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Quality & Assurance- Do we safety professionals have to
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Posted By jmc
Hi All
Due to the current economic climate my director has asked me if i could help out with the Quality & assurance within the organisation on top of my H&S advisor position.
We still have over 100 operatives, I carry out Site visits/Audits Also I create & deliver all method statements & risk assessments, keep the training matrix upto date, complete the H&S Questionnaires and am adding to the H&S management system i have created & implemented into the organisation whilst completing my SVQ 4 in occupational safety & health.
DO I NEED TO GET INVOLVED WITH QUAILITY OF WORK & ASSURANCE.
As we are a roofing contractor and i have only been at the company for a year with all of the above going on i haven't had the time to liaise with operatives , contract managers on how the components ete should be put together ONLY that the operatives are working safely
All responses are appreciated
P.S As I have been thrown into contract managing I don't believe any training will be available from my employer.
JMC
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Posted By Paul Leadbetter
How secure is your job if you decline the 'invitation?
Paul
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Posted By Solidgear
I know how this person feels, Being the safety adviser for a construction company, I unceremoniously got BREEAM project management dumped on me recently. No questions of how would you feel about, we would up your pay, Nothing Nadar. Simply here we believe you can & should do this. If I had my choice, I would quit, but alas there are so little jobs out there that I can't.
Some of us are being task raped by our employers and it is not fun.
hang in there.
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Posted By John Fraser
jmc
If you are going to be tasked with quality, firstly identify what the remit is. i.e The attainment of ISO 9001 : 2008 status. If this is the case, then you will need to do a short course on quality management, together with a short two day course on how to audit a quality management course from a recognised provider. An external body will then verify your system as being ISO 9001 complaint, or identify what further work you have to do, to get the standard.
Next if your safety management system is to ISO 18001 system standard, you could consider integrating it with quality and perhaps environmental system standard ( ISO 14001 ) - this could save a bit of time and money in the long term. If, though you feel that the quality system should be standalone, perhaps integrating with an environmental system, then you could take this option also.
You could see this as another string to your bow, when you decide to move on, in the long term if you have been exposed to putting a quality management system in place.
John
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Posted By F Potter
I have had QA added on to my remit, as I had had previous experience, and the company stated I could add it on to my audits.
As for clarification as to whether they would expect you to write or review the QA manual, draw up the programme of audits etc. I made it very clear that I would join the audit team, and that was all
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Posted By jmc
Thanks All for your responses
Paul- Don't Know
Solid gear- you took the words (Task raped) out of my mind , that's what I was thinking and you have described how i am feeling.
it not nice but would have felt better if I was asked or their was a incentive for the extra wok load
John- Thanks for the info No my management system is not yet been approved or to the standard of iso as if it was i may already be out if a job
I think I have to sit tight and do as i am asked but as a backup I have had no formal training in these areas which as stated they wont put me thru
Thanks again all
JMC
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Posted By Paul Clarke-Scholes CMIOSH
No, we don't have to, same goes for environment, but the core skills are transferable, if your brain can co-ordinate all the standards. Let's face it, if you can keep over 1000 safety regulations close enough to spot a breach when you step over one on site, then you can probably recognise a dissatisfied client or a poor product when you spot one.
My brief is now HSQE (my choice, as I wrote my responsibility statement for the MD to sign) and I have a team to manage. So you could see it as career advancement. If the existing board can't see it, there will be an opportunity along in a year or so to take your new found skills to pastures new.
Do a risk assessment, identify training needs and control measures, put an action plan to the directors, say yes and ask for a pay rise next year AFTER you've proved your worth.
Paul
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Rank: Super forum user
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admin wrote:Posted By jmc
Hi All
Due to the current economic climate my director has asked me if i could help out with the Quality & assurance within the organisation on top of my H&S advisor position.
We still have over 100 operatives, I carry out Site visits/Audits Also I create & deliver all method statements & risk assessments, keep the training matrix upto date, complete the H&S Questionnaires and am adding to the H&S management system i have created & implemented into the organisation whilst completing my SVQ 4 in occupational safety & health.
DO I NEED TO GET INVOLVED WITH QUAILITY OF WORK & ASSURANCE.
Quick answer - No you don't have to do anything but is your job secure if you don't? I predict there will come a time when the statements like "we safety proffesionals" will become extinct along the the people that say them. No offence, but the world is changing and evolution is developing the 'HSEQ professional'- mark my words. Just a quickie when you say you create all RAs and MS, do consult with staff when doing this?
As we are a roofing contractor and i have only been at the company for a year with all of the above going on i haven't had the time to liaise with operatives , contract managers on how the components ete should be put together ONLY that the operatives are working safely
All responses are appreciated
P.S As I have been thrown into contract managing I don't believe any training will be available from my employer.
JMC
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Every thing we do with a Safety Management System has a QA element to it and the ISO18001 and ISO9001 standards are almost identical.
I would also expect that you complete audits too.
So for me you are already doing QA and see it as an essential part of our job.
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Glencoe, I hear you, but it really is case by case dependent and the speed at which we all have to create, implement and manage documents and activities within our companies. Some of us have very dynamic work-spaces and activities, that throwing QA into our roles is completely unmanageable and un-realistic. We don't all visit 5 sites a months, and give induction & MH training. Some of us are all over the shop internationally and extremely pressed with what we already have to do. Plus not everyone works with 18001 & 90001.
Each case is very different in its own ways, to say safety Pro's should adopt Quality Mgt as a role is just unrealistic, and in many cases would be unhealthy.
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I Agree 812, as previously stated
I neither have the time or Qualifications to carry out the QA for the orginisation.
And due to the current climate there is no way the directors would put me thru the appropriate training.
It looks like I will be thrown in head first like I was with the contract managing. which I have completed several project's sucesfully
JMC
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To be honest no you don't, however in the current economic climate would it be wise to kick to hard against it?
When you look around the job scene there are an awful number of H&S jobs that include QA and environment.
Over my career I have been H&S manager, H&S Quality and Security Manager, Health, Safety and Technical Services Officer, and Health, Safety, Sustainability Manager, now I am just a plain and simple H&S advisor again.
Variety is the spice of life they say, I have learnt a lot with the other bolt on's and gained an awful lot of transferable skills. At the end of the day it comes down to whether you feel it is going to be a good move for you and of course how safe your job is.
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Best advice I can give is try it and make sure the workload is manageable. Use it as an opportunity to broaden your skills base and push for personal development on the back of this. Ironically, I was pushed the other way - from Quality Assurance into HSE over 15 years ago and the commonality of the disciplines is becoming increasingly overlapped.
At the very least it will allow you to see if such a combined role is practical and does it suit you.
Good luck and best regards.
Hugh
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