The New Level Health & Safety Recruitment Blog

Online job seeker support and guidance

I mentioned in last week’s blog that we were looking at different ways we can help and support our job seekers, and so I’m pleased to be able to personally recommend a new job seekers advice service called MyWorksearch. The people behind MyWorkSearch have over 60 years' experience in Human Resources between them. They know almost everything there is to know about how to search for and land the right job - and their programme incorporates it all.

 The people at MyWorkSearch give you the kind of personal guidance that's usually given by highly trained (and very expensive) career consultants. MyWorkSearch does what those career consultants would do for you - but online. Their programme coaches you in things like how to interview successfully and how to organise your time. They even analyse you to work out what kind of jobs an employer is most likely to hire you for.

Their system tells you exactly what to do, step by step, day by day - till you succeed.  It reminds you. It organises you. It keeps you going so you're not tempted to slacken when things don't go quite right, It offer practical and effective support and guidance all the way until you start your new job.

Well worth looking at, I think.

Exciting new developments to help our job seekers

We've been thinking hard (yes, it happens sometimes :))at New Level about how we can help all our candidates maximise their chances of finding a new job in the current (somewhat scary!) economic climate. Obviously we can't magically create new jobs for you all, but what we can do is steer you in the right direction to get the help you need to present yourselves well on your CV and in interview, and also to give you some advice about the tactics of applying for jobs over the internet. The pitfalls of that one are many and varied, believe me!

Anyway, I posted a blog last week about the special discounts we've negotiated with a training company (see below) to give you advice on CV writing and interview techniques, so that's a start. We're also in negotiations with another company who offer online career advice, but more on that later.

The 2nd thing we're doing is turning our informal email updates into a regular scheduled free email newsletter (sign up below),  in which we aim to provide you with bits of news about the HSE industry along with job seeking advice and some special offers from time to time. We'll be sending the first one out in the next few days, to all the people already registered with us. If you're not registered with us and you'd like to receive our newsletter, then just visit our website (www.newlevelrecruitment.com) to sign up (sorry, having trouble making the sign up link work on the blog...).

We hope all this helps - do let us know! And if any of you have any ideas about good content ideas for the newsletter, feel free to send it our way!

 

Discounted training schemes – improve your chances of getting a job!

There’s no doubt about it, it’s tough at the moment trying to find a new job (or even just to get an interview!). There are so many unemployed H&S professionals out there that you really need to make yourself stand out to get the edge over the competition. With that in mind, we’ve partnered with Recruitment Matters International (one of the more reputable training companies around), to offer a SPECIAL DISCOUNT on 2 of their training courses – “How to secure the right job in a competitive market” and “Make your CV and interview count”.

“How to secure the right job in a competitive market” is a 1 day course, normally costing £299 +VAT, but for people referred by New Level Recruitment, RMI is offering a £50 discount, bringing the cost down to a mere £249 + VAT. “Make your CV and interview count” is a half day course which normally costs £99 + VAT. Just tell them New Level Recruitment sent you and you can attend for only £79 + VAT.

These are really good courses, run by very experienced trainers (I know, I’ve been to some of their training sessions before) and represent real value for money, so take advantage and book today!

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.