When considering Senior level H&S positions, what soft skills would you look for in a candidate?

Any particularly useful qualifications (not asking about H&S qualifications)?

Realise most is proven via work experience.

Many thanks

DMatt

Edited by user 08 July 2019 11:38:00(UTC)  | Reason: spelling!

I would look for:

empathy

honesty

as the two major soft skills in H&S. 

Empathy - there is a lot of personal interaction as part of health and safety, especially if you get involved in aspects of the Equality Act.  Being able to understand "people issues" and work with them to find a solution is not a cut and dried "one answer fits all" situation, each person is an individual. 

Honesty - Anyone disingenuous is not going to win the support of the workforce.  People know when they're being lied to so make sure you get someone who is honest.  At my place they might not like what I say all the time, but I tell them the truth and I am very well respected for it.

I might put a couple of real tester questions in any interview to see how the candidate reacts - do they go along with what you say, or do they disagree and stand their ground for the greater good.

The thing about IT is that the b******s that supply it keep “upgrading it”. I have been on loads of IT courses and as soon as I get the hang of one way of doing something they completely change the system. I got quite good at creating forms on Word and then they made it “better” ie completely different and I gave up.

Empathy is a really good quality. It means that you can see why some people do things in a particular way (which might seem completely mad at the time) I sometimes get  the impression that H&S bods come across as know-alls trying to impose their way of doing things and that anything else is stupid and wrong. I reality most people try to do the right thing but something in the organisation is blocking them.

Honesty means that you don’t go spouting the corporate b*****s that some managers do: “Health and Safety is the most important thing that we do” as opposed to the truth which is closer to:” I want this yesterday and I don’t care what you have to do to deliver it”. You must try to balance company needs with Health and Safety (but of course getting that balance right is the tricky bit).

Realism, humility and a sense of proportion. Not all battles are worth fighting, not all risks are equal, not all counter-arguments are stupid,

John

I would add good problem solver, good listener and good communicator.

Originally Posted by: Clark34486

Thing is you can't, generally, percieve this during an interview.

I wrok with a tight team of core individuals that move with me from place to place, the process we use to interview is:

• Initial interview (after a really studious CV sift identifying no more than 3-4 candiates to bring forward)
• I then interview after the inital
• Invite them forward to spend a day or two with us, by this stage no more than 2 candidates
• My senior guy then has a cards on the table discussion away from site (cafe etc.)

offer.....

We look for the potential and the person rather than the certificate and 30 years as a SHE practitioner

So candidates have to commit to 2 interviews and a whole day (or two) along with a third meeting afterwards? Thats taking a lot of time from someone.

Originally Posted by: Clark34486

Originally Posted by: WatsonD

Originally Posted by: Clark34486

Thing is you can't, generally, percieve this during an interview.

I wrok with a tight team of core individuals that move with me from place to place, the process we use to interview is:

• Initial interview (after a really studious CV sift identifying no more than 3-4 candiates to bring forward)
• I then interview after the inital
• Invite them forward to spend a day or two with us, by this stage no more than 2 candidates
• My senior guy then has a cards on the table discussion away from site (cafe etc.)

offer.....

We look for the potential and the person rather than the certificate and 30 years as a SHE practitioner

So candidates have to commit to 2 interviews and a whole day (or two) along with a third meeting afterwards? Thats taking a lot of time from someone.

Yep, works for me

I'm sure it does. My thoughts were with the applicants jumping through hoops, rather than you.