Managing Subcontractors

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

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

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.

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

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

This Managing Subcontractors training course will benefit all levels of personnel involved in any aspect of construction management, and in particular to those working with subcontractors. It will enable a broad range of disciplines to appreciate and understand effective management of construction subcontracting.

This training course is suitable for a wide range of professionals but will significantly benefit:

• Civil Engineers
• Construction managers
• Project Managers
• Design consultants and architects
• Contracts Administrators, Managers and Claims Handlers
• Engineering, Operational and Maintenance Personnel
• Commercial Professionals
• Procurement and Purchasing Staff

DAY 1

Choosing the right sub-contractor for the job

• What is a sub-contractor?
• Why use sub-contractors?
• Typical roles for construction sub-contractors
• Domestic, Named and Nominated sub-contractors
• Employers’ desire to control sub-contracting: prohibition and approval methods.
• Best procurement practices when selecting or influencing the selection of a sub-contractor.

DAY 2

Managing Sub-contractor Risks

• Contract Risk Management introduction
• Risk Allocation principles
• What are the key risks in working with sub-contractors?
  • To the Contractor
  • To the Sub-contractor
  • To the Employer
• Key timing concerns for the main Contractor
  • Examples: Notice periods/ Exercising rights /Information provision

• Sub-contractor liabilities to the Employer
  • Collateral warranties
  • Negligence

DAY 3

Developing the optimal sub-contracting agreement

• The main contractor’s rights, obligations, and liabilities in relation to sub-contractors
• The sub-contractor’s rights, obligations, and liabilities in relation to the main contractor
• What if any are the rights and obligations between the Employer and a Subcontractor?
• Interface agreements between sub-contractors
• Planning for contract changes throughout the supply chain

DAY 4

Drafting Effective Sub-contracts

• Contract Drafting principles.
• Aims and Objectives when drafting the subcontract.
• “Back-to-Back” - Stepping down the terms from the main contract
• Standard form or Bespoke sub-contract – which is better?
• Model sub-contract terms and conditions
  • FIDIC contracts
  • NEC3/NEC4 contracts

DAY 5

Subcontractors Claims and Payment

• The importance of cash-flow for successful construction
• Timing of payments to sub-contractors
• Building in time buffers
• Conditions precedent and Conditional Payment clauses:
  • “Pay when Paid.”
  • “Pay if Paid.”
• Rights to direct payment by the Employer to Sub-contractors
• Managing Sub-contractor EOT and Financial claims

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All rights reserved. Any unauthorized copying, distribution, use, dissemination, downloading, storing (in any medium), transmission, reproduction or reliance in whole or any part of this course outline is prohibited and will constitute an infringement of copyright.

P.O. Box 74653, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel : +971 - 04 - 425 0700, Fax : +971 (04) 425 0701, Email : info@glomacs.com