What is a Health and Safety Officer

Mimojo

Hi all

Can anyone tell me what exactly a Health and Safety Officer is?! What does the job entail, what does this person do on a day to day basis. Are there any specific qualifications needed? In terms of a retail environment what would the job be?

Thanks!

donkey balls

you would normally need a degree in H&S to be an officer as for the day to day workings you would be required to do audits on your companies premises,keep up to date on new regs issued by the HSA word safety statements etc.

Mimojo

Is it possible to do this role without a formal qualification? With in-house training provided?

donkey balls

afaik you can be a safety rep for your company but to carry out the function as an H&S officer you must have some formal education in H&S.
my mate is an officer(did 4 years in ucd) and i would know the basics comming from a mgmt/operational side of things.

Mimojo

Thanks db, that is v. helpful. A friend of mine has recently stated working in a large retailer, and they have offered them the role of H&S officer as the present employee doing the role in retiring. They dont have a formal qualification in H&S, but would have some transferable skills to do this job, and the company have said they will pay for training. Is this the norm, or would companies general recruit specifically for such a role for someone with a qualification?

donkey balls

my mate started out as a safety rep within their company and the company paid for the training, as for H&S officers i reckon from experience in my own industry that people who have field experience make the best ones,if your mate has transferable skills it will make it easier also people who get degrees in H&S then branch out into specific areas/industries normally requiring futher training depending on the company ops.

Mimojo

Cheers for that db, your advice and experience is much appreciated and v.helpful!

questionmark?

A NAZI KILLJOY :mad:

Mimojo

questionmark? wrote: »

A NAZI KILLJOY :mad:

A Healthy and Safety Officer = A Nazi Kiljoy? Do tell!

donkey balls

boozelerooze wrote: »

Cheers for that db, your advice and experience is much appreciated and v.helpful!

no worries here is a link to the HSA http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Legislation/ get your mate to have a look at it as certain legistlation changes, for the last fourteen years i have been updating that stupid brain of mine with company&EU legistlation if only i could get a memory card like i have for my moby:D

questionmark?

boozelerooze wrote: »

A Healthy and Safety Officer = A Nazi Kiljoy? Do tell!

The whole over the top 'elf and safety thingy just annoys me. Not a helpful post i know.:o

donkey balls

boozelerooze wrote: »

A Healthy and Safety Officer = A Nazi Kiljoy? Do tell!

oh thats another thing i forgot to tell you in order to be an effective H&S officer you must be able to comunicate with people,explain to them the reasons for implimenting changes in work practises etc.

Mimojo

donkey balls wrote: »

no worries here is a link to the HSA http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Legislation/ get your mate to have a look at it as certain legistlation changes, for the last fourteen years i have been updating that stupid brain of mine with company&EU legistlation if only i could get a memory card like i have for my moby:D

When are they going to invent "brain" memory cards? I am def going to sign up for one - Sounds like an excellent idea!

questionmark? wrote: »

The whole over the top 'elf and safety thingy just annoys me. Not a helpful post i know.:o

Ah you are prob right - Guess they just have to be this way with all the legislation to be complying with!

Mimojo

Anyone else have any advice on this???

Mimojo

Or anyone know what the salary for this post is??

KillerKity

My friend is qualified in this area and can't for love nor money get even an unpaid fas placement. Seems to be pretty hard to break into

griffin100

Its an area that's very oversubscribed with 'qualified persons' at the minute. The colleges are churning them out and there are lots of unemployed h&s officers looking for work who were let go from construction and other industries.

The law requires that to advise your employer on matters of safety that you must be compotent - i.e. have both experience and training / qualifications. Its common enough for people with a lot of experience in one area to be appointed as a safety officer and to do the safety training to complement their experience. At a minimum you would usually need a diploma (usually 2yrs part time) to be considered compotent, although if you work in a low risk environment then a certificate might suffice.

In brief safety officers keep their employers out of court by ensuring that they comply with safety law, of which there is a huge amount.

Salary varies. Entry level you're probably looking at late teens early twenties. If you have years of experience and can also manage additional areas such as risk management, enviromental issues, etc then the salaries rise. During the construction boom construction safety officers would have been on around €40k an average but that's come way down now.

As pointed out above you need to be a good commnicator and be able to deal with the typical 'elf and safety' type ****e that you get from some people (which to be fair is well deserved by some safety officers). You'll also need a thick skin.

donkey balls

depends on the company normally start at around 40k depending on the company size and if they pay their staff well, my mates company pay around the 60k mark.

Mimojo

donkey balls wrote: »

depends on the company normally start at around 40k depending on the company size and if they pay their staff well, my mates company pay around the 60k mark.

