Visitor safety for employers in Canada
Ensuring health and safety for visitors in the workplace involves legal responsibilities and requires clear processes to manage risks effectively. Mistakes can lead to serious noncompliance issues and costly penalties. In our last webinar, Shayne O., lead health and safety consultant, shared proven strategies that protect organizations and keep visitors safe on worksites across Canada.
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Onsite safety for visitors and contractors
Expert Q&A: Contractor and visitor safety in the workplace
[Adapted from webinar transcript]
Alex: I’m Alex Smith, head of marketing for Citation Canada. Joining me today is our lead health and safety consultant, Shayne. Shayne, can you tell everyone a bit about yourself?
Shayne: Hi everybody, I’m Shayne. As Alex mentioned, I’m the lead health and safety consultant here at Citation Canada. I’ve got experience working in various industries like construction, sales, and food production. Today, I’m excited to talk about contractors and visitor safety.
Alex: Shayne, tell us what we’re going to cover today.
Shayne: Sure. Today, we’re focussing on contractor and visitor safety. We’ll begin with legal obligations, due diligence, and the duty of care, then we’ll dive into the contractor and visitor safety lifecycle, covering everything from preapproval to post-visit. We’ll also touch on leveraging technology to promote compliance and wrap up with key takeaways and a Q&A.
Alex: Great! Let’s start with the basics. Can you explain the duty of care and the risks involved in allowing contractors and visitors into the workplace?
Shayne: Absolutely. Managing health and safety for visitors and contractors comes down to due diligence, a legal obligation for all employers in Canada. Employers must prove they’ve done everything reasonably possible to keep their workplace safe, and that includes protecting contractors and visitors as they would employees. You also need to consider how contractor and visitor safety might affect your employees. From a moral perspective, it’s only right to ensure everyone in your workplace is safe. Legal and moral failings from not meeting these obligations can lead to fines, penalties, or even stop-work orders, not to mention damage to your reputation.
Alex: What about consequences for not upholding these responsibilities?
Shayne: If a contractor or visitor is injured, there are serious consequences: legal, moral, and reputational. For example, there could be fines, penalties, or even arrests. Additionally, injured contractors may share their negative experience, discouraging others from working with your company. A tragic example involved a contractor who fell to their death because they weren’t trained on working at heights, and their employer failed to enforce PPE requirements. Incidents like this can make it hard for companies to secure future contracts and damage their reputation with the public.
Alex: So, what does the contractor and visitor safety lifecycle look like? It has four main stages: pre-site approval, onboarding and training, onsite management, and post-visit review. Pre-site approval involves checking documentation and credentials. Onboarding ensures contractors and visitors review your policies and fill training gaps. Onsite management involves supervising their activities to ensure safety. Finally, post-visit reviews help improve your processes for the future. Let’s dive into preapproval. What’s involved?
Shayne: Preapproval includes verifying that contractors and visitors are legally allowed to be in the workplace. For contractors, this means confirming insurance coverage, such as WSIB in Ontario, and ensuring they have the necessary qualifications and training to complete the work. Employers should also review contractors’ occupational health and safety (OHS) policies and ensure they meet legal requirements. Transparency and trust are critical; ask for their incident history and avoid contractors who aren’t upfront about safety practices.
Alex: Once a contractor or visitor is approved, what’s next?
Shayne: The next step is onboarding. This involves preparing them for workplace-specific hazards and risks. Health and safety for visitors and contractors should start with a review of your safety policies and have them sign off on them. Contractors may also need specific training, like PPE use or emergency evacuation procedures. Written safe operating procedures are helpful for ensuring everyone knows what’s expected. Visitors typically require less stringent onboarding since they are usually supervised at all times.
Alex: What should employers do for onsite management?
Shayne: Contractors are experts in their fields, but they must still adhere to your workplace’s visitor safety standards. Supervisors should be present to ensure contractors don’t interfere with daily operations or create hazards. Communication is key. Let employees know when contractors or visitors will be onsite, and provide clear instructions to avoid interference. For visitors, supervision is crucial to keep them safe and ensure they don’t disrupt operations.
