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#1 Posted : 15 June 2009 12:57:00(UTC)
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Posted By Susan Earp
Despite having 20 years experience working in Health and Safety with a council at both and Operational and Strategic levels I've just been advised by one H&S agency that they consider me suitable for H&S positions based on my background which they consider basically offices.

My experience with job agencies mainly H&S so far:

- I've been advised by 1 to ring them up daily for each job I've applied for to bring myself to the attention of the person looking after the role.

- Not replying to emails requesting feed back as to why my application has not succeeded.

- Posts which have already been filled by the company placing the vacancy with the agency.

- Adverts which don't give a full description of the post.

- A post where the interviews had been held a month previously but the job was still advertised on the website.

This is only a start of my list. So far I've had not one interview via an agency but find if I complete an application form directly for a company who is advertising a post then I've a far better chance of getting shortlisted.

Despite loving my career I'm finding it difficult to get another job (like everyone else) perhaps its time to change careers.

Off to continue my search.

Knightuk
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#2 Posted : 15 June 2009 13:19:00(UTC)
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Posted By Safe System
If you need some advice or help Susan drop me an email.

I'm an ex recruitment consultant!
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#3 Posted : 16 June 2009 21:44:00(UTC)
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Posted By peter gotch 1
Susan / Knight?

Not a good move hiding under a bushel when you are looking for a job[!] nor hiding your email contact details meaning that people cannot contact you off the discussion forums.

Would normally have emailed you offline and could be much more helpful having regard to the Acceptable Use Guidelines - see last para below.

If your only personal email is that at work [in which case I understand that you might be worried about your employer identifying that you are looking elsewhere], then get another - even if it means going down to your local library.

My instinctive guess from reading your posting is that your CV is not spelling out the range of your experience and the risks that you have been dealing with.

If you would like my constructive criticism, please email your CV to my works address, peter.gotch@jacobs.com

I read and discard or progress these 100s of times a year. [...and mods this is not an ad - we are not looking in the current climate!]

Regards, Peter



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#4 Posted : 17 June 2009 09:47:00(UTC)
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Posted By clairel
Bit harsh Peter.

Her post doesn't read like a 'give me a job' post so why should she display her email address? I never will again after the abusive email I received.

Susan. Try another agency, apply for jobs direct etc. Maybe your CV needs tweaking or maybe you just need to keep trying. Anyway, what do Agencies know. Some ask if you've got COSHH!!!

If you want to change career then do. If you don't then stick with it.
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#5 Posted : 17 June 2009 10:44:00(UTC)
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Posted By Southerner
I have had completely different experience of recruitment agencies myself.

My first ever health and safety job was advertised on total jobs, I applied and had an interview within days, I then got offered the job the same day.

Been in that job ever since until a couple of weeks ago, I put my CV on a big general website. A recruitment consultant contacted me, arranged an interview for 2 days later, the next week I was offered the job.

There is a lot of Mickey mouse consultants out there, you need to make sure you go to a good one, I can send you a good contact if you make your e-mail view-able.

What sort of jobs have you been applying for? Unfortunately a lot of local authority/council workers I know have a really hard time finding jobs out of the civil service. I wont go into why this normally is, but I imagine you are already aware of the stereotypes.
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#6 Posted : 17 June 2009 11:09:00(UTC)
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Posted By Swis
I disagree with Peter. Susan do not need to show her e-mail address. If someone can offer her a help, they can drop a line on the forum to asking susan to get in touch.
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#7 Posted : 17 June 2009 11:33:00(UTC)
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Posted By Southerner
If a consultant does that there post will be removed.
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#8 Posted : 17 June 2009 11:57:00(UTC)
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Posted By John Fraser

Susan could find it difficult to adjust to the Private Sector, as she has been in local authority for several years. Apart from the national stereotypes from local government from what you read in the newspapers there is a complete change in culture from working in the private sector and what is expected from a health and safety advisor / manager.i.e Commercial awareness for a start and understanding of the market place for a start.

Susan should specify what type of job she is looking for and what type of industry she would like to be involved in to a couple of reputable recruitment consultants. However this could be difficult if she has no site / manufacturing experience in construction or manufacturing. In the private sector, any success will depend on what level of exposure of hazards she has been exposed to.

