Streamlining Contractor Onboarding for Automotive Companies

Why onboarding external contractors has been so slow historically and how things are changing for today's automotive players.

Hiring
23.1.24
Robert Laukas

A major challenge for automotive companies is onboarding individual contractors quickly enough. The main challenges are the long waiting times, tedious processes and complex legal requirements. Everything that's challenging for an individual external contractor to manage.


However, individual contractors are very much needed today. They bring speed, outside expertise and flexibility. Compare this to large engineering firms that are brought on for a project and many times run over-cost, with little flexibility once a project is defined.

The process of becoming an individual contractor for a large automotive company

The main thing you need to do to start working with a large automotive company as an individual contractor is becoming an official supplier. This usually involve the following steps:

  1. Meeting with the engineering team: Find the demand for your expertise, and convince them you are the best candidate for the job.
  2. Meeting with procurement: Usually, and engineer will recommend you to the procurement part of the organisation, and you will meet with the buyer that handles the budget for the project.
  3. Acquiring the necessary certifications: Many times, you will be needing ISO 9001, ISO 27001, TISAX, or TPISR to become an approved vendor.
  4. Signing agreements & accepting terms: For this, you might need legal help to navigate the different terms, such as an NDA (non-disclouse agreement) or sign other liability agreements.
  5. Navigate back to the original project: If you are lucky, the original project you were invited to is still active and you can start working.

Many times, this process can take months to years, which harms both the individual contractor, as well as the automotive company since neither can start collaborating until the bureaucracy is out of the way.

Hashlist: An alternative

Hashlist provides an immediate alternative, through which external contractors can immediately begin contracting by registering through Hashlist. This works when Hashlist already has a vendor code with the automotive company, which is usually the case since Hashlist is the leading marketplace for external contractors specialised for the mobility & automotive sector.

The automotive company also benefits by accessing the Hashlist on-demand pool, which already has thousands of mobility-specialised vetted, expert engineers. Instead of taking the individual contractor through the entire supplier process, they can start working immediately.

This means that:

✔️ Automotive companies transform faster,

✔️ External contractors are employed quicker, and

✔️ There is less paperwork.

Are you ready to give it a try?