Why contractors are a different risk to regular visitors
When a client visits your office, the risk is relatively low — they sit in a meeting room and leave. When a contractor arrives, the picture is very different. Contractors may:
- Access restricted areas of your site — plant rooms, server rooms, rooftops
- Use tools, machinery or hazardous materials
- Work unsupervised for extended periods
- Bring their own subcontractors who your team have never met
- Be covered by their own insurance — which may not cover incidents caused by your site's negligence
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM), you have a duty of care to contractors working on your site — and a legal obligation to be able to demonstrate that they were properly briefed before starting work.
A paper log cannot do any of this.
What a contractor sign-in system needs to capture
A contractor sign-in system needs to go much further than a visitor sign-in system. At minimum, it should capture:
- Identity verification — who they are and which company they represent
- Health and safety induction confirmation — evidence that they have read and understood your site rules
- Document verification — valid insurance, CSCS card, DBS certificate where required
- Permit to work — for high-risk activities such as hot works, confined spaces or working at height
- RAMS submission — Risk Assessment and Method Statement, confirming how they plan to work safely
- Zone access — which areas of your site they are permitted to access
- Time on site — accurate arrival and departure records for billing, audit and insurance purposes
The induction problem: how do you prove a contractor was briefed?
This is where most paper-based systems fail completely. Even if you hand a contractor a printed induction sheet, there is no reliable way to prove they read it — let alone understood it.
If a contractor is injured on your site and your insurer or the HSE asks for evidence that they received a health and safety briefing, "they signed the paper book" is not a sufficient answer.
DigiGreet solves this by requiring contractors to complete the induction process digitally before signing in. They must read the briefing on screen and confirm they have understood it — this confirmation is logged with a timestamp against their visit record. That record is available instantly if you ever need to prove compliance.
Document management: RAMS, permits and insurance
Managing contractor documents is one of the most time-consuming parts of facilities management. DigiGreet's Advanced Contractor Document Management module handles this automatically:
- Contractors upload their RAMS, insurance certificates and other documents before arriving on site
- Documents are reviewed and approved by your team — contractors cannot sign in until their documents are accepted
- Expiry dates are tracked automatically — you receive alerts when documents are due for renewal
- All documents are stored securely and accessible for any audit or insurance claim
- Permits to work can be issued digitally and linked to the contractor's sign-in record
What happens when a contractor has an accident on site?
This is the question no facilities manager wants to face — but it is worth thinking through before it happens.
If a contractor is injured on your site, you will need to demonstrate:
- That they were properly signed in and their identity was verified
- That they received and acknowledged your health and safety briefing
- That their documents — insurance, RAMS, permits — were valid at the time of the incident
- Exactly when they arrived, where they went, and when they left
With DigiGreet, all of this information is stored automatically against each visit record. With a paper log, almost none of it is.
Contractor sign-in for manufacturing and industrial sites
Manufacturing and industrial sites have particularly complex contractor management needs. Multiple contractors may be on site simultaneously, working in different zones, under different permits. DigiGreet handles this with:
- Zone-based access — contractors are only permitted in the areas relevant to their work
- Simultaneous multi-contractor management — each contractor has their own sign-in record
- Integration with Paxton Net2 — contractor induction completion triggers door access automatically
- Live on-site list — always know exactly which contractors are on site and where they are permitted to be
The difference between visitor sign-in and contractor sign-in
| Visitor sign-in | Contractor sign-in |
|---|
| Name, company, host, time | All of the above plus induction, documents, zones, permits |
| One-off visits | Repeat visits — documents must remain valid each time |
| Low risk — supervised meeting | Higher risk — unsupervised, may use tools or hazardous materials |
| GDPR compliance required | GDPR + H&S compliance + CDM compliance required |
| Paper book — risky but manageable | Paper log — genuinely inadequate for legal compliance |
DigiGreet manages both visitors and contractors in one system — with separate workflows, separate badge types, and separate document management for each. Book a free 20-minute demo to see how it works for your site, or call us on 01865 55 60 70.
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