My experience of recruitment consultants on the whole has been quite good - although I used reputable firms only.

John
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#9 Posted : 17 June 2009 12:01:00(UTC)
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Posted By CFT
Southener is absolutely correct.

CFT
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#10 Posted : 17 June 2009 12:17:00(UTC)
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Posted By Swis
I'm not asking consultants to put their advertise on the foum. If the approach with the following lines, they wouldn't face moderators anger.

"Susan - drop me a line on my e-mail should you require some help"

or

"Email me - I might be able to help you."

Obviously, person responding need to make sure that their address is not hidden.
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#11 Posted : 17 June 2009 12:51:00(UTC)
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Posted By clairel
I appreciate the comment about ex-gov't employees. I too was in Gov't for a number of years. It is a difficult transition but one that can be done.

I personally have not had any problems getting work trading off being an ex-enforcer. Now I have a number of years as a consultant under my belt too I have a quite a rounded CV (must be mad to throw it away!!).

Stick with it Sarah. Perhaps acknowledge to would be employers that you have lots of skills but appreciate that you now need to become commercially aware etc.

Good luck.
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#12 Posted : 17 June 2009 18:07:00(UTC)
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Posted By Brett Day

Susan

Drop me a line, there are some contacts I can recommend.

Regards

Brett
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#13 Posted : 17 June 2009 21:55:00(UTC)
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Posted By peter gotch 1
Claire.

My comments to Susan or Knight.....

I rather doubt that you have recruited a more than a tiny fraction of the personnel that I have. Not "harsh", but constructive.

1. If she's registered with an agency, then presumably (at least considering) looking for a job.

2. Trying to compare working for an enforcing authority with general National or Local Government experience is ridic.

There is a perception (often, AND I stress not always, justified - but I could cite numerous examples e.g. the City Council who rejected our prequal on the grounds that our H&S Policy did not specifically commit to compliance with HSWA - we had to point out that we had deliberately removed reference to HSWA as we operate internationally and instead had committed to all legislative compliance) that LA H&S is about jobs worths - 20 years in the same sector leaves concerns as whether typecast, or whether perfectly capable of moving into another sector - hence CV demonstrating range of experience is absolutely essential - clearly the agency appears to have picked up a problem of CV apparently showing a record of working in low risk environments, whereas posting would suggest broader experience.

There has always been a market for ex HSE/LA enforcing authority officers and this is never likely to shrivel away, albeit the training and mentoring of HSE Inspectors has apparently gone into terminal decline over the years.

12 years in HSE from 79-91, dealing with numerous sectors, equated to 26 fatal accidents and lots of other bad news. Obviously I have learnt lots that are valuable to the private sector (both as in house advisor and as external consultant) whether proactively - passing these lessons on - including to sectors which I had not dealt with such as rail, major hazards and nuclear, and in expert witness work (including more than 10 fatal accidents).

3. Whilst I doubt that there is an significant overlap between your consultancy's target market and ours (though recognising that I do not know who you work for! - cos your email link address does not indicate), I have always preferred to communicate with prospective recruits off forum to avoid telling our competition anything more about our plans than necessary.

Equally, in the current climate, I would prefer to offer any constructive advice off forum, not least to avoid any perception of breach of AUG3 (bearing in mind that I used to be one of what Merv has referred to as the Minotaurs - as a Minotaur tickled my sense of humour and still does).

4. Re separate posting about cold stores, surely you can afford to cost the guidance against your consultancy fees or take out a subscription to e.g. Technical Indexes Occupational Health and Safety Information System (ditto) ? When I glanced at lunchtime, OHSIS threw up over 50 documents referencing "cold store" (quotes are important to narrow search) published by HSE alone including that referred to above.

OHSIS has failed me on a few occasions, including when I have had to buy the RoSPA guide to beach safety - draft guidanc on subject not for public consumption yet forthcoming - expected to show photo of my border collie! - for sensible safety reasons -, and the industry guidance on safety in steam rooms (managed to use trip to Dubai to help give international perspective in my report relating to UK accident!)

5. Re your comments about malicious correspondence, preventing specific emails from landing in your intray might be more effective than simply blocking access by other potential, less malicious, people from contacting you or her?

