Building careers
June 1st 2005 Health, safety and environmental services take on as many forms as there are industries requiring them. In manufacturing the challenges are noise, machine guarding and handarm vibration. Office based health and safety officers deal with work station ergonomics and DSE issues. In construction the health and safety role crosses almost every issue of major concern, a fact underlined by its record of accidents and injuries. In the construction division of Principal People, the health and safety recruitment specialist, Alistair Attwood has the job of finding the people to fill the vacancies. Most of the jobs which cross his desk pay between £30k and £35k, and almost 10 per cent break into the £40k band. While the money is there and the challenge too, it is frequently a struggle to fill some jobs in this booming industry.
The vast majority of vacancies are in the South East and the greatest shortages of people to fill them are in Greater London, Berkshire and the Western Home Counties.
While construction may pay marginally more than other industries, the big difference is in the nature of the working environment. Construction is dangerous and people do get hurt; health and safety professionals must be prepared to deal with real risk and real accidents in an industry known for long hours and its macho culture.’ The upside of construction is the satisfaction of being part of a major building or civil engineering project and seeing it through to a safe conclusion. While many health and safety professionals work on major developments like these, others have regional responsibilities for a number of projects and have to ensure uniform standards of working across all locations.
The job does present real challenges, and a Principal People survey of health and safety professionals working in construction revealed concerns ranging from the common use of temporary workers and contractors and inadequate training to conflicts of interest between the safety function and site management.
The survey was conducted by Principal People before it launched its construction division last year. Almost 60people with health and safety management experience in construction were questioned in confidence about their concerns, and revealed many lapses in safety in this dangerous and highly regulated working environment.
Almost half of the respondents stated that they were not given the authority and resources they needed to do their jobs, and over a quarter were concerned that employers did not offer adequate health and safety training. PPE regulations were not strictly enforced on site according to almost 40 per cent of those surveyed and 88 per cent believed that safety might be compromised in the absence of full time health and safety staff. Other concerns included regulatory compliance and working practices, and every respondent in the survey agreed that more could be done to make construction safer.
While many commented that greater management accountability and liability would be beneficial in reducing accidents, 75 per cent of respondents agreed that sometimes accidents happen which are nobody’s fault, and for which it is therefore inappropriate to apportion blame.
Alistair Attwood has been in construction related recruitment for 14 years, and joined Principal People last year to form the Construction Division. ‘As well as across the UK, we handle recruitment in the Middle East, particularly in Dubai’s construction boom, as well as placements across Europe. It is a challenging sector of health, safety and environment work, and if you are good you can progress quickly.’ It is a job seekers’ market in the South East at the moment, and Alistair will be happy to help anyone looking to gain experience in this sector. Some of the people in construction health and safety settle happily into it from other industries, and some move into health and safety after a first career in a construction related trade. People interested in taking this route often become safety reps while staying in their former role, and take the NEBOSH General Certificate and a Construction Certificate before switching careers.
For more information Alistair Attwood is contactable
span class="highlight"> Principal People was the first recruitment consultancy to specialise in health, safety and environmental recruitment back in the 1990’s, and last year the company worked with almost 2000 people, either registering them onto its database or placing them into jobs.
Although recruitment and search and selection is its core business, Principal People also offers a range of training courses from manual handling to health and safety awareness, as well as consultancy services for all health and safety issues.
Principal People operates nationally and internationally from offices in Surrey.
Further information: 01932 568344 or www.hsmsearch.com Principal People Ltd 51-53 Guildford Street Chertsey Surrey KT16 9BA More articles from First Principal Group Ltd: | 
