What this is
What is an agency labour provider assessment?
What is an agency labour provider assessment?
An assessment of the agency itself, not the individual worker it sends: how it screens candidates, verifies identity and right to work, briefs them on the specific job, and stays involved once they are on site. It is carried out before an agency is used and repeated yearly.
Why assess the agency rather than each worker?
The failures that injure agency workers are almost always upstream of the individual, in an agency that assumes skills rather than verifying them, or briefs generically rather than on the actual task. Fixing one worker's induction does nothing about the next one the same agency sends.
Who should complete it?
HR together with safety. HR carries verification and employment-standard questions, right to work, references, pay transparency; safety carries site-specific preparation and supervision. Either function alone misses half of what determines whether the arrangement is sound.
Scope
When is an agency labour provider assessment required?
This assessment is the entry gate for an agency relationship, and its most common misuse is treating the yearly repeat as a formality once passed, rather than an independent re-test of practice.
Use this template when
- An agency labour provider is being approved for use for the first time
- The yearly reassessment of an already-approved agency is due
- A change in the agency's ownership, management or process suggests screening or supervision may have changed
- An incident, near miss or worker concern implicates how an agency worker was screened, briefed or supervised
- A linked record, temporary worker review or induction, needs this assessment to exist first
Do not use it for
- Contractor Prequalification Questionnaire, which assesses a contractor's own capability and safety programme, not a labour provider
- Contractor Site Induction, which briefs an individual on the specific site once they arrive, downstream of this assessment
- Temporary and Agency Worker Review, which covers the individual worker's role, restrictions and fit rather than the agency supplying them
- Refrigeration Contractor Verification, which verifies a trade contractor's technical certification rather than a labour supply arrangement
- Anything outside KnowContractor, which belongs in the workspace that owns that process
Compliance mapping
Which ISO 45001 cl.8.1 requirements does this satisfy?
ISO 45001 addresses outsourced and contracted labour directly rather than leaving it to a general duty, treating the boundary between an organisation and its labour suppliers as a place risk is known to concentrate.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1.4.2 | Coordination with contractors, including hazard communication and verification of arrangements before work begins | Header |
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1.4.3 | Outsourced functions and processes controlled so OH&S outcomes are not weakened by the arrangement | Screening |
| ISO 45001 cl.7.2 | Competence determined on the basis of appropriate education, training or experience before work is assigned | Screening |
| ISO 45001 cl.7.3 | Workers made aware of hazards, their right to remove themselves from danger, and how to report | Preparation |
| ISO 45001 cl.5.4 | Consultation and participation of workers, extended here to feedback reaching the supplying agency | Ongoing |
| ISO 45001 cl.8.1.1 | Operational planning and control establishing criteria for the process and implementing them | Result |
| ILO Forced Labour Convention (C29), indicators of forced labour | Recruitment fees, withheld pay, deception about work and restricted movement recognised as indicators requiring exclusion | Ongoing |
What it does not cover
- Temporary and Agency Worker Review, which covers the individual worker's role, restrictions and fit once placed, not the agency supplying them.
- Contractor Prequalification Questionnaire, which assesses a contractor's capability and safety programme rather than a labour supply arrangement.
- Contractor Site Induction, which briefs the individual worker on the specific site, downstream of the agency's own preparation.
- Vulnerable Worker Register, which tracks named restrictions for an individual, not the agency practice that placed them.
- The employment relationship itself, which the assessment evidences but does not create or vary.
Global
Agency Labour Provider Assessment requirements by country
Almost every regime treats the host site as retaining safety duties for agency workers regardless of who employs them, but how the agency's own conduct is regulated differs.
OSHA Temporary Worker Initiative; General Duty Clause applied to host and staffing agency
OSHA treats the host employer and the staffing agency as jointly responsible, each for the hazards it controls.
An agency's screening failure does not transfer the host's exposure hazards, and both can be cited for the same incident.
