The New Level Health & Safety Recruitment Blog

Competent person - what is one, and do I need one?

Here at New Level Recruitment we often get asked exactly what a “competent person” is, in terms of Health & Safety regulation. Although the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1989 state that employers have a specific duty to appoint a competent person (or persons) to assist them in meeting their Health & Safety obligations, it doesn’t spell out exactly what defines a competent person, so many people are unclear.

The reason (presumably) that the act is vague on the actual definition is because the level of training, qualifications or experience required depends very much on the type of business involved and the level of risk it carries. An office block, for example, will require less from their competent person than a heavy manufacturing facility with all the associated H&S risks that involves.

It is very important as an employer that you obtain qualified professional advice as to the level of qualifications and experience your designated competent person needs or you may find yourself in the same position as a leading supermarket did recently, when it was fined £475,000 for an incident in which a fork lift truck driver was killed. Although there was a designated competent person on site, the court deemed her level of qualifications and experience too low for the level of risk involved on that site, and therefore the company was liable.

Health & Safety spending – now is not the time to cut back!

The HSE (Health & Safety Executive) has issued a warning about the temptation for employers to save money by cutting their spending on Health & Safety. According to a survey they conducted recently, over 25% of those questioned said they were coming under pressure to cut back on safety spending. Evidence from previous economic downturns however, shows that the early recovery stages are amongst the most dangerous - as activity starts to pick up, so does the rate of workplace accidents. This is thought to be in part due to the number of relatively inexperienced (therefore cheap) workers taken on in high risk industries in an effort to keep costs down, and longer working hours. As the economy starts to recover, it would seem a wise idea to have good health & safety standards in place to avoid any accidents, thus avoiding the expense and heartbreak of having to deal with them afterward. 229 people were killed in workplace accidents in the UK last year, and over a hundred thousand injured. That’s an awful lot of avoidable distress, isn’t it?

A couple of new jobs I could do with some help with!

Hi all - I've got a couple of nice new jobs in that might be of interest to you or to someone you know. Details are on our website www.newlevelrecruitment.com, but in brief - the first is an H&S Manager role with a top tier COMAH site in Essex, ref 0920, and the second is a Head of Risk Management role with a chain of childcare facilities, based in Hertfordshire, ref 0922. Call me if you'd like some more information :)

Another day, another job....

Well, I don't know about anybody else, but quite frankly I am EXTREMELY relieved to have reached this stage on a Friday afternoon. It is a beautiful day outside and I'm desperate to knock off, crack a cold on (that's Australian for opening a can of lager) and enjoy the sunshine for a bit.

It's been a mixed week at New Level Recruitment - got let down by a time wasting candidate (no names necessary, he knows who he is), which was disappointing, but on the bright side we've had several new jobs come in, which is always good in this market! One is for an Asbestos Consultant with a company in West Suffolk (ref 0921) and the other is for a Health & Safety Manager with an oil storage company in Essex (ref 0920). If either of those sound good to you just give us a call (0845 270 1640) or email me at jo@newlevelrecruitment.com and I'll be happy to tell you all about them.
In the meantime, have a great weekend, and enjoy the sunshine!!

Katherine Jenkins - WOW!!

Nothing to do with Health and Safety, or recruitment, but I went to see Katherine Jenkins sing last night at the Wisley Music Festival. WOW!!! What an amazing voice that woman has - I'd never heard her before, didn't know what to expect, but she was quite frankly incredible. If you ever get the chance to see her (even if you don't really like classical music) grab it, she is great.

New HSE survey reveals some interesting anomalies

An interesting survey released this week by the HSE (The Health & Safety Executive) claims that 78% of business leaders think that good health & safety standards are beneficial to their organisation, 87% of employers think that their employees are their most important asset, BUT only 47% state that health & safety is at the centre of their business. How does that figure? In a country where 137,000 (yes, you read it right) people were seriously injured or killed in the workplace last year, where everyone knows (or should know) how to get professional advice on minimising the risks their employees face, less than half of employers still bother to make their workers' safety a priority.
We're not talking the swimming goggle bashers and the conker banners here, we're talking proper common sense and professional advice. Seems like at the end of the day, whatever the legislation and the rhetoric, people still aren't getting the message.....

How to maximise your chances of finding a job on the internet.

When it comes to posting your CV on an internet job board such as CV Library, Totaljobs, Healthandsafety-jobs.co.uk etc., there are some basic rules you need to follow to make sure your details can be found by the right people and to maximise your chances of finding your next job.

Each job board is slightly different, but the basics are the same for each.

