Safety Manager Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Are you searching for a safety manager job description? Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a safety manager. Feel free to use our safety manager job description template to produce your own safety manager job description. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a safety manager.
Who is a Safety Manager?
They are also called occupational health and safety officer in a work environment or professional setting. Safety managers are solely responsible for planning, executing, and supervising a company’s employees at work to ensure that they adhere to or comply with the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines. Safety officers provide safety management, monitoring, advice, and reporting in the workplace, and they also engage staff in various programs to guarantee that safety practices are executed in the workplace. They ensure safety in a workplace to reduce the risk of injuries and accidents in the course of employees discharging their duties. They also conduct safety audits and inspections daily to make sure that work personnel, materials, and equipment comply with governmental safety rules and regulations.
The safety officer is responsible for formulating safety programs and also standardizing them to share them at staff meetings. To ensure you have a successful career as a safety manager, you must be updated with the recent development in health and safety and constantly implement these practices in the workplace. A safety officer is a top-notch position that demands compliance with all safety rules and regulations and also ensures that every member of staff adheres to such. The minimum qualification for a safety manager is a bachelor’s degree and they are responsible for; monitoring lost-time injuries, sick and healthy workers’ compensation claims, and also ensuring a safety-first culture across the entire organization.
Safety Manager Job Description
What is a safety manager job description? A safety manager job description is simply a list of duties and responsibilities of a safety manager in an organization. Below are the safety manager job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a safety manager job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
Below are the duties and responsibilities of a Safety Manager:
- Strategize and implement Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) policies and programs
- Instruct and lead employees on various safety-related topics
- Plan educational seminars and webinars on regular policies
- Review exciting policies and techniques
- Work with Human Resources to set up the current employee onboarding process for safety
- Perform risk assessment
- Implement preventive measures
- Enroll and hire new safety employees
- Train, manage, and supervise your staff
- Specify process bottlenecks and offer timely solutions
- Test if all the employees are acting in compliance with rules and regulations
- Plan and present reports on accidents and violations and determine causes
- Supervise workplace repair, installations, and any other work that could harm employees’ safety
- Standardize health and safety to remain constant
- Recognize hazardous waste and dispose of it correctly
- Facilitate safety initiatives
- Assemble and maintain relevant registers to ensure compliance
- Document staff information minutes of meetings, and reports collected for management
- Frequently inspect equipment
- Research and execute new materials handling processes
- Evaluate accidents reports and analyze injury case studies
- Lead injury and incidents investigations and evaluation
- Track incidents metrics and apply outcomes
Qualifications
- A bachelor’s degree in safety management or a related field
- Certificate in occupational health and safety
- At least three experience as a safety manager or in a similar role
- Outstanding knowledge of legislation and procedures
- Wonderful knowledge of potentially hazardous materials or practices
- At least two years of experience in producing reports
- Experience with writing policies and techniques for health and safety
- Proficiency of conducting data analysis and reporting statistics
- Proficient In MS office
- Helping knowledge of safety management information system
- Outstanding organizational skills
- Critical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Team player
- Good-time management skills
- Good interpersonal and information skills
Essential Skills
- Interpersonal Skills: Safety managers are responsible for ensuring that employees comply with federal, state, and local laws. To achieve this, they must build a bond with their employees, team members, and other professionals to educate them about the recent trend in occupational health and safety. The skills they need are responsibility, teamwork, and dependability.
- Communication Skills: Safety Managers must possess both verbal and written communication skills to communicate instructions in a vivid manner that portrays employee safety. They usually inform employees on how to execute best practices and techniques of safety at employee meetings.
Additionally, they draft documents about staff information, minutes of meetings, and also any accident that staff may encounter in the course of discharging their duties. They must be very comfortable delivering safety training presentations to employees and also be ready at all times to prepare written reports for employees and the management.
- Detail-oriented: they need to pay keen attention to detail and be very focused when discharging their duties or responsibilities to avoid any mistakes. They must have a strong comprehension of government rules and safety standards and then follow them as appropriate. They must also have extensive knowledge of inspection procedures and laws and also learn to perform tests and identify hazards.
- Physical Stamina: Safety managers are very much busy people and they may be demanded to stand for long periods of hours in the course of discharging their duties. They may stand for long hours to conduct meetings, present papers or research findings, and inspects procedures and policies in the workplace. They must therefore possess the physical stamina to stand for long periods of hours without being congested.
- Problem-solving Skills: they must possess research, active listening, and decision-making skills to bring solutions to challenges that may spring up in a work environment. They must possess strong problem-solving skills to be able to execute workplace processes and procedures that will be beneficial in protecting employees from dangerous conditions. They must also ensure that employees’ injuries are analyzed and put drastic measures in place to prevent such from reoccurring.
- Technical Skills: Safety managers must possess both computer and technical skills to be able to utilize advanced technology as often to discharge their duties. They may be regularly demanded to work with complex testing equipment; they must possess knowledge on how to handle all this equipment.
- Leadership Skills: a Safety manager position is a top-notch position in an organization and they are responsible for providing leadership support for the management team of an organization and they are also responsible for providing coverage for small supervisors. They are also responsible for recruiting new employees and also performing for current employees regarding Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) rules. They are also responsible for leading a team of professionals or employees; they must therefore employ their leadership skills to ensure a smooth running of an organization.
