Non OHS Technical Skills For The OHS Person
by George Robotham
The new EBook is available HERE now – go get it!
I put my 216 page e book Guidance For The Beginning OHS Professional on this blog about 2 months ago. Since then I have been kept quite busy responding to requests for copies from people all over the world. Most requests have been from OHS personnel but some have been from managers who on the face of it did not appear to have much in the way of safety responsibilities. One request was from the Captain of an oil tanker operating out of Denmark, I thought that was a bit unusual. One was from the manager of a small nursery in country N.S.W. who said she was absolutely overwhelmed by OHS requirements. .A number of requests were from major international companies. I have discovered the blog has quite an Australian and international reach.
I have lost count of how many copies I have sent out, I am thinking it is about 800. I have not received much feedback but what I have received has been positive. People just starting out in OHS, in particular, appeared to get something out of it and some commented it was more practically useful than some of their study.
New eBook
One of the things that came to me a number of years ago was that the OHS person needs a number of non OHS skills as well as OHS technical skills to be effective. I have decided to try to write a new eBook talking about non OHS technical skills for OHS people.
I have drafted about 30 pages which mention the following.
Non OHS technical skills
Non OHS technical skills I maintain are necessary include-
- Communications skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Management of organisational change
- Leadership
- Psychology and sociology
- Project management
- Quality management
- Teambuilding
- Facilitating meetings / Problem solving groups
- Time management
- Mentoring / Coaching
- Strategy
- Managing committees
- Recognising displacement activities
- Marketing
- Human resource management
- Ethical high performance standards
- Motivation
- Being a champion
- Counselling
- Commitment to excellence
- Empathy
- Being a chameleon
- Relevant industry experience
- Learning
All the above reflects my nearly 4 decades of experience in OHS.
I have decided it would be pretty arrogant of me to think I have got this content right. I have had pretty solid OHS experience but not all that much managerial experience. I have worked with some lousy managers however and have a few clues on what not to do.
I am asking for your input to improve this e book. Maybe you have points you would like to see mentioned in the above categories, maybe you have new categories you would like to see discussed. I make no guarantees I will incorporate all comments but they will certainly receive consideration.
My aim is to make this publication really useful to OHS personnel, I am certain your input will improve it.
You cab email George with your comments: fgrobotham@gmail.com