1. They will always ask you for your contact details – many sites have an option to hide these details and a lot of people take advantage of that, which is understandable. What you need to remember is that your contact details need to be SOMEWHERE, or recruiters and potential employers won’t be able to contact you. I had a CV in yesterday from a job site – a good candidate with skills highly relevant to a particular job I’m working on, but he didn’t bother to put any contact details on either his CV or on the site so I can’t let him know about the opportunity. A complete waste of time. So, remember either put your contact details on the job board, or on your CV.

2. Salary and location options – it can be tempting to select all locations and all salary brackets when you post your CV, but actually when you do that you’re making it more difficult for people to assess your suitability for a particular role. If you say you are looking for £30 – 40,000 a year, for example, that’s clear and people can work on that basis. If you select “£10 – 20k, 20 – 30k, 30-40k, 50 – 60k, 60k +” then it gives no accurate information at all, so won’t help recruiters assess your suitability at all! Likewise with location – if you really are totally mobile and can go anywhere in the UK (or the world) at a moment’s notice, then fine, select all those locations. 99.5% of people AREN’T totally mobile though, and would rather cut their hands off than relocate to Outer Mongolia or Timbuktu! If you aren’t really going to do it, then don’t say you will!

3. Always make your nationality clear, either on the job board selection options or on your CV. People need to know for legal reasons, not to be racist! It isn’t us being nosy, it’s the Home Office!

4. Keywords – many job boards allow recruiters and potential employers to search candidate’s CVs using keywords. If your CV or profile doesn’t have the relevant keywords in it people won’t be able to find you. Once a recruiter has your CV they may well be able to “read between the lines” to ascertain your relevant skills and experience, but if the right keywords aren’t in there to enable them to find your CV in the first place, they’re never going to get that far!

5. Job title – look on a job title as a keyword. Many job boards give you the option to put in your current job title, which recruiters and potential employers can then search on. If you put “unemployed”, what do you really think the chances are of anyone finding your CV or looking at your profile?

6. Spelling – my old bug bear, but just as relevant as ever, particularly when it comes to keyword searching. If, for example, you write IOSH as OHS institution, no-one will find you. If you spell NEBOSH as NESHOB (which I saw recently, so it isn’t a joke!) no-one will find you. Also, a properly formatted and spellchecked CV demonstrates your attention to detail and your professionalism.

National Temporary Workers week and the benefits of Interim HSE support

In case you weren’t aware, this week is National Temporary Worker’s week, sponsored by the REC (The Recruitment and Employment Confederation). It’s an exciting event that aims to recognise the contribution made to the

UK

economy by temporary workers and to raise awareness of how important the temporary worker is. According to the latest stats from the REC, the

UK

recruitment is worth £27 billion a year, of which the vast majority (£24 billion) is down to temporary working.

 

When most people think “temp” they think of an office assistant or a receptionist, brought in at the last minute to cover sickness or annual leave. There is a lot more to it than that though – imagine a company who needs some Health & Safety support urgently but can’t afford to take on a permanent employee. Or perhaps they are looking for the right person to take on permanently but need some cover until they recruit. An interim (aka temporary) Health & Safety professional can come in at short notice, stay as long as you need them and ensure you are doing the right things.

 

That leaves you free to relax in the knowledge that all is taken care of, and concentrate your mind on the permanent recruitment process (and on your other work!)

 

It’s an option that’s worth thinking about – it you’d like to talk to us, you know where we are – www.newlevelrecruitment.com or 0845 270 1640.

50% discount? I don't think so!

I had an interesting call this morning from a total stranger, asking me to give him a 50% discount on our standard rates - no negotiation, no quid pro quo, nothing to make me want to help him, just "I want a 50% discount or I'll go elsewhere". So, as I sent him on his way, I got to wondering just why it is that people think that just becuase  we are supposedly in recession (not that you'd know it, the way our phones have been ringing this week :)) we should suddenly enter bargain basement land. If I was a brain surgeon, would he call me and say "brains are cheap this week, so please operate on my head for a tenner?". If I was a mechanic, would he call and say "I know you normally charge £100.hour, but I only want to pay £10" No, he wouldn't!! So why do people think that because there are a lot of jobseekers out there that the job of a recruiter gets any easier, or cheaper? He should come live in my office for a week and then he'd get an idea of what we actually do for our money!

Health & Safety at Work magazine - industry forum

The latest HSW Magazine is out this week, and it is well worth reading, because there is a very interesting recruitment section - an industry forum featuring New Level Recruitment and some of the other leading HSE recruitment agencies. There are some really useful tips in there on how to get the most out of your recruitment agency, for job seekers and employers alike. Anything that might give you an edge in this market is worth a look, imho!

First person charged under the Corporate Manslaughter Act

Breaking news from the Health & Safety Professional magazine - the CPS has just charged the first person with offences under the Corporate Manslaughter Act. (read the article here) It'll be interesting to see what happens when it gets to court in June and to see how enforceable the Act actually is.