Hiring clients
Explore Participation
The ACSA Safety Culture & High Reliability Organization (HRO) Demonstration & Evaluation Project provides Hiring Clients with an opportunity to evaluate a potentially more effective approach to contractor performance assurance with minimal time commitment, no participation fees, and visibility into contractor performance and improvement activities.
Built around the Shared Performance Assurance Framework, the initiative is demonstrating and exploring whether stronger operational visibility, structured improvement, and ongoing performance monitoring can improve performance assurance while reducing complexity and burden across the contractor ecosystem.
Why Hiring Clients Are Participating
Organizations across industry continue to invest significant resources in contractor management activities intended to reduce risk and improve confidence in contractor performance.
Yet many organizations still struggle to obtain meaningful visibility into operational execution, emerging risks, and the factors that contribute to serious incidents.
The project is demonstrating and exploring whether a Shared Performance Assurance Framework can provide stronger performance assurance through improved operational visibility, structured improvement, and ongoing performance monitoring.
Strategic Benefits Being Evaluated
Risk insight
Improve visibility into operational performance and potential risk indicators at the workface, helping organizations better understand conditions that may contribute to serious incidents.
Administrative Efficiency
Reduce duplication and inefficiencies associated with managing multiple contractor requirements, verification activities, and assurance processes.
Operational Alignment
Support greater consistency in expectations, communication, and performance measurement between Hiring Clients and Contractors.
Proactive Risk Management
Enhance the ability to identify and respond to emerging operational conditions before they contribute to serious incidents or performance degradation.
Why This Matters
Participating Hiring Clients have an opportunity to evaluate a potentially more effective approach to contractor performance assurance without additional audits, verification activities, registry subscriptions, or significant internal resource commitments.
For approximately 90 minutes of onboarding and approximately 15 minutes per month thereafter, participating organizations gain visibility into contractor performance, improvement progress, and operational indicators that are often difficult to obtain through traditional contractor management approaches.
Participation is provided at no cost and allows organizations to help demonstrate and evaluate whether a Shared Performance Assurance Framework can deliver stronger assurance while reducing complexity and burden across the contractor ecosystem
What Hiring Clients Receive
Participating Hiring Clients receive visibility into:
- Contractor baseline performance
- Improvement activities and progress over time
- Safety Culture indicators
- High Reliability Organization (HRO) performance measures
- Operational performance trends
- Learning effectiveness indicators
- Performance assurance insights generated through the framework
The objective is to provide greater visibility into how performance is being executed in practice rather than relying solely on documentation, audits, and historical performance indicators.
Hiring Client Participation Requirements
Participation is intentionally designed to be practical and low effort.
Hiring Clients participate as observers and are not responsible for conducting evaluations, managing improvement activities, or supporting contractor implementation efforts.
Participation at a Glance
- No participation fees
- 90-minute onboarding session
- Approximately 15 minutes per month
- Observer role only
- Visibility into contractor performance and improvement activities
- Opportunity to help evaluate an industry-led approach to contractor performance assurance
What Participation Typically Involves
- Minimal involvement – approximately 90 minutes for onboarding, followed by periodic project updates and approximately 15 minutes per month thereafter.
- No fees required – participation is provided at no cost to Hiring Clients.
- Observer role – receive visibility into project progress, contractor improvement activities, and performance assurance insights throughout the demonstration.
- Contractor awareness support – where appropriate, identify contractors within your network that may benefit from participation and help ensure they are aware of the opportunity.
Participation by contractors is entirely voluntary and is not connected to procurement decisions, contract awards, or contractor standing.
Supporting Contractor Participation
Participating Contractors join the Demonstration & Evaluation Project voluntarily.
A core principle of the initiative is that improving contractor performance should create measurable value and operational insight rather than simply add administrative requirements.
The project has been intentionally designed to minimize disruption and time commitment by integrating with existing safety management, workforce development, risk management, and continuous improvement activities already occurring within participating organizations.
Contractor Participation Typically Involves
Activity
Typical Commitment
Baseline Evaluation
Approximately 8 Hours
Findings Debrief
90 Minutes
Improvement Activities
Approximately 11 Hours per Month for 4 Months
Ongoing Monitoring
Integrated into Existing Management Activities
These activities align with work contractors are already undertaking to strengthen operational performance, develop their workforce, manage risk, and improve safety outcomes.
How the Demonstration Works
A clear repeatable approach following three structured phases, each building on the last:
Phase 1 - Evaluate
A baseline assessment of how safety is managed in practice, including operating risks, using your existing information and processes, no new information required.
The project introduces a new set of performance measures for safety culture and performance, grounded in observable, day-to-day work execution, with the aim of supporting a higher level of performance assurance.
Phase 2 - Improve
Targeted learning and practical improvements based on your baseline results.
This is not a wholesale change or transformation effort. It focuses on strengthening key areas using your existing systems and practices, with an emphasis on consistency in how safety is executed day-to-day.
Phase 3 - Monitor
Ongoing tracking of selected indicators to understand progress and support continuous improvement.
Contractors maintain the monitoring tool as part of normal safety activities. It is designed to be low maintenance, with minimal data input, and to complement existing systems by focusing on how safety is executed day-to-day.
Hiring Clients receive visibility throughout the process while maintaining an observer role.
Interested in Learning More?
A limited number of Hiring Clients are currently being engaged to participate in the ACSA Safety Culture & High Reliability Organization (HRO) Demonstration & Evaluation Project.
Participation requires approximately 90 minutes for onboarding, approximately 15 minutes per month thereafter, and is provided at no cost.
Organizations receive visibility into contractor performance, improvement activities, and operational indicators while maintaining a simple observer role.
If your organization is interested in helping demonstrate and evaluate whether a Shared Performance Assurance Framework can provide a more effective approach to contractor performance assurance, we welcome the opportunity to connect.
Contact us to learn more about participation.
Hiring Clients receive visibility throughout the process while maintaining an observer role.