Snapshot Profile of an HSE Expert

An HSE expert applies his knowledge and skills to create and promote a positive health and safety culture. This plays a key role in helping control occupational risk, often the culprit behind lack of productivity.

HSE advisers offer services across a range of organizations, from multinationals to small consultancies, and often work in unison with employers, employees, directors and trade unions.

Job Nature and Description for a Health, Safety and Environment Manager

The Health, Safety and Environment field is critical to progress, since the well-being of the workers guarantees a more productive day, every day. Because of the importance of this field, a lot of niches have evolved from it, eg.

• OSHA job description that serves the Safety and Health Administration in the US
• HSN job description that serves the Health Safety Net
• HSU job description that serves the Health & Safety Union.

Albeit, let’s explore the core HSE job description in detail.

Skill-Set & Competencies

The skill-set required for the HSE job description is quite demanding, primarily because most aspects of the job are brain-intensive.

Strong Interpersonal Skills

The resource is constantly required to interact with business leaders and local & federal political hotshots, the resource needs to possess strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build rapport from the very first meeting.

Communication Skills

For the same reason, the HSE adviser also needs to have excellent communication skills, written and verbal.

Conflict Resolution and Problem Solving

Often occupational hazards arise, and usually the first person to be allowed to “visit the hazard scene” is the HSE expert. Hence, to be able to identify the problem and solve it before it effects organizational productivity is central to the HSE job description.

Strong Interpersonal Skills

Employees usually envision the HSE expert as the go-to man, and hence, his listening skills and attentiveness need to be such that the employee feels comforted, as if the problem has been taken care of.

Core Managerial Capabilities

Also, general management skills such as time-management, leadership, conflict-resolution are all part of the job.

Core Responsibilities & Duties of an HSE Expert

Prevention and Safety of Workers and Work Place

Generally, the HSE job description entails helping prevent harm to workers, property, the environment, and the general public. To achieve this, they undertake a variety of HSE duties such as designing safe work spaces, inspecting machines, or even testing air quality.

Cost Minimization, Worker Retention and Equipment Efficiency

Complementing to making the workplace safer, HSE responsibilities also include increasing worker productivity through a reduction in absenteeism and equipment downtime. One of the most critical aspects of the job is saving the company money through lowering workers’ compensation payments, as well as preventing government fines.

Safety Checks and Measures

HSE specialists also work in government departments, conducting safety inspections and impose fines on companies that don’t follow safety legislation. The job often requires collaboration with occupational health and safety technicians to ensure work place safety.

The HSE expert analyzes work environments and designs programs to control, eliminate, and prevent disease or injury. This is particularly useful in the biotechnology industry, where they are trained to look for chemical, physical, radiological, and biological hazards. They also work to make more equipment ergonomic, which is basically to promote proper body positioning, increase worker comfort, and decrease fatigue.

Ensuring Overall Compliance with Approved Laws and Policies

HSE resources save a lot of trouble upfront, by conducting routine inspections and informing a company’s management of areas that are not in compliance with State or Federal laws, or even general HR policies, or by training on new regulations and policies, and hazard-recognition techniques.

They also advise managements on the cost and effectiveness of safety and health programs. Some specialists develop methods to predict hazards by peeking into historical data and other information sources.

They apply these methods to evaluate capital equipment, products, facilities, or processes eg. they might decipher patterns through examining injury data, that may percolate the root of the problem as a specific type of system failure, human error, weakness in procedures etc.

Qualifications & Educational Experience

Most employers require an HSE resource to possess the traditional HSE education, typically a bachelor’s degree in occupational health, safety, or a related field, such as engineering, biology, or chemistry.

In some organizations, a good HSE salary may require a master’s degree in industrial hygiene, health physics, or a related subject is required. College courses may include the likes of radiation science, hazardous material management and control, risk communications, principles of ergonomics, and respiratory protection etc.