Powerful Benefits of the Common Assessment Standard

Contractors will benefit from any kind of regulation in an industry subject to so many legalities and working regulations. Whereas previously, the approach was spread across many areas of legislation, the Common Assessment Standard brings everything under one umbrella. Fortunately for contractors, the new accreditation builds on a previous pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ). This means that the process follows the same theory but is a more thorough breakdown of the components that make up health and safety for businesses.

Contractors will fill out a questionnaire based on 13 areas of risk management and be asked to provide supporting evidence to demonstrate their compliance in each area. Another benefit of the Common Assessment Standard is that there are two options for how the assessment itself takes place. You can opt to do it via a supplier desktop assessment or a site assessment at the supplier’s offices. The option for remote assessment allows for little disruption for contractors as they go through the accreditation process.

The main benefit of the Common Assessment Standard for contractors is the increased efficiency that comes with accreditation covering all areas of risk management in one go. It will reduce the duplication that comes with tendering for multiple projects and streamlines those processes to avoid wasted resources due to repetition. The Common Assessment standardises the information that contractors need to submit to achieve accreditation, providing a solution to the cost and effort of filling in multiple questionnaires.

Related Reading: Becoming Accredited: Is The Common Assessment Standard Worth It?

Contractors can achieve the Common Assessment Standard via a number of assessment bodies, including CHAS. Crucially this empowers contractors to choose who to do their assessment with, versus other accreditations that may dictate who with and how contractors must take part. It also only needs to be completed once a year, so providing contractors stay on top of any expiring certifications in the meantime it is a simple and painless process when it comes to renewing.

Ultimately the main goal for contractors is to be eligible for as many work opportunities as possible, and the Common Assessment Standard will help achieve precisely that. By streamlining the tendering process, another major benefit of the Common Assessment Standard is the time and cost it will save contractors as they bid for projects. Contractors can qualify for a wider range of work thanks to being compliant with the Common Assessment Standard. It gives those contractors the edge over competitors who are not yet accredited. Major industry players who are now specifying the Common Assessment Standard include Balfour Beatty, Derwent London and Kier, to name a few, with the list of companies mandating the accreditation growing continually.

Advantages for Companies of the Common Assessment Standard

The list of companies that specify they will work exclusively with accredited suppliers is increasing as more businesses wake up to the benefits of the Common Assessment Standard. This process enables clients to ask potential suppliers important questions about their business from a health and safety perspective. The Common Assessment Standard provides companies with a more in-depth view of how contractors manage risk within their business. The assessment goes beyond the sometimes narrow definition of health and safety and delves deeper into how suppliers manage risks associated with components like modern slavery and corporate responsibility.

The Common Assessment Standard helps mitigate risk against a broader range of criteria such as modern slavery, sustainability, and financial performance. This can help construction companies avoid costly errors further down the line by having a transparent, in-depth process in the early stages. It also covers areas of risk not previously considered with many PQQ processes, giving construction companies a valuable insight into who they are entering into a business relationship with.

Clients that adopt the Common Assessment Standard can also access a database of qualified contractors. Contractors who achieve the accreditation are listed in CHAS’s free client portal, which acts as a candidate pool for clients searching for contractors. Construction companies can rest assured that the potential suppliers they are viewing are accredited to this high level, saving time going back and forth with contractors who ultimately do not qualify in the same way.

As more companies adopt the Common Assessment Standard accreditation as part of their screening process, the construction industry as a whole will start to benefit from the elevated standards. Especially with the support of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) and endorsement by the Crown Commercial Service.

Related Reading: Does My Business Need The Common Assessment Standard?

How the Construction Industry Benefits from the Common Assessment Standard

Any kind of industry merit can help raise the standards within a sector. It helps to achieve a level of consistency across an industry by dictating a high quality for services, operations and all other aspects of business that fall under the standards framework. Having industry-wide standards sets the bar for how companies should operate and makes clear the expectations of how they should conduct themselves.

There has long been room for improvement in the supply chain process and the Common Assessment Standard is a step towards a much more clean and efficient process. There is a considerable amount of time wasted chasing assessment forms and certification badges which redirects valuable resources away from the important work of both buyers and suppliers.

The construction industry will hugely benefit from the Common Assessment Standard thanks to the high level of compliance it requires from companies. As more companies specify the Common Assessment Standard, we will see an increase in the number of contractors applying to achieve the accreditation. As a result, the industry as a whole will raise its standards. Elevating to a higher expectation of the core business practices in the industry will set a precedent for how construction companies should operate in the future. Efficiency and cutting down on administrative waste will benefit companies on both sides of the supply chain process and push for a sleeker model.