What are Flags?

Introduction

Many clients choose to implement “Flags”. Flags are used in the Highwire application to highlight specific areas of risk. The following is a list of common safety flags adopted by clients:

Average EMR > 1.0
Most Recent Year’s EMR > 1.0
Average TRIR >25% above the industry average
Average DART rate >25% above the industry average
Serious, Repeat, or Willful OSHA violations
Other than serious OSHA violations
Fatality in the last three years

Flags will be enabled from a standard set of Highwire flags, but the "triggers" for the flags and the "type" of flag (i.e., critical or caution) are configured specifically by your client.

Types of Flags

Critical (Red) Flags: These flags are considered to be more serious. Typically, critical flags must be addressed before a contractor is engaged and/or before work begins on site.

Caution (Yellow) Flags: These flags are considered less serious. A client will review these flags, and if they represent a risk based on the scope or scale of a contractor's work, the flag will be addressed before the contractor is engaged and/or begins work on site.

In addition to the common "lagging indicator" flags described above, any client question/requirement can be managed as a flag. In the screenshot below, the three yellow flags are associated with client-specific questions. In this case, your client has set up flags for a Quality Control program, a Stop-Work program, and fall protection criteria; as noted, this contractor has triggered flags for these three client-specific criteria.

Flags in the Contractors View

Where do users see flags throughout the Highwire platform? Flags are visible to you and your clients in several places throughout the platform. Although recent changes to flags are summarized in a callout on a client's Home tab, they are best viewed in more detail in the Contractors view.

Please note that not all users have access to the Home tab. If you believe you should have access, please contact the EHS lead on your worksite to have your permissions updated.

When you hover over the flags for a specific contractor, you will see a description of the flags they have triggered:

Flags and the Contractor Approval Process

For those clients that have established an automatic approval process, flags are the mechanism to implement that process:

If a contractor has a safety score above 80 and no critical (red) flags, a contractor may be automatically approved.
If a contractor has a safety score above 80 but one or more critical flags, the contractor's approval status is automatically set to "Safety Review Required." This indicates to any client user that action is required before awarding work to this contractor and/or before allowing this contractor to begin work on site. The action that will be taken typically involves making sure that the critical flag has been addressed satisfactorily in the client's eyes.

Flags in Projects

Since many clients and General Contractors manage their contractors through Highwire's Projects tab, flags are also prominently displayed throughout the project workflow for easy reference and comparison among bidders:

In the project bid list step:

In the project safety approval step:

And, in the contract award step:

It is important to note that not all GC users will have access to all of these types of flags. Some GC users will not have access to flags at all. If you believe you should have access to Safety profile flags, please reach out to the EHS lead on your worksite to have your permissions updated.