If you’re considering gaining accreditation, it’s important that you have an understanding of what’s on offer. The type of accreditation you should aim for depends entirely on your business and its processes.
More and more businesses are opting for accreditation, so it’s more important than ever to gain a competitive advantage and become accredited. However, with so many accreditations out there, it can be tough knowing which accreditation is best for your business.
Keep reading to learn more about two popular SSIP accreditations, CHAS and SafeContractor - and their key differences.
Why Gain an Accreditation?
There are countless benefits to gaining relevant accreditation, whether it be gaining trust, improving your reputation, landing new clients, or increasing your profits. Accreditation can be a great way to build trust - which is an important aspect of company growth.
Accreditation gives you a competitive advantage against your competitors - if a client is looking at working with a variety of businesses, an accredited business is sure to stand out more than one without.
Taking the right steps to become accredited, whether it be SafeContractor or CHAS, can prove to clients, other businesses, and even potential employees that your business has the right experience, level of expertise, and complies with the right standards.
Being accredited proves to other bodies that you’re up to the task. Having accreditation behind you can create a unique selling point, and you can advertise the fact that you’re accredited and promote your services professionally.
Customers are more likely to be drawn to your business if it is accredited - it’s an attractive selling point for customers and clients alike, making you stand out from the crowd.
If you’re part of the supply chain, being accredited can also save you money, helping to reduce the costs if the whole chain adopts a universal method.
CHAS
CHAS is one of the most well-known SSIP accreditation schemes, with more than 70,000 contractors registered to the scheme. There are also around 1000 public and private sector bodies, making it one of the most widely accepted standards.
The CHAS scheme is one of the longer-standing SSIP schemes, set up back in 1997 by experienced professionals in the industries.
There are two main objectives of CHAS - the first being to simplify the health and safety assessment by standardising the requirements, and the second being to lower the amount of health and safety paperwork during tenders.
Being CHAS accredited saves you time and energy, allowing you to bypass certain questions on the tender forms. It can also increase the chances of you winning new tenders with larger clients, as well as improving your professional image.
SafeContractor
SafeContractor is a hugely popular SSIP accreditation scheme with over 28,000 members and 400 large clients. Although it’s smaller than the CHAS scheme, SafeContractor is perfect for local authorities as well as clients in the private sector who put tenders out frequently.
This health & safety accreditation is a modern scheme that can tailor to the needs of your business, regardless of how large or small your company is.
Being SafeContractor accredited helps your business improve in terms of health and safety. It looks at a wide variety of areas aside from just health and safety training, health and safety advice, and health and safety policy.
The SafeContractor SSIP scheme looks at data protection, quality management, environmental management, anti-bribery and corruption, equality and diversity, building information, accounts and insurance. It also assesses risk assessments, work procedures, COSHH assessments, and accident reports, ensuring that your processes are as effective as they can be.
Once you have been approved, you’ll be added to the database. Clients can browse this database, allowing them to see your business and potentially liaise with you.
Like CHAS, having the SafeContractor logo on your website, emails and paperwork can give you the competitive advantage you need, helping you to land new clients and prove that you take health and safety seriously. There are over 370 major clients that use the SafeContractor database, so this is sure to improve your chances of landing quality clients.
As well as improving visibility to clients, SafeContractor can improve the credibility of your business. Being SafeContractor approved strongly demonstrates that you’ve got the right and the legal health and safety procedures in place.
So, SafeContractor or CHAS? Both can help your business acquire new clients, although CHAS may be a more affordable option - and is a more popular accreditation. Be sure to research both thoroughly to make an informed decision - which will open more doors for you? Which is more tailored to your industry?