How to Become a Safety Manager
- Earn an Education
The first step to becoming a safety manager is to earn a bachelor’s degree in safety management or a related field. This solely depends on the industry you want to specialize in. for instance, if you want to work in the manufacturing industry, you are expected to acquire a bachelor’s degree in a course that relates to manufacturing or production. If you want to specialize in a factory, you will have to acquire a degree in occupational health and safety because most factory workers are exposed to hazards. Safety managers that want to work on construction sites are expected to acquire a bachelor’s degree in Construction Management or Engineering Construction degree that covers construction safety, blueprint reading, quality assurance, types of construction equipment, and construction materials and methods. Search for openings in your area and determine the level of qualification for these roles. Pursue the qualification in the job description and if you are still in high school; focus on courses like English, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and physics.
- Obtain Experience
Experience is highly vital for safety managers on the field and they must also possess knowledge of safety programs. If you intend to specialize in the construction industry, you will need to enroll in an internship or look for entry-level positions in the industry where you will get the requisite experience on scissor lifts, cranes, scaffolding, and rigging. As an entry-level employee, you will be specifically trained in aspects like hazardous materials and fall protection. If you don’t want to specialize in the construction industry, you can look for entry-level positions in any industry you want to specialize in. You can also learn about specific inspection procedures and laws that enable you to test and identify hazards.
- Obtain Certifications
This may not be mandatory but obtaining industry certifications can give you an advantage over other job candidates in the job market and also prove to employers that you are competent for the job. It also increases your job prospects and helps you to have a progressive career. Here are the list of the most common certificate Safety managers can acquire:
- Certified Safety Professional (CSP): This certificate demands that candidates must possess a bachelor’s degree and a minimum of four years of safety experience before they can apply for this certification. It is offered by the Board of Certified Safety Professionals (BCSP) and candidates are mandated to Hold another BCSP Qualified Credential and pass the CSP examination.
- Occupational Health and Safety Technologist (OHST): This is issued by SPAN international, this certification requires that occupational health and safety professionals must have five years of experience before they can apply. Although a candidate takes to enroll in college courses can still qualify for the requirement. The criteria are that they must pass the OHST examination to obtain this certification.
- Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR): This is a lifesaving technique that is utilized in emergency occurrences such as near-drowning and heart attacks. The procedure employed is utilizing chest compressions, conducting rescue breathing to get oxygen via the lungs if a person stops breathing, and also clearing the airway. The certification by being acquired by different bodies such as churches, healthcare facilities and chapters, community centers, and American Red Cross.
- Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH): this is usually offered by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene. This program authenticates that an individual possesses minimum knowledge in areas such as biohazards, ergonomics, analytical chemistry, and toxicology. To acquire this certification; candidates are required to provide two professional references, and educational transcripts and pass the examination.
- Construction Health and Safety Technician (CHST)
- Associate Safety Professional(ASP)
- Update your Resume
When you have the required qualification and experience (most employers prefer candidates with at least five years’ experience in health and safety positions). Update your resume and highlight your level of education, industry-relevant certification, and also essential work experience.
- Apply for Jobs
Once you possess the relevant qualification and you have updated your resume; the next step is to apply for a job. Do a thorough search about the safety manager positions in your geographic area and match the requirements with the qualification you possess. Apply for the position by drafting a cover letter and using your updated resume.
Where to Work as a Safety manager
The job responsibility of a safety manager is cut across different industries such as factories or construction sites. The typical job setting of a safety manager is an office or a factory and they sometimes have to travel from one location to another to carry out a responsibility. They are exposed to dangers and hazards in the course of carrying out their duties and they use safety equipment to minimize illness, risk, and injury. The most common places they can work are:
- Management and consulting services
- Hospitals
- Manufacturing
- Hospitals
- Government Agencies
Safety Manager Salary Scale
The salary of a Safety Manager varies across different countries and below are some examples:
- In the United States, The average safety manager salary in the USA is $87,500 per year or $44.87 per hour. Entry-level positions start at $69,999 per year while most experienced workers make up to $115,001 per year. The average safety manager salary in California is $97,500 per year or $50 per hour. Entry-level positions start at $84,888 per year while most experienced workers make up to $130,000 per year. The average safety manager salary in Michigan is $110,000 per year or $56.41 per hour. Entry-level positions start their careers at $87,500 per year while most experienced workers make up to $149,500 per year.
- In the United Kingdom, The average health and safety manager salary in the United Kingdom is £42,500 per year or £21.79 per hour. Entry-level positions start their careers at £35,980 per year while most experienced workers make up to £55,000 per year.
- In Nigeria, A person working as a Health and Safety Officer in Nigeria typically earns around 146,000 NGN per month. Salaries range from 66,900 NGN (lowest) to 231,000 NGN (highest).
- In Australia, The average safety officer salary in Australia is $86,876 per year or $44.55 per hour. Entry-level positions start their careers at $75,659 per year, while most experienced workers make up to $115,140 per year.