Posted By Graham Clarke MIOSH, MIIRSM I head a safety department of Eight Regionally based guys, at present they report into the Regional Operations Manager, (with a dotted line into me), for the area they reside in. I am trying to convince Management to allow me to have responsibility for the department, I feel we can offer a better service to the organisation holistically. I need to come up with sound financial, ethical and moral arguments to back my claim; can you help please.

Posted By David Brede I would have thought that the main financial hurdle you would have to overcome would be that once you have line management responsibility for these persons you will be pitching for a rise to reflect your increased responsibilities! Another issue is will you be sacrificing any line management control that the direct reports have to the ROM's? As a separarate entity you may be at arms length and become a more advisory dept, to be disregarded when 'more important' considerations such as delivery or price are being thought of. So what is your game plan? To reduce the regional staff by some economy of scale by working together? Some degree of specialisation of the team to become experts in particular fields thus raising safety standards? At the end of the day you will have to evidence discernible added value to your organisation of having an independent safety dept. You need some examples of best practice from others working in this way. Unfortunately my experience points in the other direction but all organisations are unique so for your business you may be right. Best of luck.