Leading Canadian Telecommunications Provider Reduces Safety Incidents by 70%

Improving Worker Safety and Creating Efficiencies While Reducing Supply Chain Risk with Veriforce

Veriforce supports four of the largest telecommunication players in the Canadian market, this is a profile of one. One of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies enforces safety standards and compliance across its third-party workforce, improves safety metrics, and gains newfound visibility to better manage supply chain risks.

The Challenge

As one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies with fifty years of experience, this leading provider delivers Internet, wireless, video, and home phone services across Canada through one of the most advanced hybrid fiber networks in North America. To ensure seamless connectivity and provide superior service to its consumer and business customers, it relies on more than 2,300 third-party contractors performing work across a network of more than 80 infrastructure plants. Their work is highly specialized and often dangerous, demanding safety preparedness and adherence to best practices to ensure their personal and worksite safety.

A series of major safety incidents involving the company’s third-party contractors shed light on discrepancies between its own safety standards and requirements and those of its diverse contractor network. The telecom company was fed up with relying on time-consuming, manual spreadsheets to screen and manage its contractors’ compliance and lacking the ability to measure compliance to sustainability practices, human rights, and social responsibility. It needed a better way to align and enforce its commitment to safety throughout its entire workforce and standardized processes to pre-qualify and procure new workers who are safety ready and committed to ongoing compliance. It also needed greater visibility into its supply chain to monitor and manage evolving risks to better protect its workers and its business.

The Veriforce Solution

The company began to shop around for a viable solution that would allow
them leverage configurability and ease of migration. In 2011, it implemented a comprehensive contractor and compliance management solution from Veriforce that supports four of the largest Canadian telecommunications companies. It was able to seamlessly integrate its critical safety data and quickly and easily onboard contractors.

Reducing Manual Labor and Creating Centralized Access to Safety Data

No longer stuck relying on manual, cumbersome tasks and paperwork to manage compliance, the company now leverages its fully integrated compliance management solution to increase and maintain safety compliance throughout its entire workforce. It has a centralized view and easy access to important data and can manage contractors across all divisions in the organization, before, during and after work is completed. Safety professionals and high-level management, alike, now access information and compliance reports with a click of a button, enabling them to make more informed, proactive decisions to better mitigate risks and optimize business performance. They are also now sharing HSE bulletin updates and tracking when they have been read to ensure an ongoing, shared commitment to keeping workers and worksites safe.

According to the company, managing standards and requirements with Veriforce empowers them to maintain a consistent compliance standard across all contractors employed and whoever performs work on their behalf. It also provides them with the ability to customize requirements for different divisions and division subsets, and factor in exemptions when necessary.

Pre-qualifying and Hiring the Best Third-Party Contractors

The telecommunications leader now reviews the compliance status and history of currently or previously employed contractors, along with pre-qualifying and sourcing new contractors. By ensuring that contractors’ capabilities, expertise, and qualifications meet required standards, the company is making faster hiring decisions and creating safer work environments – an estimated 60% time-savings compared to previous efforts. What’s more, as part of the Veriforce Network, contractors have a better understanding of what safety qualifications are required of them, can follow standardized onboarding processes to get to work quickly and safely, and can monitor and maintain their ongoing safety compliance so they are ready to work.

Results

Since implementing the Veriforce compliance management solution, the telecommunications provider reduced the number of safety incidents at its plants by 70% and strengthened its overall safety culture. It has improved its safety standards and increased compliance thanks to greater visibility into worker safety readiness. As part of the Veriforce Network it now has the ability to find, qualify, and manage third-party workers, empowering it to embrace new opportunities to grow its business.