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A key player within any organisation is the safety professional. These individuals are responsible for ensuring all of the people who work with your company, both employees and contractors, are provided with detailed advice to ensure the safety performance of your organisation is driven with an overall goal of zero harm. Safety professionals should therefore be able to influence at all levels within your organisation to ensure safety is kept as a key priority for your company.
It is critical that your company selects the right person for the job and that your safety professionals are able to continually develop their skills and knowledge whilst they are working with your company.
Safety Culture can help with all of these central elements – selection and recruitment, professional development and training.
Safety Coaching have over 20 years experience working with safety professionals from a wide spectrum of businesses and have the knowledge and understanding of what kind of person it takes to help improve the safety culture of your organisation and develop your own people to embed line management responsibility for safety.
Health and safety advisor jobs are central to your company achieving a zero harm workplace. If you fail to hire the right person then this can have a negative impact on your company’s current safety culture, leading to a potential rise in work related incidents. One reason that the person may not be right for your company is that they were picked solely on their technical ability and not on their communication and inter-personal skills. Another reason may be that the job specification was not correctly specified resulting in a bad fit with your current organizational maturity in safety. Those applying for the role need to understand that you are looking for someone who can implement positive sustainable safety changes in your company. The company’s expectations also need to be clearly explained to the safety professional once they are in post. Safety Coaching can provide help and advice throughout the whole selection and recruitment process.
A professional development plan is essential to ensuring that the people you have working with your company who are responsible for safety have the right tools for the job.
The UK Health and Safety Executive define a competent health and safety professional as having the correct knowledge, skill, experience and other qualities for the job. The first three elements are gained through work experience and training but it is difficult to quantify how other qualities such as being able to influence key decision makers can be developed.
Safety Coaching can provide your company with a competent person scheme that combines all four of these elements and includes bespoke training programmes that develop the communication and inter-personal skills of your key safety professionals.
A continuing professional development plan, also known as CPD, also plays a central role in ensuring the safety professional achieves the goals expected of them and they continue to develop their own personal capability. Safety Coaching will work with you to identify the long-term safety goals for your company and ensure this is included within their CPD training programme.
In order to identify the key performance criteria for their CPD training, Safety Coaching will work with either the safety professional, or their line manager, to identify their key goals. Follow up training is also provided, including personal coaching sessions, to ensure that the safety professional can now use this learning in practice. Safety Coaching can also tailor CPD to meet individual learning needs.
CPD for safety professionals is not only important to meet your company’s needs but is now a requirement across Europe and some other parts of the world. In Europe, safety practitioners should undertake CPD with at least one recognised institute for health and safety such as The International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM) or The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). CPD requirements are also becoming increasingly common in other membership bodies in the mining, construction and manufacturing industries.
Safety Coaching can provide bespoke CPD programmes for all of the people who work with your company and can advise on both your current and future needs. With effective CPD and training, Safety Coaching can ensure that your key safety goals will become integral to your whole company’s ethos and culture.
An example of the an IOSH accredited course run by Safety Coaching is their IOSH managing safely course which is a 4 day continuous course (although it can be amended to any combination of 4 days to suit your business needs). The trainers, IOSH safety coaches, have extensive managerial experience in key safety positions providing a vital personal insight into the role of safety professional.
The course is designed to give managers, supervisors or foremen the information and skills they need to tackle everyday health and safety issues they may meet in the workplace.
It is designed to give practical step-by-step guidance to help the learners deal with any emergency situation. The hands on learning is full of practical knowledge and tips that the learners can use immediately when they return to work. The experience gained by the learners can also be used to motivate and inspire other people who work with your company, both employees and contractors, as the learning can be shared on their return to the workplace.
The course is formally assessed to make sure the learners have understood the training (both in theory and in practice) and all learners will receive an IOSH Managing safely certificate on successful completion.
Another benefit of this course is that health, safety and environmental basics are all covered under one programme saving your company both time and money by not having to send employees to multiple training courses.
Client feedback:-
Paul Bradley – Health and Safety Manager, Myers Group
I have worked with Rob closely for a number of years in various roles. I have always been very impressed with Rob’s vast knowledge of industry health and safety, but most importantly he is an excellent communicator.
Rob has also played a major role in my personal development as a health and safety professional. His support and guidance over the last 18 months has been invaluable.
I would recommend Rob to any business seriously looking to improve their health and safety culture
Richard Webster (CMIOSH) – Head of H&S UKSMR Ltd
I was introduced to Rob nearly a year ago to mentor and develop the UK Coal Surface Mining H&S team.
It became apparent from probably the first session that he was in a different class and worked at a level far exceeding anything we had done before.
He first looked at our strengths and weaknesses and established a risk based strategy across the division.
He then set up mentoring to each individual so we could write, deliver and monitor new corporate procedures according to the level of risk.
This involved the production of 26 new procedures implemented across the company in 9 months. As part of this programme we personally communicated all requirements to relevant personnel, this ensured the correct level of understanding and workforce acceptance was achieved.
During this time Rob also took charge of the divisions H & S department promoting strategy, introducing a climate survey, and development plans for each person within the team.
Rob’s work amongst a culture of risk takers has halved LTIFR in only 9 months.
On a personal note I would like to thank Rob for making me more professional, more confident and a better safety practitioner
Stuart Sharp QHSE Manager at Magma Ceramics and Catalysts
I recently attended the IOSH Effective Safety Coach and Mentor course developed and delivered by Rob Shore and Simon Taylor of Safety Coaching. I have to say it was probably the most enjoyable, thought provoking and potentially valuable course I have ever attended. Both the content and delivery of the course was excellent.
I can’t recommend it enough, it is a MUST for all safety professionals
Click on the following links for further information on how Safety Coaching can help develop the role of the safety professional within your organisation:
http://www.safetycoaching.co.uk/recruitment.html
http://www.safetycoaching.co.uk/professional-development.html
http://www.safetycoaching.co.uk/training-courses.html