Alex: What happens after the job or visit is complete?
Shayne: This is the post-visit stage, which is often overlooked. Employers should review their experience to identify areas for improvement. Gather feedback from supervisors, employees, and even the contractors or visitors themselves. For example, a contractor experience survey can provide valuable insights and strengthen business relationships.
Alex: How should businesses handle unexpected visitors, such as sales reps or upset customers?
Shayne: Unexpected visitors are potential uncontrolled hazards. Employers should have clear policies for managing these situations and train employees in de-escalation techniques. Frontline employees need to know whom to escalate concerns to and when to remove themselves from a hazardous situation.
Alex: This all sounds like a lot of paperwork and tracking. How can companies make it easier to manage?
Shayne: Documentation is critical for OHS, and Citation Canada’s Atlas platform simplifies this process. It includes tools for risk assessments, safe operating procedures, training management, and document tracking. For example, you can share training with contractors and visitors directly through the platform and keep a record of what’s been completed. Atlas also has templates for policies, checklists, and compliance tracking, making it easier to stay organized and compliant.
Alex: That’s great! Can you summarize your key takeaways for today?
Shayne: Of course.
- Due diligence and duty of care: Employers must protect everyone in the workplace to every reasonable extent.
- Risk assessments: These are the foundation of effective OHS programs and help control hazards for contractors and visitors.
- Onboarding: This is just as crucial for contractors and visitors as it is for employees.
- Post-visit review: Reviewing each experience improves your OHS program and ensures compliance.
Alex: Thanks, Shayne. Let’s move on to some audience questions: How can contractors be better managed in a healthcare setting?
Shayne: In healthcare, defining roles and responsibilities is key, especially due to the nature of the work. Ensure contractors understand incident reporting and the risks they may encounter. Minimize these risks and ensure they integrate into your OHS program.
Alex: Should we ask for a WSIB clearance certificate before a contractor arrives?
Shayne: Absolutely. Contractors need to be insured, and a WSIB clearance certificate proves they meet this requirement. If you’re unsure, reach out to your jurisdiction’s workers’ compensation board for clarification.
Alex: How can we mitigate liability if a contractor ignores our safety guidelines?
Shayne: If a contractor works unsafely, you have the right to stop their work. Progressive discipline should be outlined in your health and safety policy, and contractors must agree to it before starting. If issues persist, it’s best not to rehire them.
Alex: How should we treat volunteers?
Shayne: Volunteers should be treated like contractors or employees in terms of onboarding and training. OHS applies to anyone providing services, paid or unpaid.
Alex: How would you manage contractors in the performing arts, like musicians?
Shayne: Provide thorough documentation and training specific to your workplace. Open communication is essential. If they identify gaps in knowledge or safety, address these with additional training or policies.
Alex: With that, we’ll wrap up today’s health and safety for visitors talk. Thank you for joining us. We hope that you’ll come back for our next webinar in December. That’ll be an Ask Me Anything–style session with one of our HR consultants on upcoming legislative changes related to WHMIS and Ontario’s Working for Workers Acts. There are deadlines coming up in December and early 2026 that might affect your business. Have a wonderful day, everyone.
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Our team of health and safety consultants and user-friendly HR and health and safety software simplify the process for you. Having a compliant contractor and visitor safety policy is a good first step, and a contractor safety management program is only effective if it’s easy to use and consistently applied.
Thousands of Canadian organizations trust our innovative HR software and team of experts to help with:
- Delivering compliant policies and documentation: Access an HR content library with hundreds of HR templates, including a contractor and visitor safety policy for every Canadian jurisdiction.
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- Accessing live advice and consulting: Whether you need answers about the specifics of developing your own contractor safety management program or anything else, our team of HR advisors and health and safety consultants is there to provide trusted guidance on any project you have coming up.