When I left school I always had in my mind two careers that I wanted to get into. These were joining the police and becoming a detective and the other was being a primary school teacher. I ended up getting into health and safety because I enjoyed and wanted to help people and when I think about it health and safety involves aspects of both the police and a teacher so I think subconsciously this is what helped me make my decision.
A few years ago I worked for Skanska FM and they introduced me to health and safety and were extremely supportive with my involvement/progression. I joined the Injury Free Environment (IFE) initiative and helped teach it to staff at various sites round the country. I really enjoyed this and decided that health and safety was what I wanted to do for a living. From there on I took various qualifications and ended up working with a great team at Derby Hospitals as a Health and Safety Advisor.
I am currently a HSQE (Health Safety Quality and Environment) Manager for a supply chain company called Altius Vendor Assessments. I really enjoy this role as it is not only varied but very interesting. One day I can be speaking at seminars on current health and safety topics and the next I can be out at a business helping them as a consultant.
I like the fact that it is diverse. I help people with all different types of issues such as the environment, security, fire – you name it. Currently we are offering pubs and breweries a health and safety package to help take some of the work load off them and help create safer workplaces.
I would say dealing with people’s misconceptions of health and safety and trying to change them for the better. For example, I was speaking with a contractor on site recently who told me at the last site he went to if he went up above two steps on a ladder the site rule was to use scaffolding instead for health and safety reasons. This type of thing gets people’s backs up and in my opinion is over the top and not reasonably practicable.
I take time to read websites such as SHP, take 5 minutes to read any health and safety e-mail updates and watch as many webinars on the topics as possible. Recently I created a webinar for Altius on ‘The EU & its Impact on UK Health and Safety’. This helped me thoroughly research the topic and get to grips with the arguments. Once a month spend half an hour updating my CPD and see what I can do to improve my skill set for the next month.
I think it’s the way you treat them. Like anything, customer services is king. If people are treated with respect, you’re polite and really take the time to explain why you are doing something and for what benefit, then they seem to warm to it and are more likely to work with you.
I am very humbled and appreciative of being shortlisted and it was totally unexpected. I have spent a lot of my own money and time over the last 2 years to dedicate myself to my health and safety career and have taken on various voluntary roles in the Union, police force and local schools to try to use my knowledge to help them.
It hasn’t been easy and there has been a few stumbling blocks on the way but with the help and support of my wife I have really enjoyed helping people out, and at the end of the day this is the reason why I do it and will hopefully carry on doing this for a very long time
Just be dedicated, read and watch videos on health and safety topics and keep learning. Get involved in different areas of health and safety to build up your experience and remember that you are making a difference to people’s lives by putting things in place to keep them safe.
Advance your career in health and safety
Browse hundreds of jobs in health and safety, brought to you by SHP4Jobs, and take your next steps as a consultant, health and safety officer, environmental advisor, health and wellbeing manager and more.
Or, if you’re a recruiter, post jobs and use our database to discover the most qualified candidates.
