Fancy a career move?
June 1st 2004 The career health and safety professional is changing. They are better qualified, more influential and probably more professional in approach than ever before. They have more choices in terms of how and where they decide to spend their career, and are taking greater care in making them.
Moving from one industry to another is not difficult. Often the common challenges in one type of work can be a refreshing new approach in another, more than compensating for the absence of industry specific experience. Greater flexibility in the workplace means that people are able to choose to work as contractors or part-timers rather than full-time employees. The variety and quality of the different types work is as important to many contractors as the money they earn. Free to create a work/life balance that suits them they can enjoy the interesting new challenges they face in every role with less chance of burn-out and boredom.
Not too long ago the health and safety officer was seen as a refugee from declining manufacturing industries. Their experience of shop floor issues and effective manner with workers and management meant they were strong on the policing and enforcing of regulations, keeping employers legally compliant and workers safety aware. While still essential, the professional now demonstrates greater commercial awareness and a more proactive approach. This can be seen in areas such as safety audits, stress management and manual handling issues, all government concerns receiving considerable HSE attention.
This increased status is reflected in remuneration and qualifications. Salaries offered by the most senior positions handled by Principal People have topped 70k and packages in excess of 40k are not exceptional. Average salary for the under 25s this year was around 22k, and for the 25 to 35 age group it was 31k. An analysis of our placements shows that incomes peaked at 42k in the 35 45 age range.
The value of good work experience in health and safety leaves the profession more accepting of mature recruits; our oldest placement last year was 61, and almost a quarter of successful candidates were over 50 years old. The work history of these veterans is full of diversity and one in ten has been in the armed forces and 63 per cent in construction. More than half had experience in training of some sort and a fifth had worked with local authorities. Our youngest placement was 22. She had a years experience in health and safety and started her new job with a financial institution within 2 months of registration. This is not always the happy outcome, and many newcomers starting a career in health and safety struggle with the Catch 22 of no experience therefore no job, therefore no experience.
When in need of a new challenge, a health and safety professional can pack up his training, his work experience and his professional memberships and move on. The transferability of health and safety skills from industry to industry has for many people been key in revitalising careers and finding fresh new challenges.
Moving from engineering to Shakespearean drama is not as great a leap as first appears. Interpreting and enforcing health and safety guidelines is to do with training and awareness, and as relevant in engineering as it is in King Lear. Les Pearce MIOSH RSP, joined the engineering giant BTH at 15 as an electrical and mechanical student apprentice. As the company evolved into Alstom Power Conversion, Less position as senior site operations engineer took on a progressively stronger health and safety orientation; in 1991 he became the full time health and safety manager.
At 60 years old, he left Alstom to protect the status of his pension. During the course of a fixed-term employment contract with the Royal Shakespeare Company Les found that the production of large electrical machines and system control technology and the production of Shakespearean plays had much in common in health and safety terms.
It was equally important to maintain a culture in which safety best practice was adopted. At Alstom the static population of employees was expected to follow strict compliance of the health and safety rules. In theatre there is an enormous variety of responsibility ranging from safety of the public audiences and the back stage staff to the compliance with regulations of various businesses and properties owned and managed by the company.
Principal People has helped health and safety professionals move across all kinds of industries. Few companies still assume they should necessarily recruit health and safety from their own sector, and most accept the benefits of the fresh approach. Creating a new beginning, with a tool kit of experience and training is quite practical, and often with unexpected benefits for both employer and the candidate. More articles from Principal People: | 
