Rank: Forum user 
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Not sure if this is the right place to ask the question but I am having a career crises and feel I need a change in direction.
How difficult is it to go from Health and Safety Manager to an auditor? I would be looking to gain a career within the insurance sector, so risk management. I guess gaining an additional qualification is necessary.
I enjoy auditing, I prefer being direct in my career and I am just finding with H&S in businesses, they really do not want to know and you are there just as a tick box exercise. They don't take H&S instructions seriously. At least with auditing, its a different path.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
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Rank: Forum user 
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Don't know if you already have some H&S auditing qualifications, if not it may be a good idea to get some. They are lots of courses out there, check out the one highlighted on the website hyper-linked below. http://www.irca.org/en-g...g/courses/health-safety/
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Rank: Forum user
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Thank you for your help. No I don't have quals in auditing but I do have experience over the years.
I will look into the courses and see which is best.
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Rank: Forum user
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Hi Kellee,
As above, your best bet is to get a formal qualification in auditing.
Note that auditing is a combination of hard and soft skills that apply regardless of the discipline you will be auditing in (bearing in mind many courses are specific i.e. "ISO9001 Lead Auditor" etc.). A good bedtime read is ISO19011:2012 if you can locate a copy!
But it is worth bearing in mind that risk management in insurance terms is quite different to risk in the H&S sense that you are already involved with. (Sorry if it is teaching you to suck eggs).
In summary, with the right skills you can audit across disciplines but you will need to research the insurance industry to get a good understanding of it before going in 'blind'.
Good Luck
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Rank: Super forum user
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Insurance companies use auditors/assessors to look at potential clients to evaluate how good, or bad, they are with a view to whether the insurance company should take them 'on risk'. The potential liabilities revealed by the assessment will either help to determine the premium, or in the worst cases lead to the insurance company declining to take them on. There are conflicting demands in this, in that the insurers do need to know what they are taking on, but at the same time they won't make any money by declining to take people on too often. The insurers will therefore be looking for a balanced and realistic assessment. Auditing skills are important, but you will mostly be looking for obvious risks and liabilities, rather than poring through their policy documents. Try and make yourself familiar with differing industry norms so that you can form a pragmatic opinion of the potential clients, who will come from almost any industry (a knowledge of the regulations is fine, but you need to know industry codes of practice etc to appreciate how the regulations are applied).
You will also need a good camera - insurers like to see what a company looks like, and a picture can be worth more than a thousand words.
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Rank: Forum user
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You must understand the difference between being an auditor and an adviser. An auditor does not, typically, provide solutions, but merely raises issues of concern / non-compliance. Some people like this approach, others hate it. You will not have ownership of issues, but you will be an independent reviewer. Decide what type of auditing you want to do and ensure that the course you book will allow this to happen. Maybe speak to a few recruitment agencies and see what their clients are looking for, by way of auditing qualification. Remember, just because you want to move to the "dark side" does not mean that you are permanently stuck there. This may just be what you need to allow you to move onwards and upwards in a few years.
Good luck.
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