Posted By Stuart McPhaden
I made the move from consultancy to H&S management in June this year, would I go back? No.

My seat is too comfy and I enjoy chasing the reports that the consultants have not submitted rather than having to justify why I haven't done them to a shouty H&S manager.

I did not find many closed doors for the move. The problem I found was the different duties/ideas that companies expected from a H&S manager role.

Posted By Stuart McPhaden
I did not have a problem making the move either from the professional or personal sides. But as I am sure you are aware there can be a bit of friction (snobbery—both ways) between consultancies and managers.

Posted By Dave Wilson
If you work in a H&S consultancy for someone else then why bother as you are still working your butt off for the benefit of another person?

If you work for yourself then I would go for it, as you can dictate when where why you do work etc!

In the future you may be able to get someone to work for you and you can take the profits!

Posted By Dave Wilson
Agreed mate as If you are any good you can always take those clients with you!

thats always a bugbear with Consultancies (Not just H&S) and if you are that good the consultancy will reward you for bringing in new business and developing existing client base - (yeh right! old cynic me!) maybe even offer you director status.

I only wish I had done it 20 years ago

Posted By Jeffrey Watt
Merv

As the late, great, Mr Barry White would say

"My unconditional love to y'all"; don't get too lonely sunshine.

http://iaeh.ytmnd.com/

Stick that in yer address window and have a giggle.

Jeff

Posted By Merv Newman
Jeff,

your weird.

Bunny,

some disagreement. You don't have to have a wide knowledge of different industries. Just a deep knowledge of what you do.

My first 10 years after school I had three employers in three different "industries". Then I had eight years with another employer/industry. Then with the same employer moved to a different industry. So I have fairly brief experience of four different industries. My BA is analytical organic chemistry.

Nowadays I consult on SMS and BBS to chemicals, papermaking, plastics conversion, engineering, stationary, automotive, railways, mining, insurance, founderies... I even work in ladies underwear.

I will not say that they are all the same and you can do the same thing wherever you are. NO. But every site of every company has it's own culture and H&S level. The expertise of the consultant lies in learning the local culture and H&S level and proposing recommendations which will help THAT site to improve.

Basically, what the consultant is supposed to do is to improve safety management and safety behaviour. And whatever the industry there are a lot of common factors out there. So you don't have to be a miner to help improve mining safety. And you don't have to be an expert in ladie's underwear to help them to avoid injuries when using a bandsaw to cut out pantie patterns.

That is the challenge. And there is the fun.

Merv

Posted By Bunny
Merv,

I did not say you have to be an expert in all indusries I said that you need a variety of experience across a range of industries to be an effective consultant. Yes you can apply basic principles but to go deeper than that and do a good job as a consultant (not just go through the motions) you also need some knowledge of known risks within an industry group.

New HSE inspectors are only being trained in non-industry specific subject areas such as slips and trips and falls from height and I believe that to be a recipe for disaster.

My concern would be that someone with no experience of manufacturing would then go in as a consultant without the first clue as to how to inspect and give advice on such equipment.

AJM, I hope that you were joking about idolising Merv. Not everyone would agree with all the advice that he gives. I for one don't.

Posted By Bunny
Merv,

In that case we disagree.

Although I don't believe that H&S consultants need to be an expert in all industries (as previously stated) I do believe that they need some industry knowledge. I personally don't believe that giving information on H&S Management alone is sufficient. I believe that we are there to also give industry specific advice. Otherwise you might as well be a management consultant and not a health and safety consultant.

If you don't have industry knowledge of mines, which are potentially very dangerous environments, then I don't believe that you have the competence to be offering health and safety advice in that industry. I wouldn't go to high risk industries (such as mines, off-shore, nuclear etc) and offer advice on their risks because I don't have that knowledge and the risks of getting it wrong could be catastrophic.

Just my opinion. I'm sure many would disagree. I hope you have really good professional indemnity.

Posted By Merv Newman
Bunny,

I'm not competent to offer advice on the risks of mining or chemicals or ladies underwear. But I judge that I am competent on advising how to manage their risks.

See the difference ?

Keep it friendly

Merv

Posted By Crim
Alan,

I was H & S Manager full time employed for 5 years (construction) then left to retire for personal reasons. 6 months later I returned on a part time basis then went self employed as consultant.

The self employment included working for a consultancy where I travelled quite a bit also some local clients I picked up through previous work.

I have learned how to operate as self employment with Accountant, P I Insurance etc. and now find that I am turning work away - because I pick and choose who I want to work for and I drop those Clients that do not follow my advice as I do not need the hassle of trying to pursuade people to do the right thing when they obviously are unwilling.

The thought of being Self employed used to scare me but I now find that its "better than working for a living".

I have applied for permanent employment over the past few years when I was in need of more work but was always unsuccessful. Perhaps there is a problem getting back but I don't need to anymore.

I hope my experience is helpful to you.

Posted By Ian G Hutchings
Alan

I would ask people you may know who have used different consultancies to get feedback. I would also suggest that you attend an event with the consultancy specialist group and ask some questions. I have a presentation from the consultancy group about becoming a consultant. I will forward this to you as it may give you some food for thought.

All the best

Ian