How We Screen & Select Contractors for our Top 5 Listings

At Covering Construction, we take pride in providing our readers with our list of recommended contractors who have met our strict screening and selection criteria. We understand the importance of finding the right contractor for your project, which is why we go the extra mile to ensure that our recommendations are trustworthy, professional, and skilled. In this blog post, we will outline the process we follow to screen and select contractors for our recommended list.

🤝Ensuring that we are fairly assessing the information about each contractor ⚖️

Gathering information to begin the screening process, we ask potential recommended contractors to provide us with a detailed list of information about their business. This includes:

• Business Name

• A copy of their Workers' Compensation and Public Liability Insurance Certificates

• A copy of required Trade Licenses for validation

• Safety Licenses

• SWMS

• Written Workmanship Guarantees

• Memberships

• Subscriptions

• Callout or Emergency Service Available

• Charities Supported

• Distance from CBD services are offered

• Number of employees

• Years of experience

• Industry Awards

• Photos

• Plant & Safety equipment owned

• Suppliers used

🛡️Assessing the companies for their safety culture & care of employees 🚧

When assessing a business profile our staff is previewed with more information than the standard customer. When comparing multiple business profiles, our assessors can quickly begin to build a picture of the sorts of cultures the business promotes. The assessor is previewed information such as:

• Operating hours

• Emergency services offered

• Equipment service logs

• Employee training provided

• Worker inductions

Our assessors also evaluate any of the contractor's safety equipment they own, such as:

• Handrails

• Scaffolds

• Static lines

• EWP (Elevated Work Platform)

• Spill kits

• First aid kits

📜Memberships, trade subscriptions, wholesalers & suppliers: 🤝

Reviewing written guarantees, wholesalers, suppliers, and memberships can help provide insight. Our assessors can use the wholesalers & supplier information to help gauge the final quality of the trade companies' finished products may be like. They can do this by filtering a company's suppliers & manufacturers by who makes or sells Australian Made Products. As we are firm believers that Australia boasts the highest qualities & standards when compared to the world, we will always score a contractor using Aussie products where possible above those who don't.

Information such as a company's subscriptions and memberships can provide a sneak peek into what sort of training & industry information they prefer. Industry bodies can assist small businesses in their safety culture by helping maintain training & providing the latest trade-specific news to the business.

💻Examining online presence and reputation 🌐

Our assessors are also responsible for investigating each contractor's online presence & community approval by finding things like relevant, authentic reviews. Our assessors will look for things like

• Social media links

• Customer photos

• Any public industry awards

📋How we score the information collected ✅

Points available are displayed on the left.

5 - Distance of Service from CBD of listing

10 - Public Liability Insurance

10 - Workers Comp Insurance

10 - Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS)

10 - Written Workmanship Guarantees

10 - Callouts/Emergency Service

50 - Valid Trade License

We also have points that can be added on for each item submitted and approved, up

to a maximum of 3 each.

5 Ea. - Memberships

5 Ea. - Trade Subscriptions

5 Ea. - Charity Support

10 Ea. - Safety Licenses

Maximum Score Available = 200 Points. If more than 5 of the same contractors have the maximum available or an equal amount, CC will assess the Value of their insurance, quality of SWMS, quality of Guarantees, Weight of Memberships & any photos submitted for quality for workmanship assessment.

🎓Conclusion🏆

By following this thorough screening process, we can confidently assess & provide the list of our Top 5 Trades & Services to our readers. We also have systems that prompt our listing owners to update any information that may have expired, helping ensure that our strict criteria are met and that the information provided on our website is always up to date. Our aim is to make it easier for you to find the perfect contractor for your project, and we hope that our recommended list serves as a valuable resource in your search.