KillerKity wrote: »

My friend is qualified in this area and can't for love nor money get even an unpaid fas placement. Seems to be pretty hard to break into

griffin100 wrote: »

Its an area that's very oversubscribed with 'qualified persons' at the minute. The colleges are churning them out and there are lots of unemployed h&s officers looking for work who were let go from construction and other industries.

The law requires that to advise your employer on matters of safety that you must be compotent - i.e. have both experience and training / qualifications. Its common enough for people with a lot of experience in one area to be appointed as a safety officer and to do the safety training to complement their experience. At a minimum you would usually need a diploma (usually 2yrs part time) to be considered compotent, although if you work in a low risk environment then a certificate might suffice.

In brief safety officers keep their employers out of court by ensuring that they comply with safety law, of which there is a huge amount.

Salary varies. Entry level you're probably looking at late teens early twenties. If you have years of experience and can also manage additional areas such as risk management, enviromental issues, etc then the salaries rise. During the construction boom construction safety officers would have been on around €40k an average but that's come way down now.

As pointed out above you need to be a good commnicator and be able to deal with the typical 'elf and safety' type ****e that you get from some people (which to be fair is well deserved by some safety officers). You'll also need a thick skin.

Cheers for the comments, very helpful indeed.

So can a person go into a job and do their cert/diploma on the job, or are they required to have this before they start off? The post I am referring to is in the retail environment so would assume that this is a more low risk environment compared to others. From what I gather this h&s officer will be dealing with issues mainly relating to the EHO and other standards required in retail.

So from what you said a company is required by law to have a h&s officer in house? Is this always a full time requirement? And is it based on the amount of staff employed?

griffin100

So can a person go into a job and do their cert/diploma on the job, or are they required to have this before they start off? The post I am referring to is in the retail environment so would assume that this is a more low risk environment compared to others. From what I gather this h&s officer will be dealing with issues mainly relating to the EHO and other standards required in retail.

So from what you said a company is required by law to have a h&s officer in house? Is this always a full time requirement? And is it based on the amount of staff employed?

A company is not required to have an inhouse safety officer, however all employers are required to appoint in writing a competent person to advise them on health and safety (this can be inhouse or external). Its common enough for someone to act as a safety officer whilst getting a formal qualification at the same time. If there was any issue about such a persons competence then the resposnsbility would lie with the employer and not with the 'unqualified' safety person. An employer cannot legally blame their safety officer (qualified or otherwise) if the employer fails to prevent an accident in the workplace.

Ophelia7

boozelerooze wrote: »

Hi all

Can anyone tell me what exactly a Health and Safety Officer is?! What does the job entail, what does this person do on a day to day basis. Are there any specific qualifications needed? In terms of a retail environment what would the job be?

Thanks!

If you need to ask.....

Yeah you will need a specific qualification for this and then take refresher courses while you are working to keep you up to date with policy and procedure with regards health and safety because its always changing. your fás office will be able to advise you on courses

Mimojo

griffin100 wrote: »

A company is not required to have an inhouse safety officer, however all employers are required to appoint in writing a competent person to advise them on health and safety (this can be inhouse or external). Its common enough for someone to act as a safety officer whilst getting a formal qualification at the same time. If there was any issue about such a persons competence then the resposnsbility would lie with the employer and not with the 'unqualified' safety person. An employer cannot legally blame their safety officer (qualified or otherwise) if the employer fails to prevent an accident in the workplace.

Ophelia7 wrote: »

If you need to ask.....

Yeah you will need a specific qualification for this and then take refresher courses while you are working to keep you up to date with policy and procedure with regards health and safety because its always changing. your fás office will be able to advise you on courses

Cheers for the advice guys, much appreciated

wild heather

KillerKity wrote: »

My friend is qualified in this area and can't for love nor money get even an unpaid fas placement. Seems to be pretty hard to break into

I, too am qualified and have work experience in this area and can't get work. I'm an unemployed Safety Officer for over 2 yrs now. :eek:
Did your friend get a job yet?

To answer the original question, work experience is key, the course will teach the law but theory and practice are very different. You need to know how to communicate to all levels of the organisation (I've had to tell directors off for not following the rules like everyone else), and remain neutral in your post. You must also work for the company and not for your own ego, H&S carries a lot of responsibility and autonomy, and if incline, someone could become power mad (my manager did) so watch out or it'll backfire on you. Otherwise the job will become even harder than it already can be. You need to have good judgement, remain objective and very professional all the time. Confidentiality is extreme important, we rarely named our sources to each other even in the confines of h&s meetings.
You need to be diplomatic and know when to push and when to stop pushing, and very very patient. Not all adults behave like adults, more often or not they behave like indulged children, in the past, I said no to people for the first time in their lives.
Your colleagues will go over your head to get what they want and that is hard to take, esp. if you put so much effort into treating everyone the same but, that is the job and don't let it get to you.
You will also be treated like a cost so keep an eye on spending and get at least 3 quotes for any purchase.
BTW recently I applied for a clerical post with local goverment and I found out that job paid more than I got as a h&s officer in a private company
You also must bear in mind what is required by law and what is required by the insurance company, a lot of "h+s" - labelled stuff is actually required to get insurance for the company.
oh and enjoy .....

donkey balls

wild heather wrote: »

I, too am qualified and have work experience in this area and can't get work. I'm an unemployed Safety Officer for over 2 yrs now. :eek:
Did your friend get a job yet?

