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ISNETWORLD Part I: What Is It?

April 11th, 2018

Companies are under greater scrutiny than ever before from both internal and external stakeholders, and this increased exposure has been reflected in their hiring practices for suppliers, contractors, and service providers.  It’s complicated and time consuming for companies to thoroughly screen contractors before awarding jobs, so many are moving to using external firms like ISNetworld to provide them a pre-screened list of potential contractors, suppliers, and other service providers.

The process is simple. The hiring company works with the vetting firm to create a list of weighted hiring requirements based on what the hiring company most values in its potential contractors and suppliers. Service companies and contractors then self-report information such as insurance documents, safety programs, and incident rates to the vetting firm. The vetting firm’s verification teams review this info against regulatory and hiring client requirements while also looking at other relevant public information regarding the contractor’s safety and regulatory performance. Each potential contractor is provided an overall score, which, if above the hiring firm’s established score threshold, allows them to “pass” the pre-screen and move forward to potentially engage with the hiring firm. In many cases, firms that do not meet the requisite scoring criteria are not permitted to be employed for jobs by the hiring company.

One of the strengths of a firm like ISN or other “pre-screening” service providers lies in the size of its network of both contractors submitting for scores and potential hiring firms looking for those contractors with the highest scores. Not unlike a potential combination of the popular sites “Angie’s List” and “Consumer Reports”, it can connect high-scoring contractors with hiring companies, while reducing the generally high costs to the hiring companies associated with the contractor screening process.

James W. Darrow, PhD, CHMM, FMP Senior Environmental, Health & Safety Manager at HRP Associates, Inc.