Agency Workers Regulations 2010; HSE guidance on temporary workers
The host retains day-to-day health and safety responsibility, while the agency retains employment-standard duties including pay.
A pass on this assessment is not proof of legal compliance by the agency, since employment-standard enforcement sits elsewhere.
ISO 45001 cl.8.1.4; ILO indicators of forced labour
Outsourced labour is a named operational control requirement, and recruitment fees and withheld pay are recognised exploitation indicators.
Certification auditors expect evidence the agency was actively assessed, not engaged on the strength of its own claims.
How to complete it
How to complete an agency labour provider assessment, step by step
Most of this assessment is answerable from the agency's own paperwork. The judgement calls require checking what the paperwork claims against what actually happens.
Skills claimed and language ability both carry an 'assumed' option precisely because agencies routinely present a candidate's self-description as verification. Where the option chosen is anything short of an actual check, say so plainly rather than defaulting to the comfortable answer.
Told what the job actually involves and agency induction delivered are distinct fields because a generic safety induction and a briefing on this specific task are different preparation. An agency delivering only the former has prepared a worker for a job in general, not the one they were sent to do.
No single answer among fees charged, pay transparency and modern slavery indicators absent proves exploitation alone. A pattern of partial answers across all three is the signal this section exists to surface, and should be read as a pattern before the overall band is decided.
Agency visits the site and receives incident feedback exist because supervision ending at placement leaves nobody responsible for whether the briefing given held up in practice. An agency invisible after day one has not demonstrated ongoing supervision, whatever screening showed.
What auditors find
Most common agency labour provider assessment findings
This assessment is unusual in that the agency's paperwork is nearly always in order. The findings concern whether it was tested rather than accepted.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Skills claimed or language ability marked assumed rather than assessed, with no record of how it was tested. | ISO 45001 cl.7.2 | Require a stated verification method for any competence claim before it is marked confirmed. |
| Agency induction delivered but told what the job actually involves left generic or unanswered. | ISO 45001 cl.7.3 | Score the two separately, and treat rule-briefing without task-briefing as incomplete preparation. |
| Agency has no ongoing presence at the site and receives no feedback after an incident involving its worker. | ISO 45001 cl.5.4 | Make agency visits and incident feedback a condition of continued approval, not a discretionary extra. |
| Partial answers across fee charging, pay transparency and modern slavery indicators not read as a pattern. | ILO Forced Labour Convention (C29) | Escalate two or more partial answers across these fields for independent review, regardless of overall score. |
| Right to work and identity checks completed and treated as sufficient screening on their own. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1.4.2 | Require competence and health screening to be evidenced separately from identity checks. |
| Yearly reassessment completed as a repeat of the approval answers, without re-testing current practice. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1.1 | Require the yearly assessment to reference recent placements and their outcomes, not the approval file. |
Case in point
Case in point: the agency that passed on paper every year
A distribution site's approved agency scored well on every yearly reassessment for three years: right to work checks complete, references taken, induction delivered. A new agency worker was injured operating a pallet truck in his second shift, and the investigation found he had never actually driven one before, despite the agency's file listing the skill as confirmed.
The agency had asked the candidate whether he could operate a pallet truck and recorded 'yes' as verification, and nobody at the agency or the site had watched him do it. The yearly reassessment reused the same answer each year because nothing about the agency's process had visibly changed, when what should have changed was whether skills claimed were ever tested against a demonstration rather than a self-report.
The template
The template, field by field
The form exactly as it installs. Every field, option, score and conditional rule is editable, and the links to other templates come with it.
5 sections
- Reference
- CON-047
- Archetype
- Assessment
- Record ID
- ALP-2026-000
- Scoring
- Assessment score
- Direction
- High is good
- Singleton
- Yes
- Basis
- ISO 45001 cl.8.1
- Links
- Links Temporary worker review, Induction
- Tags
- Contractor, Agency
- Sections
- 5
- Fields
- 40
- Follow up fields
- 3
- Repeating sections
- 0
- Links out
- 3
Header
9 fieldsAssessment ID*
Auto sequence. Format ALP-2026-000.