We all get an incredible amount of unwanted emails these days - I get far more spam on my compamy account than I do in my personal email intray (this despite e.g. having both email addresses visible on the IOSH chat forums). Today it was a phishing email from "Halifax", immediately followed by a response to "Out of office" reply from "HBOS" - I know that HBOS is part of Halifax Group, but......! Sent both emails to a scam monitoring site, before deleting (permaanently)

Regards, Peter

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#14 Posted : 18 June 2009 09:07:00(UTC)
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Posted By clairel
Peter, you need to work on your people skills.
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#15 Posted : 18 June 2009 09:22:00(UTC)
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Posted By Jim Walker
Claire that's unfair!

Peter is just trying to give people advice about realities of the big bad world. CV sifting is a harsh affair - to shine at that stage is a combination of luck & design.

I've followed his forum threads for about 7 years & believe me his advice is extremely good. He personally gave me good advice (off forum)some 6-7 years ago & it helped me land my current job.

I also know a bit about him (although we have never met) as we work in a similar field - I can assure you his reputation & standing is up there with the gods.
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#16 Posted : 18 June 2009 09:53:00(UTC)
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Posted By clairel
Ok, I wasn't going to bother going into details but..

I did not comment on whether he knows his stuff or not, thankyou.

I think his first paragraph to Susan was harsh. Many people choose to hide their email address and that is not wrong. My opinion.

I do think that his recent lengthy post showed a lack of people skills. People who rant on about what they've done and why they think they are better than you are not good communicators in my experience.

Why pass comment on the fact that I asked for information on a previous thread? I needed the information there are then so I could not go out and buy anyhting in an instant. As it happens the consultancy I work for wouldn't pay for such an item. They pay for nothing for me. I already have the warehousiung guidance and I did in fact end up copying the relevant section of that guidance. I just wanted to know if there was specific guidance sheet on the subject that I could send someone. What's wrong with asking that?

I do have filters on my email thank you. The vile email I received form someone on this forum got through it.

I don't have issues with SPAM. As Peter seems to have read my other posts he should have read that I think SPAM's are a sad fact of life and should just be deleted.

I dont care if you think the sun shines out of Peter's backside or not. That doesn't mean I have to. My comments are always impartial opinions. I know no one on this forum and I don't want to thankyou.
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#17 Posted : 18 June 2009 10:22:00(UTC)
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Posted By John Fraser

Clare / Peter

This seems to be getting a bit heated between you two, and is deviating from what Susan was asking advice on.

Settle down.

John
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#18 Posted : 18 June 2009 12:05:00(UTC)
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Posted By Jim Walker
Claire,

I enjoy your robust responses on this forum, may of which I share.

Your comments about People skills - kettle, pot ??? or at least thats what I see ;-))
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#19 Posted : 18 June 2009 12:08:00(UTC)
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Posted By Swis
Kettles??
Pot??
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#20 Posted : 18 June 2009 12:23:00(UTC)
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Posted By Jim Walker
Don't you bluddy start !!! ;-)))
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#21 Posted : 18 June 2009 14:31:00(UTC)
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Posted By IOSH Moderator
Now then, now then, now then!

Then.

Now.

If you can offer help to Susan, feel free. Otherwise please take your argument elswhere as it detracts from the thread and may result in it being locked under AUG 1.

Thanks

Jonathan
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#22 Posted : 18 June 2009 16:29:00(UTC)
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Posted By Swis
On a serious note, recruitment consultancies do advertise a lot of fake jobs in order to keep getting the publicity. (I had a bad experience with a well known consultancy in past. You will see a lot of jobs advertised by them but no answer when you apply for them.)

The reason behind this is that these recruitment consultancies pay a lump sum to reserve a section in certain publications and website for their adverts. Therefore, even if they don’t have any vacancy available, they’ll create a fake one to keep their name in highlight. The best thing would be to prioritise for jobs which are advertised directly from an employer as they would not waste their money on advertising if they don’t have vacancy. Also most of them at least acknowledge receipt your application.
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#23 Posted : 18 June 2009 17:25:00(UTC)
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Posted By adanielssafety
Swis

On an even more serious note.....Health and safety professionals obsess about detail, have no commercial acumen and are poor communicators (I know this because I spoke to one once, got poor advice and so am perfectly qualified to make a sweeping judgement about all safety professionals). LOL

Please.

