The health, safety and well-being of employees is of great concern to all companies and businesses. Not only is a safe business environment a better place to work, but it is also more productive and has reduced long term costs to business owners.

As an HSE Officer, your job is ensuring that the company complies with all necessary health and safety legislation and applicable standards. Your goal is to ensure that all employees remain safe and healthy at work as well as verifying that their working space is risk-free.

There are various benefits to being an HSE Officer. You help the company create a working environment that promotes productivity, encourages confidence in employees, decreases absenteeism, reduces on-site accidents and incidents, injuries and Occupational illnesses and diseases, as well as boosts overall team morale.

As an HSE officer, there are also great opportunities for career growth with your specialised skills. The decision is yours when it comes to the size of the company/business and industry you would like to be in – you could choose to work in a large company within the mining, construction, or engineering industries, or you could opt to work in a smaller business across any number of sectors. Your options for employment are also not restricted to the local companies and businesses – since there is a high demand for health and safety professionals, you are able to pick between local or international companies offering global career progression.

Did you know, there are over 880 000 occupational injuries and illnesses that occur in South Africa in a year? You could help reduce this number and prevent many from being injured or losing their life while at work.

So, what would your day-to-day look like if you were to be a Health and Safety Officer?

Depending on the company or organisation you choose to work with, you could work as part of an in-house team, a consulting organisation or you could be an independent consultant. As a HSE Officer, your day may be filled with (but not limited to) the following responsibilities:

• Keeping up to date with health and safety legislation
• Developing, implementing, and improving HSE Policies, Procedures, work instructions and other documentation
• Ensuring compliance with relevant HSE
• Identifying HSE-related training needs in the workplace
• Ensuring that routine HSE inspections are conducted
• Investigating workplace accidents and compiling reports
• Ensuring that equipment is safe and properly used and stored
• Ensuring that training and drills and exercises on how to manage emergency safety situations is carried out
• Ensuring that HSE matters are discussed and addressed in HSE committee meetings

If you show a great concern for the wellbeing of others, have strong interpersonal communication skills, portray leadership qualities, are efficient and organised, then a career in the HSE profession might be for you.

Follow the link to kickstart your career and learn more about SafetyCloud’s Occupational HSE courses: https://safetycloud.co.za/courses/. Our courses provide you with globally recognised skills as well as work-based learning that assists you in becoming qualified for a variety of HSE Roles.