short. Compare it with the alternative. A stranger on a breakdown with no drawings, guessing at isolators. The best case is a slow fix. The worst case is someone hurt, and HSE asking what you told them.

If you get breakdown engineers in at short notice, keep a one-page version for the gate. Our article on briefing a contractor at the gate shows how. Write the full induction once, and reuse it for every engineer you book.

What to do on Monday

1. Write a one-page pre-arrival sheet for cover engineers and keep it ready to send.
2. Plan a one-hour walk-round induction for each area of the site, with the isolators and drawings listed.
3. Tell your agencies in writing what tickets and skills each cover job needs.
4. Keep spare locks and a signed induction record for every contract engineer.