Hi Jonathan I currently work as an HSE Mgr. within the Oil and Gas sector and have done for quite a few years now, prior to that I was involved with operations, in a leadership role. It was quite a change to start with as (in my option) there tends to be a differing mind-set. Operations can be hoping for ‘steady state’ but in reality firefighting to ensure an asset remains operational. It’s good to remain realistic and sometimes it doesn’t have to be ‘back and white’ to ensure compliance and also that good safety management remains consistent; realise that your priorities might not be the same everyone else! I had to learn to find realistic and acceptable solutions to issues; keep talking, keep people in the loop – so good lines of communication, but listen as well! Realise that you are not fully responsible for safety but responsible for providing professional and competent advice that can be taken or maybe even left. Management, leadership and even the general workforce need to take ownership for their safety and the safety of others. Speak to the leadership team, provide sound advice and genuine guidance but let them deliver – it’s their job! Learn that every day is a school day and others will have knowledge you do not and vice versa, so enjoy the learning experience. Also, don’t let the knocks get you down, it will happen. People not wanting to listen to advice, the incidents and accidents, the injuries; really all the reactive safety that stops you doing the proactive and ‘good’ stuff! Suck this up and learn to live with it, it’s simply part of the job. One other thing – try and get out and about (manage your desk time) and speak to people win some ‘hearts and minds’ that will/should go a long way with the guys at the work-face, but should also go far with the managers that know and understand what’s really important. The very best of luck to you, I enjoyed greatly my time in operations but even more so my time working within a safety role. If I can be of any help then please just drop me a PM. Regards

Interesting advice. I have the same dilemma at my current work. Been in building services contracting for 25 years now and recently moved across to health & safety for the business. Very different mind set required, which at times I will admit to struggling with.