Health and Safety Generalist Pathway Background

In 2019, Health and Safety Association of New Zealand (HASANZ) published a report ‘Building the Professions, Health and Safety Workforce Pipeline(external link)’.  This report identified that New Zealand over the next ten years will need to find an extra two thousand health and safety professionals, in a very difficult job market.

So, in 2021, the Government Health and Safety Lead (GHSL) and Van Schaik Health and Safety Solutions, started working on behalf of HASANZ(external link) to develop a common career development pathway for health and safety (H&S) generalists in New Zealand. This programme of work was supported by WorkSafe,(external link) New Zealand Institute of Safety Management(external link) (NZISM) and New Zealand Safety Council(external link) (NZSC).

The approach we adopted for this important piece of work included:

• Extensive consultation and engagement with key sector stakeholders nationwide across both public and private sectors through workshops, meetings and consultation. Agencies such as LT McGuiness, Foodstuffs, Chorus, Air NZ, Warehouse and Fonterra participated, just to name a few.
• Gaining an understanding of the current H&S career development issues and challenges organisations are facing in recruitment.
• Defining the current market problems.
• Identifying, exploring, and confirming the core H&S generalist skills (technical skills and soft skills) required for career progression.
• Completing a risk analysis to determine strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

The pathway uses the International Network of Safety and Health Professional Organisations (INSHPO) capability framework as a foundation and takes into consideration common NZ health and safety job roles in both private and public sector as well as stand-alone advisers or HR professionals with health and safety responsibilities.

The role of the health and safety advisor or manager has changed significantly over the last few years which has meant that organisations and recruiters have been unclear about the skill sets, qualifications and competencies required to be successful for roles and the profession. Resulting in poor fit between the person and the job they have been recruited to do and placing both the organisation and individual at risk. Adopting a common career pathway will bring consistency across the industry, particularly as New Zealand is comprised of small to medium sized businesses.

 

For more information on the clarified roles in the H&S Generalist Job Family click here.