Enhanced Safety Partnership
McCain Foods and ISN Celebrate 10 Years of Partnering for Contractor Safety
McCain Foods and ISN have marked 10 years of working together on contractor safety and worker verification, the companies announced on June 2, 2026. GlobeNewswire reported that since joining ISN in 2016, McCain has grown from basic contractor record-keeping to a system that checks individual workers in real time before they set foot on a job site.
ISN connects 900 hiring clients with more than 90,000 active contractors across 85 countries, according to GlobeNewswire. Kim Ritchie, ISN's Executive VP of Canadian Operations, said McCain "exemplifies how long-term partnerships grounded in shared values, such as safety and transparency, can help drive real, measurable outcomes."
From Paper Files to Real-Time Worker Checks
When McCain first joined ISN in April 2016, the goal was simple: get contractor paperwork in one place. The company was headquartered in Florenceville, New Brunswick, and managing contractors across global sites was messy. Over the next decade, McCain moved from basic pre-qualification to checking individual workers' training records before they could enter a site, according to GlobeNewswire.
The shift was driven by rising safety and regulatory pressure on food manufacturers. McCain's internal "Strong Foundations" culture required that third-party contractors meet the same safety standards as full-time employees. That meant building systems that could verify a worker's certifications — like forklift training or site orientation — in seconds rather than days.
API Links and Purchase Orders That Block Unsafe Contractors
The most significant technical step came when McCain connected its purchasing systems directly to ISN's platform using an API — a digital bridge that lets two software systems share data automatically. Buyers inside McCain can now see a contractor's safety grade in real time while processing a purchase order. If a grade drops or insurance lapses, the system can stop the order from going through, according to GlobeNewswire.
This "stop-work" logic built into purchasing is a major shift. It removes the need for a manager to manually check compliance before approving work. It also shifts power toward the hiring company — a contractor can effectively lose access to McCain's business the moment a single safety metric falls short.
Mobile App Puts Worker Credentials in One Place
In the final years of the partnership, McCain deployed ISN's Empower® app across its sites. The app lets individual workers store their training credentials — certifications, safety courses, site orientations — on their phones. When they arrive at a McCain facility, staff can verify their readiness instantly rather than flipping through paper records, according to GlobeNewswire.
This moves contractor oversight from the company level down to the individual worker. A contractor firm might be fully approved, but an individual on that crew could still be blocked from entering a site if their personal training record is incomplete. Industry analysts describe this as workers carrying a "digital passport" of skills in 2026.
Smaller Contractors See a Double-Edged System
The tools benefit established contractors who already meet high safety standards — they get faster approvals and more consistent access to large clients like McCain. But smaller contractors often see the ISN subscription fees and detailed document requirements as a heavy burden. For a small trades firm, keeping every worker's digital record current across multiple platforms takes real time and money.
The broader labor market adds pressure too. The construction and maintenance industry needs an estimated 349,000 net new workers in 2026, according to industry data. With average hourly pay at $40.97, hiring clients like McCain want to onboard workers quickly — but the verification tools mean speed cannot come at the cost of safety checks.
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