Safety Jobs-A complete guide on how to get a health and safety job in Nigeria; Starting and growing a career in HSE.

It is suitable for organizations of all types and sizes and its factors in environmental issues relevant to the organization’s operations. Issues like

• Air pollutants
• sewage issues,
• soil contaminations
• Air emissions
• Releases to land
• Releases to water
• Raw material and natural resource use
• Energy uses
• Energy emissions such as radiation, heat, or vibrations
• By-products and waste.
• The environment is affected by the physical characteristics of the company.

Organization subscribing to the standard in the management of their environment in the workplace enjoys many benefits. The benefits are 

It increases leadership in the organization and encourages worker participation in environmental activities.

It improves the company’s reputation and ensures they continue in business for a very long time.

Reduces cost and increased efficiency in the overall operations of the company this, in turn, gives the company a financial advantage over competitors in the market.

The suppliers being integrated into the management process encourages better environmental performance.

It demonstrates compliance with current and future regulatory requirements.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ISO 45001: 2018.

This standard came into existence in 2018. But before it was drafted and adopted, OHSAS 18001 was in use.

In developing the ISO 45001:2018, great consideration was given to OSHAS 18001, International Labour Organization ILO-OSH guidelines and International labour standards and conventions-(ILS).

The standard is process-based, unlike what we have in OHSAS 18001, which is procedure-based. The standard considers both risk and opportunities, unlike OHSAS which considers the only risk. 

Every day, in our workplaces, workers’ lives are lost due to incidences and illnesses linked to work activities. These are deaths that could have been prevented if the necessary precautions and measures are put in place.

ISO 45001:2018 aims to help organizations put the measures in place and prevent these fatalities.

However, the benefit of ISO 45001 is endless but an organization has to implement it correctly for it to work for them.

When the standard is correctly implemented, it will help an organization to provide a healthy and safer workplace for their workers and for other people who may be affected by their activities.

And it helps prevent deaths and work-related illnesses and diseases and it will continually improve the organization’s occupational health and safety performance.

All these benefits can put the organization’s reputation in good light as a safe place to work, with other associating benefits of reduction in insurance costs and an increase in the staff morale. And all these make the company fulfil its set occupational health and safety Objectives.

Any health and safety professional that wants to excel greatly must be knowledgeable in these three ISO management standards. 

Having only the knowledge is never enough, you need to have the skills on how to apply and implement it in your company. In that case, it can be said that you’re competent.

The knowledge can help you if you want to progress in your career as a management system auditor depending on any of the schemes you want which could be on ISO 9001:2015, or on ISO 14001:2015 OR ISO 45001:2018.

And this will contribute to a huge success in your work and ensure that the quality, environmental and occupational health and safety affairs at the workplace are in good shape.

DOCUMENTS A HEALTH AND SAFETY OFFICER or an ORGANISATION NEED TO MAINTAIN AND RETAIN ACCORDING TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF ISO 45001:2018

When you’re employed to start work as a health and safety, you should be able to know the forms and the checklist you’ll be making use of during your work.

If you’re with a company that is following the requirements of ISO 45001:2018, they’ll have documents and forms for you to be working with according to the requirements of the standard are saying.

Below is the list of mandatory documents and records to be maintained and to be retained according to ISO45001:2018.

MANDATORY DOCUMENTS ARE

• Scope of the Occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system. (clause 4.3)

• Occupational health and safety (OH&S) policy. (clause 5.2)

• Responsibilities and authorities within the Occupational health and safety management (OH&SMS) system. (clause 5.3)

• Occupational health and safety (OH&S) process for addressing risks and opportunities. (clause 6.1.1)

• Methodology and criteria for the assessment of Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) risks. (clause 6.1.2.2)

• Occupational health and Safety (OH&S) objectives and plans for achieving them. (clause 6.2.2)

• Emergency preparedness and response process. (clause 8.2)

MANDATORY RECORDS ARE 

• OH&S risks and opportunities and actions for addressing them (clause 6.1.1)

• Legal and other requirements (clause 6.1.3)

• Evidence of competence (clause 7.2)

• Evidence of communications (clause 7.4.1)

• Plans for responding to potential emergencies (clause 8.2)

• Results on monitoring, measurements, analysis and performance evaluation (clause 9.1.1)

• Maintenance, calibration or verification of monitoring equipment (clause 9.1.1)

• Compliance evaluation results (clause 9.1.2)

• Internal audit program (clause 9.2.2)

• Internal audit report (clause 9.2.2)

• Results of management review (clause 9.3)

• Nature of incidents or nonconformities and any subsequent action taken (clause 10.2)

• Results of any action and corrective action, including their effectiveness (clause 10.2)

• Evidence of the results of continual improvement (clause 10.3)

NON-MANDATORY DOCUMENTS.

• Procedure for Determining the Context of the Organization and Interested Parties. (clause 4.1)

• Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Manual. (clause 4)

• Procedure for Consultation and Participation of Workers. (clause 5.4)

• Procedure for Hazard Identification and Assessment. (clause 6.1.2.1)

• Procedure for Identification of Legal Requirements. (clause 6.1.3)

• Procedure for Communication (clause 7.4.1)

• Procedure for Document and Record Control (clause 7.5)

• Procedure for Operational Planning and Control. (clause 8.1)

• Procedure for Change Management. (clause 8.1.3)

• Procedure for Monitoring, Measuring and Analysis. (clause 9.1.1)

• Procedure for Compliance Evaluation. (clause 9.1.2)

• Procedure for Internal Audit. (clause 9.2)

• Procedure for Management Review. (clause 9.3)

• Procedure for Incident Investigation. (clause 10.1)

• Procedure for Management of Nonconformities and Corrective Actions. (clause 10.1)

• Procedure for Continual Improvement. (clause 10.3)

QUALITIES OF A HEALTH AND SAFETY PROFESSIONAL.

As a safety professional, you’ve to build yourself around these qualities while discharging your duties in the workplace.

• Ability to demonstrate genuine concern for others.
• Respect for your team and 
• Having an ability to reward good behaviour.
• Good planner
• Timely responsive behaviour.
• Being proactive at all times
• Strong communication 
• Strong sense of responsibility
• Hungry for knowledge
• Showing leadership by example
• Result-oriented at all times
• Showing humility and sense of purpose.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A HEALTH AND SAFETY OFFICER.

• Auditing production, keeping on the lookout for any unsafe behaviour or breaks in regulations
• Assessing risk and possible safety hazards of all aspects of operations
• Creating analytical reports of safety data
• Inspecting production equipment and processes to make sure they are safe
• Ordering repairs for unsafe and/or damaged equipment
• Focusing on prevention by keeping up with equipment maintenance and employee training
• Presenting safety principles to staff in meetings or lecture-type training sessions
• Participating in continuing education to update knowledge of health and safety protocols and techniques
• Determining whether the finished product is safe for customers
• Creating safety plans that include suggested improvements to existing infrastructure and business processes
• Sharing information, suggestions, and observations with project leadership to create consistency in safety standards throughout the production team and the entire company
• Meeting company health and safety goals
• Investigating the causes of accidents and other unsafe conditions on the job site
• Liaising with law enforcement and other investigators who are present at the time of a serious accident
• Finding the best way to prevent future accidents
• Reviewing and reporting on the staff’s compliance with health and safety rules and recommending commendations or dismissal based on performance

From – Monster.co.uk

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS, YOU SHOULD BE FAMILIAR WITH THE PROFESSION.

HAZARD– Something with the potential to cause harm.

RISK– the likelihood that a hazard will cause harm in combination with the severity of the injury, damage or loss that might occur.