There are poor recruiters, poor companies who advertise directly and even (dare I say it) poor EHS professionals.

If you've had a bad experience with a recruiter, try a different one. Roles that are advertised directly by a company rather than a recruiter, even in the SHP, can either be filled internally, put on hold or for many other reasons are not filled by a person who has applied in response to an advert.

The whole "recruiters are always bad, companies who advertise directly are always good" argument is I'm afraid to say, flawed.

If recruiters advertise lots of fake jobs, how do they make their money? Fees are earned by finding the best people for a company. You earn nothing for not placing a person in to a job that doesn't exist (but you could spend thousands of pounds and do awful damage to your reputation).

With a lead time of up to 2 weeks between creating an advert for a magazine and it being printed, there's potential for circumstances to change, particularly in the current economic climate. This is as frustrating for a recruiter as for a job seeker.

Anyone who decides to exclude recruiters when searching for a new role is going to be missing out on some excellent opportunities with companies who, for any number of reasons, will have decided to advertise anonymously through a recruiter rather than directly.
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#24 Posted : 19 June 2009 10:00:00(UTC)
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Posted By Swis
Adanielssafety

First of all, I want to make clear that I did not made comments about all the consultancies; therefore I mentioned my bad experience with one of them. Secondly if you read my post clearly, I used the word ‘prioritise’ the ones directly from employer. Now there are several reasons with it, such as; you can communicating directly with the employers, less contacts therefore less costs involved, only essential and less interviews etc. Agency recruitment may be good for employers but that doesn’t always work better for the applicant. The reason for this is the fact that agencies find people( who don’t know that a job exists) and direct them to the job advertised, hence tough competition amongst applicants.

On the other hand, the competition directly to the employer is relatively easier.

On your comments that it costs money to put adverts in the publications, YES, it does but what bigger companies do is they normally have a contract with papers, magazines, websites, where they pay for a page or so for the whole year. Now the money is already paid but no vacancy and what do they do, they advertise fake vacancies making potential applicants even less confident when they don’t hear from them.

And finally on personal note, I have been chasing a lot of agencies for jobs, they do give you big false hopes but nothing in reality. I’m on my sixth job now and all of them got secured by applying direct to the employer, none form agencies.

Now being an employer myself, I always give a detailed feed back to direct applicants compared to referred applicants from the agencies.

And there's an old saying - Truth always hurts.

Swis
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#25 Posted : 02 July 2009 15:01:00(UTC)
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Posted By Swis
Evidence of fake advertisements;

“About two years ago one of the "reputable" agencies advertised a job in SHP that was quite obviously our company (although not named). They were challenged and it turned out we had made general enquiries about using them as a preferred supplier and on that brief bit of info, they created a "none job" advert.”

-A member of iosh

*****

“The problem Sharon raises tends to only occur with advertisements placed by recruitment consultants.”

Comments made by SHP representative on one of the forums when a member raised a concern of already filled vacancy.

Reference:

http://www.iosh.co.uk/in...m=11&thread=45595&page=1
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#26 Posted : 02 July 2009 17:09:00(UTC)
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Posted By Adrian Newton
Hello,

I'm mindful that some people who read this forum may not be able to access my posting in the members forum which Swis refers to - so in the way of context the relevant sections of my posting were:

The problem Sharon raises tends to only occur with advertisements placed by recruitment consultants: There is a possibility that in the time elapsed between the consultancy supplying the advertising copy and the magazine reaching you, the vacancy may have been quite legitimately filled.

I then go on to say:

However the advertising of non-existent vacancies by recruitment consultancies I understand to be illegal and if you ever have any suspicions or evidence that this has taken place I would be most obliged if you would contact me.

Best regards,

Adrian Newton
Publisher, SHP
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#27 Posted : 03 July 2009 12:25:00(UTC)
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Posted By Swis
Adrian,

Apologies for quoting you on this thread. I can understand the awkward position I have put you in.

Your comments;

“There is a possibility that in the time elapsed between the consultancy supplying the advertising copy and the magazine reaching you, the vacancy may have been quite legitimately filled.”

