What it means to be an OHS professional
The late George Robotham’s very popular, 100 page, FREE E-BOOK – download his others here
ABSTRACT and TABLE of CONTENTS CAN BE FOUND AFTER THE IMAGE BELOW. ESSENTIAL READING FOR THOSE STARTING OUT AND SEASONED VETERANS!
If you want a good chuckle then you will also appreciate this little poem “ODE TO THE SAFETY PROFESSIONAL”
Download George’s 3rd Ebook Here
Image thanks to SJ from Riskology
Abstract
In this e book I have reflected on my experiences in OHS over many years and tried to explain what OHS means to me. I have included some comment from other OHS people about what OHS means to them. General comment is given on what being an OHS person is all about. I briefly mention some of what I think are the more important skills for OHS people and give some advice on managing an OHS career. I finish with my vision for what excellent OHS in Australia would look like.
Table of Contents
- Introduction4
- OHS Important Concepts
- Why “do” OHS
- What OHS means to me Personally
- What OHS means to Other OHS People
- 30 Ways to Stuff up a Safety Management System
- 20 Sure-Fire Ways to Stuff-up a Learning Program
- Doing the Impossible as an OHS Person
- What OHS People do
- Prerequisites for the OHS Person
- Starting Out in Safety
- Suggested Myths and Misconceptions
- Safety Culture and How to Improve it
- Should Cost Affect How you Control Risk in your Workplace
- Advice to New OHS People
- 25 Factors for Personal Success
- Why OHS People are less Successful than we Hope
- Why OHS People become Cynics
- OHS Skills
- Skills of the Excellent OHS Professional
- Learning Needs Analysis
- Learning Revolution
- What the OHS Professional can do to Improve Leadership
- The 15 Most Common Mistakes OHS People make
- Personal Characteristics of Safety People
- Critical Incident Recall Discussion Paper
- The Blame Game
- Safe Working Procedures
- Practical Tips for Learning Facilitation
- Job Safety Analysis
- Personal Damage Occurrence (accident) Investigation
- Communication Skills
- Interpersonal Skills
- Tool Box Meetings
- Teambuilding in OHS
- Managing Your OHS Career
- Resumes
- The Interview
- Recruitment Consultants
- Other General Stuff
- Professional Associations
- Reflective Journal
- Trust and Betrayal in the Workplace
- OHS Learning for the OHS Person
- Beaurocracy and Paperwork in OHS
- The 10 Commandments for the OHS person
- How OHS People can maintain their Motivation
- The Lessons Learnt
- Colin Powell on Leadership
- My Vision
- Conclusion
Introduction
Other than stints in the Australian Regular Army as a surveyor and the Army Reserve as a truck driver and infantry soldier I have spent the majority of my working life in field, corporate, project and consultant OHS roles. In my nearly 4 decades in OHS I have worked in open-cut mining, underground mining, construction, manufacturing, disability services, education, office environments and a few other industries.
Brisbane based OHS consultant, Geoff McDonald, has been my mentor, coach and guide for most of my safety career. I value his safety work much higher than any other I have seen. Geoff has had a profound effect on how I view and approach safety.