The record's own ID. Other templates point at this value.
Status*
Drives who this goes to next.
- Planned2 pts
- In progress2 pts
- Complete3 pts
- Deferred0 pts
- Open0 pts
- Closed3 pts
- Overdue0 pts
Date and Time*
Completed By*
Site*
Site ID*
Format SITE-000.
Links to FDN-001 Site ID
Contractor*
Vendor ID*
Format VEN-0000.
Links to FDN-005 Vendor ID
Where The Injury Rate Gap Starts
Agency workers are injured more often almost everywhere. The cause is upstream, in how the agency screens, briefs and supervises the people it sends.
Screening
6 fieldsRight To Work Checks Performed*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Identity Verified*
- Yes3 pts
- Assumed0 pts
References Taken*
- Yes3 pts
- No0 pts
Skills Claimed Are Verified*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Health Declaration Obtained*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Criminal Record Checks Where Required*
- Yes2 pts
- No0 pts
- N/Aexcluded from denominator
Preparation
6 fieldsAgency Induction Delivered*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Told What The Job Actually Involves*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Language Ability Assessed*
- Yes3 pts
- Assumed1 pt
- No0 pts
PPE Provided Or Arranged*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Told They Can Refuse Unsafe Work*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Told How To Report A Problem*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Ongoing
6 fieldsAgency Visits The Site*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Agency Receives Incident Feedback*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Same Workers Returned Where Possible*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Pay And Deductions Transparent*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
No Fees Charged To Workers*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Modern Slavery Indicators Absent*
- Yes3 pts
- Partly1 pt
- No0 pts
Result
13 fieldsItems Assessed*
Excludes anything marked N/A.
Items Failed*
Score Percent*
Calculated on submission. High is good. N/A items leave the denominator.
Result Band*
- Pass3 pts
- Caution1 pt
- Fail0 pts
Completeness Percent*
How much of the template was actually answered. A high score on a half completed form is not a high score.
Action Required*
Raise the action record, then enter its reference here.
- No2 pts
- Yes0 pts
Priority
- High0 pts
- Medium1 pt
- Low3 pts
CAPA ID
Format CAPA-2026-00000.
Links to FDN-014 CAPA ID
Action Owner
HR*
Signature*
Safety Lead*
Second Signature*
CON-047 · record IDs look like ALP-2026-000 · Links Temporary worker review, Induction
Open in KnowellaRun it with agents
From a document you fill in to a programme that runs itself
The assessment tests the agency once a year. What fails between assessments is the worker arriving with an unverified skill, and nobody watching for the pattern across placements.
Holds the agency assessment against every worker it has placed, and flags when a claimed skill was never independently verified.
Watches incident and near miss records for agency-supplied workers, and routes the pattern back to this assessment rather than treating events in isolation.
Links task-specific briefing gaps identified here to the site induction, so a generic agency briefing does not stand in for it.
Tracks competence verification evidence against the skill claimed, closing the gap between a self-report and a demonstrated capability.
This template lives in KnowContractor — contractor management. Prequalification, approval, induction, permits and performance.
Meet KnowContractor→Glossary
Agency Labour Provider Assessment definitions and key terms
- Right to work check
- Verification that a worker is legally permitted to work in the jurisdiction, distinct from any check of their competence for the task.
- Competence verification
- Confirming a claimed skill through demonstration or evidence, rather than accepting the candidate's or agency's own description of it.
- Indicators of forced labour
- Recognised signs including recruitment fees, withheld pay, deception about the work and restriction of movement, assessed as a pattern rather than singly.
- Joint responsibility
- The principle that host site and staffing agency each carry duties for the hazards they control, and one's compliance doesn't discharge the other's.