It’s quite ironic that this doesn’t happen to vacancies directly from the employers.

Now before you make further comments that it is possible, statistics/experiences say otherwise.

Regards
an applicant
(many times in past)
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#28 Posted : 11 July 2009 20:54:00(UTC)
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Posted By www.hsepeople.com
[reference removed] is a new website designed exclusively for people working or recruiting in the area of Health and Safety. The site is 100% Free to join and offers members the ability to exchange information and network in a way that has not been possible until now. [reference removed] combines the best features of Social Networking, Job Sites and Training resources all in one place.

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It is easy to view who is online and rather than send a message or email, members can chat quickly through the sites instant messenger or using the sites forums where discussions can range from requests for information, exchanging general chit chat or talking about job leads. The forums offer freedom of speech and are not over moderated like other forums on the Net.

One of the main features of [reference removed] is the free jobs pages and RSS Jobs Feeds. The first allows any Recruiters / Companies on the site to list HSE Positions on the forums for FREE. The jobs pages are proving very popular with already over fifty agencies posting jobs in the first six weeks and many success stories starting to emerge of successfully placed candidates. The second is the RSS job feeds which are pulling jobs in from lots of other job sites all over the Web. These are broken down into categories and update as soon as jobs are listed on the relevant sites. This means that we are very confident you can find more HSE jobs on [reference removed] than any other site on the Net! The best part is it’s FREE to list, browse, search and apply for Jobs.

More ways of exchanging information is also available to any member on the site. Any member can create a blog to their own profile. If the content is relevant to other [reference removed] then that blog can be posted to the site magazine with moderator approval. Everything can be done from the control panel at the left hand side on every main page on the site.

[reference removed] is a community site and in looking for ways to fund the site, keeping the content relevant to Health and Safety and not plastering the site in banner advertising we have came up with a few ideas that may work well with your business. Firstly, the Events page, this page allows Trainers or Course providers to upload details on training events they are holding in the near future. Members of the site can then enlist for the event. [reference removed] will only charge 10% of the course cost per delegate signing up through the site. It is free to upload an event so you have nothing to lose by giving it a go.

Secondly, is the addition of a links page that will be coming very soon. This page will be broken down into three categories: Recruiters, Trainers & Consultants. Here you can place a link on a main page of [reference removed] and advertise your business to our members. As the site is new we are offering the first 25 links for only £150. If you would like to show your support for [reference removed] and promote your business to our ever growing number of members please contact Kevin@hsepeople.com



Thirdly, we will in the future be offering a product review page. This will be a great way of getting your product out into the market and visible to our members. We particularly want to hear from PPE Companies or Safety Equipment manufacturers who would like us to review their products. This service may eventually expand to course providers.

Lastly, [reference removed] is hoping to soon be able to offer a Document Library that any member will be able to add documents too. Other members will then be able to browse, search and then download any document they need. We think this will prove to be a very valuable and popular page. How many times have you been required to write a new procedure or produce a risk assessment or training presentation on a subject that you know other [reference removed] have probably covered thousands of times? No longer will you need to reinvent the wheel… Power points, Presentations, Forums, Posters, Regulations, Procedures, Formats and much more will all be able to be uploaded. This page is proving expensive to make and it would be great to hear from companies interested in sponsoring it. We are sure it will be the most popular page on the site and we could offer your company some fantastic exposure.

[reference removed] is only six weeks old but already proving hugely popular with almost 1000 members, the site has so far grown mostly on word of mouth. Only now are we starting to appear in search results and directories. I think this demonstrates how much of a hit the site is. We hope [reference removed] becomes the one place recruiters go when looking for candidates, Candidates when looking for jobs, Companies when looking for Consultants and [reference removed] when looking for information or training courses.

The site is currently receiving over 2500 hits a week and that is increasing with every new member that signs up. We are working hard to appear at the top of Search Engine Results and even though it takes time and a lot of effort we are committed to making [reference removed] a Success.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to create a profile on [reference removed], Advertise your company or business and have a feel round see what you think. If you see the potential in the site and wish to support it by any of the above mentioned methods then please do drop us a line. Your support will make the site a success and hopefully the one stop shop for everything HSE.

Hope to see you there.

Kevin Forbes
www.hsepeople.com
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