Q&A with Rio Tinto’s senior contractor management advisor: Building a strong health and safety practice  

Introduction

Ensuring worker health and safety is crucial for operating global mining sites, but it becomes particularly challenging when managing hundreds of seasonal contractors across vast geographic areas. To address this, Rio Tinto adopted SafeContractor in 2009, shortly after opening its port and stockpile plant in Sept-Îles, Quebec. 

Up to 400 contractors are employed at the mine during the peak season each year – all of whom must be quickly vetted, onboarded, and assigned tasks based on their qualifications and past performance. This requires the review and approval of multiple stakeholders spread out across their 24-square-mile facility and a 418-kilometer railway before contractors can begin work. 

In the following interview, Nick Trepanier, Senior Contract Manager Advisor, shares the benefits Rio Tinto has seen by eliminating many of their paper-based processes and instead using the SafeContractor digital platform to: 

• Track, validate, and share the performance of contractors 
• Approve work permits within 10 minutes, regardless of where stakeholders are, and how that’s saved the mine $5 million in time alone 
• Engage contractors to identify incidents and help improve health and safety procedures 
• Centralize policy communication to ensure contractors have the most up-to-date health and safety information 

Contractor health and safety evaluation

Question: How is Safe Contractor helping you to better track, verify and share the performance of your contractors?  

When we first started the department back in 2009, we faced numerous challenges. Our contractors’ performance was inconsistent, and we lacked an effective way to measure their progress and provide feedback. And when I say contractors, I really mean our partners. We want them to succeed and grow with us in the long term. But if they don’t know how they’re doing, how can they improve? 

The first thing we did was clarify the roles and responsibilities of both managers and contractors and develop a robust evaluation process. We then sat down with management and field teams to gather feedback on each contractor’s performance and identify areas for improvement. 

Next, we centralized all contractor evaluation profiles in SafeContractor, allowing us to easily track, verify, and share information as needed. This includes their skills and qualifications, completed training and certifications, and whether they are properly insured. 

Our Procurement team uses SafeContractor to verify each contractor’s performance before issuing a tender. We work with many contractors, and there’s a lot of turnover—about 30% of our contractors change every year. We might work with a contractor one year and then not again for another two years or so. 

Having historical data on their performance, any health and safety issues, and how they’ve improved over time is incredibly helpful. 

Digital contractor work permits

Question: What time and cost savings have you seen since moving to digital work permits, and why can contractors now begin working sooner? 

We manage around 2,000 tasks that require work permits to be approved and signed by both the contractor’s supervisor and the site supervisor before any work can begin. These permits can’t be signed more than 24 hours in advance because conditions on the site or the task itself might change. 

The challenge we faced is that our site is enormous, covering an area eight miles by three miles. For example, if a contractor is working at mile seven and needs a signature from their supervisor located at mile eight, it could take half an hour just to get the permit signed. This process was causing significant delays. We also have a 418 km railway, and in some cases, we’d even resort to using a helicopter to speed up the approval process. 

To address this, we implemented electronic work permits through SafeContractor, allowing permits to be sent and approved digitally on mobile devices. What used to take hours, or even half a day, now takes just 10 minutes. We estimate this change has saved us $5 million in time alone, not to mention the additional savings from no longer needing to print multiple copies of each work permit. 

SafeContractor has saved us a tremendous amount of time and money, and more importantly, it allows contractors to start work much sooner. 

Jobsite incident reviews

Question: How are you engaging contractors to identify incidents and help improve Health and Safety procedures? 

Rio Tinto aims to strengthen its partnership with contractors by making them more integral to our business. To achieve this, we launched a contractor management excellence program called CMX. As part of this initiative, we hold a 15-minute meeting with our contractors each week to discuss any incidents or accidents they’ve encountered. During these meetings, we visit the site, review what actions were taken to address the issues, and explore alternative solutions. 

We then disseminate this information across Rio Tinto, as similar incidents often occur in different parts of our operations. Since heavy equipment and safety challenges are consistent regardless of location, sharing this knowledge helps raise awareness and improves safety practices across our global sites. 

Initially, when we introduced SafeContractor, contractors were somewhat reserved. However, over time, they have become more open and communicative, even reaching out to me on weekends with feedback about safety and operational issues. 

Our goal is to ensure that contractors are actively involved in enforcing procedures and contributing to solutions. They cannot be left out of the loop or simply subjected to changes without input. By fostering open dialogue and considering their ideas, we can make informed improvements that benefit everyone involved. 

It’s really easy to implement and enforce procedures when contractors have a say in it. 

Download our full Q&A here.