Managing Subcontractors

Introduction

This GLOMACS Managing Subcontractors training course fills the knowledge gap on a key topic in construction – how to manage contractually the specialist trades that carry out much of the work in a ‘works’ project.

If you represent an Employer and are principally concerned with the main Contractor, you may not have much knowledge about or influence over the (often) small companies that are doing the construction work. You may think that these organizations, who make up your contractor’s supply chain, don’t matter to you – until something goes wrong.

 If you represent a main Contractor, your focus switches – looking ‘upstream’ to your client and ‘downstream’ to your own contractors and suppliers. The effectiveness of this complex supply chain is vital to you if you are going to meet your client commitments. If you don’t get the right subcontractors in place, with the most appropriate legal agreements established, you may fail to meet the time, cost or quality requirements that are set out in your main contract with the Employer.

This training course addresses both audiences – Employers and Contractors – in the best contract management approaches for subcontractors.

This training course will highlight:

• The relevance of subcontracting when initiating a procurement
• The rights, obligations and liabilities that arise from the contractor’s supply chain.
• Methods to control subcontractor risk.
• Drafting approaches to link main contract obligations through to subcontractors.
• Common construction industry approaches to financial management of subcontractors

Objectives

At the end of this training course, you will have learned how to:

• Select the best specialist subcontractors
• Control the subcontract environment that is part of most construction projects
• Draft effective contracts that involve multiple subcontract elements
• Improve your management of subcontractor risks
• Understand the legal and financial complexities of the Contractor’s supply chain

Training Methodology

This Managing Subcontractors training course will utilize a variety of proven adult learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension and retention of the information presented. The course will be lively and interactive and will include exercises, case studies, practice sessions, group discussions plus Q&A. The learning experience will be supported by reference materials containing model documents and templates.

Organisational Impact

By enrolling your staff on this training course, your Company will enrich your construction management teams to better understand and manage the complexities of the construction supply chain, and in particular the involvement of subcontractors. The training will develop construction management team members in the following way:

• Improve the management of risks associated with subcontracted activities
• Better selection of specialist subcontractors
• Better drafting of contracts that involve multiple subcontract elements
• Deeper understanding of the differences between working with the main contractor and the use of subcontractors
• Improved knowledge about cash-flow in the contracting supply chain
• Practice important business skills that are needed within a contracting environment, such as contract preparation and claims management

Personal Impact

Participants attending this training course will come away:

• Educated about the complexities of working with contractors and subcontractors
• Stimulated by an engaging learning experience that tests their knowledge and abilities
• Informed about the state-of-the-art ideas in the management of subcontractors
• Enriched by their ability to deploy new management tools and techniques
• Progressed in their career choices in construction management
• Enthused to put their newly developed capabilities into practice on the job