Health and Safety Advisor Job Description, Duties, and Responsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the health and safety advisor job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements you may be asked to fulfill to be hired for the health and safety advisor role by most recruiters/employers.

What Does a Health and Safety Advisor Do?

Health and safety advisors are responsible for ensuring that health and safety services are rendered to stakeholders effectively and efficiently.

Their job description entails championing compliance with health and safety standards and legal regulations.

Health and safety advisors work under the guidance of health and safety managers and can be found in organizations ranging from factories, universities, building sites, fast moving consumer goods’ companies, engineering and manufacturing organizations, and construction companies.

Their duties entail ensuring that there is a marked reduction in the occurrence of occupational hazards in his/her organization.

In assistance with the health and safety manager and other HSE officers, he/she is further detailed to review an organization’s health and safety system and compare its present state with best practices as benchmarked by health and safety regulations and practices in other organizations.

To do this effectively, he/she is expected to assess the possibility of hazards occurring during the production processes in the organization.

He/she is to look for creative ways that will ensure that his/her organization’s culture of health and safety is improved.

The health and safety advisor’s role also involves supporting quality health care in his/her organization.

He/she offers advice to management staff, including the health and safety manager on such issues as fire accident, biological, and physical hazards, as well as occupational diseases.

His/her work description also involves checking for the fitness of members of staff for specific work schedule and the risks such staff will be exposed to on the basis of their work schedule.

Also, the health and safety advisor is also the primary officer that is to monitor the compliance of their colleagues to health and safety best practices.

Health and Safety Advisor Job Description Example/Sample/Template

Health and safety advisors perform various functions in work places to ensure drastic reduction of occupational hazards.

The major tasks, duties, and responsibilities of health and safety advisors in most organizations are shown in the job description example below:

• Investigates non-physical claims to confirm the liability or otherwise of the organization, for it to deny or settle the claim
• Carries out duties as may be required by the health and safety manager
• Monitors compliance with the use of quality materials for various work schedules
• Liaises with health and safety regulatory authorities
• Trains employees on best practices that will ensure safety while carrying out day to day work schedules
• Ensures that where necessary changes occur in the organization’s work practices if such changes will lead to a marked reduction in the likelihood of avoidable hazards occurring
• Maintains a record each for in-house accidents, both settled and contended claims, and best practices for the organization to ensure its practices are healthy and safe
• Plans with the health and safety manager to train or retrain junior workers to ensure that the team is well-skilled
• Ensure that safety and personal protective equipment are used following manufacturer’s instructions.

Requirements – Skills, Abilities, and Knowledge – For Health and Safety Advisor Role

If you are interested in applying for the health and safety advisor’s job and want to know what most employers require that applicants must have to be offered an interview, the following highlights show it:

• Ability to take note of fine details and not to leave any stone unturned
• Ability to work effectively with others
• A background experience in fast moving industries
• Sound knowledge of health and safety regulations and laws
• Ability to work strictly according to instructions
• Ability to keep official secrets
• Ability to communicate both orally and in writing
• Good interpersonal skills
• Ability to identify health hazards and nip them in the bud
• Ability to lead others and work simultaneously as a member of a team
• Ability to control demeanor and act confidently in challenging and emergency circumstances
• A Bachelor of Arts or Science degree in Safety Management or in any related field like engineering and Science Lab Technology is a major requirement. A professional certification in health and safety management will be an added advantage. Experience in a previous similar role will also serve as an added advantage.

Conclusion

The sample job description for the role of health and safety advisor provided in this post does not only provide a clear and concise knowledge of the duties and responsibilities of a health and safety adviser, it also assists you as an employer, talent hunter, or recruiter in drafting a clear description of the position when hiring to match your organization’s objective with ease and speed.

Also, individuals interested in becoming a health and safety advisor will find this post insightful in learning about what the career entails, and so can decide if it is the right one for them.