Posted By Jack In reality they are fairly arbitrary terms, often selected by non-safety practitioners because they think their particular choice says what they consider to be the right thing about the post. In practice it depends on what the job description says about the role rather than what it is called. In my view health and safety adviser better sums up the practitioner role. However, H&S manager may be appropriate for the person responsible for managing the organisations h&s function, perhaps being responsible for a team of h&s advisers. The only problem is that in some (less than progressive)organisations it is then assumed that they manage h&s and other managers can just leave that part to them and get on with the rest of the job!

Posted By MichaelM Having just left a company where I was titled H&S Manager and now work under the title of Officer (with more pay) it is an arbitrary title which in my instance was to do with two facts. I was in charge of H&S in three distinct facilities and also it was the only way they could ensure my wages would be linked to the other professional people I worked with. If I was titled Adviser it would have been the same job I was doing.