- Task-specific briefing
- Preparation covering the actual job assigned, distinct from a generic safety induction covering site rules in general.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about agency labour provider assessment
Why assess the agency instead of just inducting each worker?+
Induction happens once a worker is already on site, after the agency's screening and briefing gaps have already shaped who was sent and how prepared they are. Assessing the agency catches the upstream cause; inducting the worker only manages what has already arrived.
Does a right to work check cover competence too?+
No. It confirms identity and legal eligibility to work, nothing about whether a claimed skill was ever tested. Treating the two as one check is the most common way this assessment understates risk.
What if the agency's paperwork all looks correct?+
Correct paperwork answers whether the agency has a process, not whether it was followed for the specific worker sent. Verification and 'assumed' options exist because the two routinely diverge.
How seriously should a single modern slavery indicator be taken?+
A single partial answer may have an innocent explanation. Two or more across fees, pay transparency and the indicators field together should be escalated regardless of overall score, because the pattern is the signal.
Does passing last year mean this year's reassessment can be lighter?+
No. The yearly repeat exists to catch drift in an agency's actual practice, which a prior pass says nothing about. Reusing last year's answers defeats the purpose of reassessing at all.
Who is responsible if an agency worker is injured through poor screening?+
Typically both the host site and the agency carry responsibility, assessed separately against the hazards each controlled. A host site cannot rely on an agency's failure to excuse its own supervision gaps, and vice versa.
Keep going
Related templates and programmes
Industries this is written for
Programmes this belongs to
Vulnerable and Temporary Workers
Restrictions that survive a change of supervisor, and a register that makes them visible.
Contractor Onboarding and Management
Nobody through the gate without evidence, and performance that feeds the next award.
Ethics, Labour and Anti-Bribery
A reporting channel people trust, and labour risk assessed where it actually sits.
Used together in Vulnerable and Temporary Workers
Return to Work Programme Plan
Sets out how the site brings people back to work after injury or illness, covering triggers, roles, timescales and the duties that are actually available
Young Worker Risk Assessment
Assesses the additional risk to workers under eighteen, covering inexperience, awareness and prohibited tasks
New and Expectant Mother Assessment
Assesses the workplace for a worker who is pregnant, has recently given birth or is breastfeeding
Temporary and Agency Worker Review
Reviews whether agency and short term workers receive the same induction, training and supervision as permanent staff
Language and Literacy Assessment
Assesses whether safety critical information reaches people who do not read the site language fluently
Workplace Adjustment Record
Records an adjustment made so somebody can do their job safely, whatever the underlying reason
More in Specialist Contractors
Refrigeration Contractor Verification
Verifies refrigeration contractor certification, ammonia competence, emergency capability and out of hours response
Cleaning Contractor Verification
Verifies a sanitation contractor's chemical control, isolation competence, verification method and out of hours supervision
Waste Contractor Verification
Verifies waste carrier registration, destination permits and the onward chain for each waste stream
Transport Provider Assessment
Assesses a haulier for licensing, driver management, vehicle standards, temperature capability and load security
Written and reviewed by
Siddarth Singh
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Knowella
Certified Safety Professional and industrial and systems engineer with more than a decade inside food supply chain, freight and manufacturing operations. This page was written against the current text of the standards it cites, not against secondary summaries of them.
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP), Board of Certified Safety Professionals
- MBA, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
- MS and BS, The Ohio State University, Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Six Sigma Black Belt
Sources and last review. Reviewed 16 August 2026 against:
- ISO 45001:2018 clauses 8.1.4.2, 8.1.4.3, 7.2, 7.3, 5.4 and 8.1.1
- OSHA Temporary Worker Initiative and General Duty Clause guidance (US)
- Agency Workers Regulations 2010; HSE guidance on temporary workers (UK)
- ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), indicators of forced labour
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with your jurisdiction’s regulator.