What Is the Role of a Safety Professional? -- Ep. 58

In this episode, Mary Conquest speaks with Dr David Provan, an award-winning safety researcher who investigated the role of safety professionals. David is also the CEO of Forge Works, founder of Safety Futures, and host of ‘The Safety of Work’ podcast.

David begins by explaining why it’s important to define the role of the HSE professional and what role scientific research plays in the safety profession.

He then shares the main factors that shape the role of a safety professional, which he’s categorized as: institutional, relational, and individual.

David discusses the limited decision-making authority held by safety leaders and how they can move from a position of challenging to influencing to improve workplace safety.

A key part of David’s research was exploring the identity of a safety professional. He discovered real tensions playing out in the mindset of safety people, concluding that the identity is confusing and paradoxical!

David’s enlightening research findings are essential listening for EHS practitioners, and he also shares his ‘scary’ conclusions after studying the activity of HSE professionals. Do you agree you spend too much time on safety work rather than initiatives directly contributing to the safety of work?

This high-impact interview will get you thinking deeply about why and how you do what you do as a safety professional.

Find out more about David’s Safety Consultancy work:
Forge Works https://forgeworks.com/
Safety Futures https://safetyfutures.com/

The podcast David co-hosts:
https://safetyofwork.com/

David’s recommends Paper Safe by Greg Smith
https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Safe-tri...

David Provan on LinkedIn:
  / david-provan-forgeworks  


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TABLE OF CONTENT

0:00 Intro
02:10 Why is it important to define the role of the safety professional?
03:29 Safety research opportunities
06:01 The factors that shape the role of a safety professional
09:32 Safety professionals typically have minimal decision rights
11:42 Moving from challenging to influencing decisions
13:30 “Make your head of safety the CEO”
16:34 Alliance in safety management
19:41 A safety professional can’t be everywhere, all the time
21:06 The identity of safety professionals
25:54 Standardization of safety education
27:34 What are the objectives of safety professional work activities?
30:41 Safety work v safety of work
34:10 Safety learning
35:17 5 theoretical perspectives of safety
38:07 The future role of a safety professional
42:07 Shaping trusted, impactful safety organizations
44:16 Building operational capability
46:29 The role of technology in safety
48:56 Constructively disagreement
50:10 The importance of safety science and academic research
51:45 Recommended resources for safety professionals