subject: Selecting An Ohs Consultant [print this page] Professional occupational health and safety consultants are essential for all businesses. They provide an independent, formal analysis of organisational needs and are invaluable sources of information and advice for helping self insured organisations meet their statutory obligations and OHS commitments.
Most organisations don't have the required in-house levels of current technical and statutory knowledge to efficiently coordinate, implement and manage a fully compliant OHS Management System. An OHS management consultant is the strategic planning and operational link between organisation functions and the technical aspects of a health and safety management system.
All OHS practices and documentation must meet required regulatory standards and have a complete, audit-ready management system in place. OHS management consultants provide a full support service for businesses in this regard. Every aspect of OHS, including training, reporting, and compliance must be integrated on an organisation-wide basis. Best practice is to create a complete, customised OHS administrative system tailored to the needs of the organisation.
OHS management consultancy services
The occupational health and safety management consultant can provide advice and assistance across the spectrum of business needs, including:
Statutory compliance
Strategic and operational planning
OHS management systems setup, integration and implementation
Policy and procedural development
Hazard management issues and research
Building effective communication and procedural fluency
Design of functional OHS responsibilities and roles
Analysis of special OHS requirements and operational issues
Formal evaluation of OHS systems and compliance
Quality control - reporting, recording and analysis of OHS performance to ensure best practice
Development of fully compliant, efficient emergency and accident investigation processes
Critically important, OHS management consultants also provide real time assistance, and make sure mistakes aren't being made in incident management. Most OHS management problems occur during the handling of incidents, and consultants can prevent serious issues from developing.
Selection Considerations
Having identified the need to engage a professional OHS consultant, it is important to identify the type of consultant who has the knowledge, skills and expertise required for the scope of work required. Many OHS consultants are industry-specific experts, and are invaluable for their depth of knowledge of industry law and safety issues.
This is an example of the criteria for selection:
Requirement
Consideration
Education
Clearly defined formal qualifications are mandatory at all levels of consultancy.
Experience
An appropriate level of experience, with clear delineation of services provided must be provided.
Special capabilities
Industry specialisation is particularly important, and is invaluable in most cases.
Professional associations
Most OHS management consultants are members of professional organisations, often including indicative membership of organisations relevant to the industry concerned.
Engaging the consultant
When seeking a safety management consulting service it's important to provide enough information for consultants to evaluate the requirements of the organisation, estimate the timeframes and cost of the service. It's particularly useful for organisations to clearly identify particular issues and specific needs in relation to the consultancy work at this point, which allows the consultant to include these important considerations.
A detailed proposal to be submitted by the consultant should outline:
The exact nature and scope of services to be provided
Management strategies, methodologies and practices
Resources necessary for the service
Criteria for achievement of objectives and targets
Selecting a consultant
Face to face meetings can be used to select the most appropriate OHS consultant. Businesses may request a meeting with the consultant who'll be handling their program if selected, rather than a consultancy representative.
Common Problems
By far the majority of professional OHS consultants are dedicated, very highly motivated people with exceptionally strong levels of personal commitment to their roles.
However, in some cases consultancies may provide inadequate services.
These situations are entirely unacceptable and below professional standards:
Consultancy does not meet organisational requirements
The service provided is clearly inadequate
Consultancy lacks relevant experience
Consultancy does not provide sufficient resources
Junior consultants are assigned to complex technical work in which they're out of their depth
It is very strongly advised that:
Organisations establish clear measurable standards of contractual performance for OHS consultancies.
Make their expectations clear and enforceable under contract terms prior to proceeding with any consultancy agreement.