To answer the original question, work experience is key, the course will teach the law but theory and practice are very different. You need to know how to communicate to all levels of the organisation (I've had to tell directors off for not following the rules like everyone else), and remain neutral in your post. You must also work for the company and not for your own ego, H&S carries a lot of responsibility and autonomy, and if incline, someone could become power mad (my manager did) so watch out or it'll backfire on you. Otherwise the job will become even harder than it already can be. You need to have good judgement, remain objective and very professional all the time. Confidentiality is extreme important, we rarely named our sources to each other even in the confines of h&s meetings.
You need to be diplomatic and know when to push and when to stop pushing, and very very patient. Not all adults behave like adults, more often or not they behave like indulged children, in the past, I said no to people for the first time in their lives.
Your colleagues will go over your head to get what they want and that is hard to take, esp. if you put so much effort into treating everyone the same but, that is the job and don't let it get to you.
You will also be treated like a cost so keep an eye on spending and get at least 3 quotes for any purchase.
BTW recently I applied for a clerical post with local goverment and I found out that job paid more than I got as a h&s officer in a private company
You also must bear in mind what is required by law and what is required by the insurance company, a lot of "h+s" - labelled stuff is actually required to get insurance for the company.
oh and enjoy .....

Spot on and 100% true regarding dealing with people also having a degree with no field experience is not worth the paper it's printed on.
People should try and look at other industries beside the construction industry the likes of the petro chemical industry do be looking for people while my friend was doing some field work experience as part of the college course he was offered a full time position with a major petrol company here.

wild heather

donkey balls wrote: »

wild heather wrote: »

I, too am qualified and have work experience in this area and can't get work. I'm an unemployed Safety Officer for over 2 yrs now. :eek:
Did your friend get a job yet?

To answer the original question, work experience is key, the course will teach the law but theory and practice are very different. You need to know how to communicate to all levels of the organisation (I've had to tell directors off for not following the rules like everyone else), and remain neutral in your post. You must also work for the company and not for your own ego, H&S carries a lot of responsibility and autonomy, and if incline, someone could become power mad (my manager did) so watch out or it'll backfire on you. Otherwise the job will become even harder than it already can be. You need to have good judgement, remain objective and very professional all the time. Confidentiality is extreme important, we rarely named our sources to each other even in the confines of h&s meetings.
You need to be diplomatic and know when to push and when to stop pushing, and very very patient. Not all adults behave like adults, more often or not they behave like indulged children, in the past, I said no to people for the first time in their lives.
Your colleagues will go over your head to get what they want and that is hard to take, esp. if you put so much effort into treating everyone the same but, that is the job and don't let it get to you.
You will also be treated like a cost so keep an eye on spending and get at least 3 quotes for any purchase.
BTW recently I applied for a clerical post with local goverment and I found out that job paid more than I got as a h&s officer in a private company
You also must bear in mind what is required by law and what is required by the insurance company, a lot of "h+s" - labelled stuff is actually required to get insurance for the company.
oh and enjoy .....[/QUOTE

Spot on and 100% true regarding dealing with people also having a degree with no field experience is not worth the paper it's printed on.
People should try and look at other industries beside the construction industry the likes of the petro chemical industry do be looking for people while my friend was doing some field work experience as part of the college course he was offered a full time position with a major petrol company here.

Your friend was very lucky. I've even applied for WPP2 jobs in pharma & they didn't even bother to get back to me. From my understanding, h&s teams in different industries are very small and there is a lot of competition even from none-h&s background into h&s, esp an applicant has the "right" work history e.g previously worked in more high risk industries - an oil rig or nuclear energy.
I do have to say tho' that I wonder why people would want to work in a battlefield, such is h&s!!!

donkey balls

Nah sure he turned the job down as he had a full time job all ready during the boom alot of H&S poeple worked in the construction industry,To get into the energy sector might require you to specialise in a certain discipline within that sector.
Saying that the energy/petro chemical sector is hard to get into I'm currently working for a well known company(agency work) and because of the training and work experience I have gained it will open other doors in the industry that normally would be closed and bolted.