What is a Health and Safety professional?

There are few positions more important in your company than that of safety professional. Even though it may seem obvious, through the implementation of a risk management system and working with your staff, a safety professional provides support, advice, mentoring, statistical data and, sometimes, even wields a big stick to protect employees, the product or service, the public and the company’s reputation.

The safety professional background can be as diverse as engineering, medical, law, health sciences and/or from the shop floor. Coming from many disciplines the professional knows the impact of that safety at work can have on not only the injured person but the co-workers, the family, communities and in some case the public who are impacted by the workplace environments.

The titles under which the professionals work vary depending on the industry, country and company. For example, OHS (Occupational Health & Safety) Manager, OHS Officer, OHS Advisor, OHS Coordinator, OHS Facilitator, EHS (Environmental Health & Safety) Manager, EHS Coordinator, EHS Facilitator, EHS Advisor, QEHS (Quality Environmental Health & Safety) Manager, QEHS Coordinator and QEHS Facilitator and QEHS Advisor. Let’s not forget Injury Management (IM) skills and, then they may be called QEHS & IM or Return to Work Coordinator (RTW).