The reference document on external companies
The INRS publishes a reference page dedicated to the regulatory framework for external companies, covering all obligations related to the prevention plan, from the initial joint inspection to the minimum content required by the Labor Code. This page is the most reliable starting point for understanding the overall logic of the system before diving into the details of the texts.
The INRS has also published a dedicated brochure, referenced as ED 941, focused on the intervention of external companies and designed as a cheat sheet for preventing risks related to co-activity.
A ready-to-use prevention plan template
The INRS document portal features a prevention plan template developed by CARSAT Rhône-Alpes, accompanied by a user guide. This document allows the user company to formalize both the general measures applicable to all external companies involved and the specific measures unique to each company based on the reality of their intervention, according to the INRS document portal. This type of template, created following the preliminary site visit involving all relevant external companies, remains a useful working base, provided it is adapted to the reality of each site.
Online tools for smaller organizations
Beyond the prevention plan itself, the INRS offers OiRA tools, a collection of free online resources that allow small businesses to conduct risk assessments, create their single document, and develop their prevention action plans, according to the INRS toolspage. These tools do not replace a formal prevention plan, but they do structure the risk assessment process that informs it.
How to move from paper templates to structured tracking ?
A document template, no matter how well-designed, remains a static foundation. As soon as a company manages multiple external contractors simultaneously, tracking certifications, cumulative hour thresholds, and update dates becomes difficult to manage reliably using a simple Word file filled out manually for each job. This is precisely the stage where a dedicated tool takes over from the INRS template, without compromising its logic. We detail this transition in our article on the digitization of the prevention plan.
For the complete drafting method, beyond just templates, our prevention plan guide remains the primary reference to consult.
