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Posted By Richard J. Byrne
I wonder if you can help us out?!
We are currently in the process of reviewing the number of safety professionals in our business.
As a guide I am extremely interested in find out how many safety professionals other companies have to their total number of staff.
We currently have around 8500 staff (not in the health and safety team!) operating from around 400 locations.
I realise that a lot depends on the type of business, we are extremely diverse in terms of the what we do and where we do it.
Many thanks, Richard.
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Posted By Liam Mc Conalogue
Richard,
There isn't a real set standard number that a company is supposed to have.
Instead have a look at your overall safety performance e.g. accident statistics- can they be reduced?
Have meetings with all of your H&S professionals together with your senior managers and see how they feel regarding their workload and h&s results.
You will then have a clearer picture of how to address the issue.
Regards,
Liam
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Posted By Mark Talbot
Last job was C8,000 employees 20 local buildings, three H&S professionals.
Current job C5,000 employees 6 local buildings, three H&S professionals.
Industry: Finance.
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Posted By Martin Ffitch
How long is a piece of string...!
It all depends on complexity, so it depends on what you do and how much regulation you have to contend with.
There is also a factor that depends on whether the site is running shifts i.e. a site operating 24 hours employs 4 x as many people but probably only increases the workload by a factor of 2.
The scope of the role of the safety professional varies too - Are they responsible for environment, waste, product regulation, process hazard assessments....?
However a rule of thumb that we find useful is 1 EHS person per 100 employees. Complex sites need more ofcourse and offices need less.
We also have a lot of small sites where we find that the rule of thumb still works eg for sites employing 50 people one person spending 50 % of their time on EHS is sufficient.
Richard - if you would like to discuss this further please contact me off forum.
Martin
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Posted By Ron Hunter
A figure bandied about in LA circles several years ago was 1 per 1000. At 22,500 employees, the one per hundred suggested on previous posting would be unrealistic.
"Safety Professionals" can be taken to include Occupational Health provision, whether in-house or contracted, company specialists (e.g. asbestos manager) or those with suitable training who undertake risk assessment/workplace inspections. Where this is only a part of their function, the can nevertheless be "counted" on a pro-rata basis.
Big question is where are you in terms of compliance, and where does the Organisation want to be? Does this mean an increase in permanent posts is required, or could short term or external contracts get you up to speed?(In other words, what is the business case?)
Other question: is there sufficient provision of H&S professionals with industry specific/specialist expertise and knowledge to match the business activities undertaken?
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Posted By Graham Clarke MIOSH, RSP, MIIRSM, MaPS
Hi,
I look after a european company in the relocation sector, we have some 5000 employees in 300 locations. I have two other safety professionals plus an administrator. Not enough!
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Posted By Merv Newman
In a manufacturing environment I usually try to go for about 1 per 500. i.e a plant with 2000 employees should have 1 fully experienced qualified professional and 3 or 4 safety technicians. High hazard environments need more, low hazards less. This ratio works well if management give full backing and accept their responsibilities.
Where multiple small (less than 50 people) sites are concerned, I try to have someone (anyone, could be a trucky or the cleaning person) at each site named as "safety contact" (must be volunteer, respected by employees and management) who with a bit of training can help management with coordinating day-to-day safety concerns. However THE safety person at any site must be the senior manager. There are a lot of complications and qualifications to get this to work ok but that is the basic idea
Merv
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Posted By J Knight
Geographical spread and number of workplaces need to be taken into account. Previous employer has around 7,500 employees but around 140 'workplaces' (some of them are virtual as they involve homecare) literally throughout the UK. They have 10 UK regions and are aiming for 1 professional in each region except NI which is very, very small and has a shared HR 'super-post'. In addition they have a Head of H&S plus an admin. This is barely enough in some of the bigger regions, and for my stint there I had two regions, one big (750 people and 30 'workplaces') and one small (450 and 10), which was hard to manage.
I am currently alone with 2,500 employees and 450ish workplaces (most of them very small) all in Great Britain, and I know I could do with at least 3 other people.
Fairly low risk and partly highly regulated environment,
John
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