WHAT DOES AN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SAFETY OFFICER DO?
Published: Jan 02, 2025 - The Environmental Health and Safety Officer is responsible for managing and overseeing all contractors on site, including organizing, sourcing, and ensuring completed works meet requirements. The role includes supporting the HSEQ Manager in Health, Safety, and Environmental Management, ensuring compliance with highly regulated industry standards like ISO 9001 and 14001, and conducting internal audits and risk assessments. Additionally, this position assists with HSE training, incident management, and maintaining up-to-date QHSE processes, while building strong relationships with customers, suppliers, and liaising with international sites.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Environmental Health and Safety Officer
1. Environmental Health and Safety Officer Duties
- HSE Solutions: Providing answers/solutions to HSE-related needs or requests from the team and management.
- System Maintenance: Maintenance, monitoring, and expansion with new locations and activities.
- Policy Development: Expanding the Safety and Quality Management System with the right policies, procedures, and forms, as well as guidance for employees to find easily what’s applicable.
- HSE Training: Giving trainings to the team.
- Auditing: Planning and performing audits.
- Safety Inspections: Inspecting tests and other work setups for health and safety.
- Incident Investigation: Conducting incident and near-miss investigations, lessons learned, and establishing preventive measures.
- Compliance Assurance: Ensuring and demonstrating ARBO compliance.
- Legal Monitoring: Monitoring external (legal) requirements and trends and implementing changes as applicable.
- Implementation Planning: Creating implementation plans to maintain safe working conditions and establish new rules.
- Stakeholder Coordination: Coordinating and interacting with external H&S service providers, the authorities, and internal stakeholders.
- Performance Reporting: Informing management about HSE-related performance, findings, and improvements of the HSE system and other points of attention regarding effectiveness and compliance.
- Knowledge Management: Ensuring HSE knowledge in the organization is kept up to date and well understood by employees.
2. Environmental Health and Safety Officer Details
- QHSE Development: Supporting the Head of QHSE in developing and improving QHSE management systems and procedures aligned with ISO9001, ISO14001, and ISO 45001.
- QHSE Communication: Communicating information on the QHSE management system throughout the organization and promoting Quality improvement and HSE awareness.
- Documentation Preparation: Preparing QHSE documentation for clients/projects in consultation with projects/operations teams.
- Safety Culture Promotion: Developing, implementing, and encouraging a behavioral-based safety culture through collaboration and teamwork.
- Workplace Inspections: Ensuring regular workplace inspections and identifying corrective actions.
- Corrective Action Coordination: Ensuring corrective actions are followed up and closed timely through coordination with multiple departments.
- Managerial Support: Providing local support to line managers.
- Meeting Facilitation: Facilitating productive Quality Review and Safety Committee meetings.
- Statutory Compliance: Ensuring statutory obligations are met on facilities-related matters, including LOLER and PUWER.
- System Management: Managing business systems such as Epicor NCR, Safety Media, COSHH 365, and Legislation Update Service (LUS).
- Employee Induction: Ensuring thorough QHSE induction for all new employees.
- Health Management: Managing occupational health.
3. Environmental Health and Safety Officer Responsibilities
- Risk Management: Assists in the development and maintenance of Department Quality Workflows and Procedures.
- Risk Assessment: Carry out risk assessments and support departments on how best to manage risks.
- NCR Management: Assist in the management of the company’s NCR register.
- Training and Development: Facilitate the development and delivery of toolbox talks and QHSE awareness materials.
- QHSE Coordination: Be a central point of contact for QHSE-related queries.
- Procedure Development: Support other departments to outline QHSE operational procedures.
- Site Inspections: Carry out regular site inspections to check policies and procedures are being properly implemented.
- Legislation Compliance: Ensure working practices are safe and comply with legislation.
- In-house Training: Assist and develop in-house training with managers and employees about QHSE topics.
- Report Writing: Using Safety media, keep records of inspection findings and produce reports that suggest improvements.
- Incident Reporting: Record incidents and accidents and produce statistics for managers and the Head of QHSE.
- Legislative Knowledge: Keep up to date with new legislation and maintain a working knowledge of all Health and Safety Executive (HSE) legislation and any developments that affect the industry.
- Management Reporting: Produce management reports and newsletters.
4. Environmental Health and Safety Officer Job Summary
- Contractor Management: Responsible for all contractors' works on site.
- Maintenance Scheduling: Ensure the building maintenance schedule is completed.
- Incident Reporting: First line of report for all building breakdowns/faults.
- Contractor Coordination: Organising, sourcing, management (including induction), setting contractors to work, and checking completed works for all external contractors required on site.
- HSE Support: Provide support to the HSEQ Manager in the application of Health, Safety, and Environmental Management.
- Quality Compliance: Ensure that the quality system is in line with highly regulated industry standards, i.e. ISO 9001; 14001, etc.
- Compliance & Audits: Assist with compliance reviews, and risk assessments, maintain HSE policy documentation, as well as conducting internal audits.
- HSE Improvement: Provide recommendations and improvements to HSE issues.
- Incident Regulation: Help to regulate incidents for the benefit of employees and visitors.
- Training and Inspections: Assist with HSE training and inspections across multiple sites.
- Customer and Supplier Relations: Build strong rapport and relationships with customers and suppliers.
- QHSE Compliance: Ensure that all QHSE processes are up to date and compliant with statutory legislation.
- International Coordination: Liaise with other international sites.
5. Environmental Health and Safety Officer Accountabilities
- HSE Accountability: Is accountable to the construction manager/project manager of HSE application and reporting.
- Operational Definition: Contributes to the definition of operating modes.
- Safety Coordination: Participates in safety coordination meetings organized by the construction manager, project manager, and Client.
- Worksite Meetings: Takes part in worksite meetings.
- Site Supervision: Keeps an important presence in the field, with regular site tours, to control, check, and correct all safety matters while maintaining good communication with workers on site.
- Prevention Coordination: Defines and coordinates actions of prevention at site.
- Standards Compliance: Ensures that standards are correctly applied on site and suggests solutions to upgrade situations to compliance
- Documentation Management: Deals with administrative and documentary parts of HSE requirements (e.g., AXENS HSE Manual, Prevention plan, Operating modes, work permits, etc.).
- Subcontractor Evaluation: Assists in the evaluation and selection of subcontractors based on HSE performance.
- Client Presentations: Makes presentations to the Client about the safety parts of working documents to be approved by the Client before work (e.g., Method Statement, Risk Analysis, working procedure).
- Reporting and Data Management: Ensures reporting (incidents, accidents) and HSE data following, record-keeping on area-specific HSE audits, reports, certifications, permits, etc.
- HSE Audits: Manages HSE audits and initiates weekly safety audits of the construction site.
- Corrective Action Follow-up: Manages the follow-up of analyses and corrective actions with regard to significant HSE events.