Career Guide to the Safety Profession - Essay Example

Career Guide to the Safety Profession Question #1. Describe how you would go about developing your professional expertise in awareness and methods for managing OSHA compliance in an organization. Explain the process you would use to assure OSHA compliance in an organization. In order to develop my professional expertise in both awareness and methods for managing OSHA compliance in an organization, I would first be sure to read up on the industry specific compliance resources that are located on OSHA’s website. Once I have done so, I would then move on to the OSHA compliance assistance and outreach program, and I would be sure to check the OSHA approved state programs to see if my organization is located in a state with different or additional requirements as specified by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA, 2013). Once I had ensured that not only was I fully versed in the rules and requirements as specified by OSHA’s laws and guidelines, I would then see if OSHA’s free on site consultation program, which “conducted 29,310 visits to small and medium-sized employers” (OSHA, 2013) in 2012, was available in my area, and if not, go through their outreach training program, a program that taught “689,779 students” (OSHA, 2013) in 2012; after having taken these steps, I would feel confident that my organization was fully in compliance with the rules and regulations as set forth by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. If there ever came a time when I was unsure on a particular point of safety and health regulations, I would be sure to check OSHA’s website and review their industry specific resources, which will also serve as a point of reference in order to keep up to date with all the latest tips, regulations, and notifications in the industry. In addition, the eTools section of OSHA’s site will provide me with stand-alone interactive web based training tools on a large variety of occupational safety and health topics. These modules are available as downloadable files for offline use and training as well, which will ensure that any employees that I have working with me, or for me, will be able to keep up to date on the same rules and regulations that I am. By having them complete the modules as well, I am ensuring that I have additional sets of eyes that are trained on the same aspects; this allows for a more thorough check of our environment and decreases the likelihood of things being missed as a result of oversight, tiredness, and so on. Question #2. Using the ASSE Career Guide to the Safety Profession how would you answer these questions? a) What is the Safety Profession? b) What Safety Professionals Do? c) Where Do Safety Professionals Work? d) What is the Employment Outlook for Safety Professionals? e) Should I Become a Safety Professional? f) Read the Profiles of Safety Professionals starting on page 34 and explain which of the professionals you most identify with, or whose career path comes closest to what you want to achieve in your career. The Safety Profession allows for individuals to prevent “harm to people, property and the environment…(drawing) from such disciplines as engineering, education, psychology, physiology, enforcement, hygiene, health, physics, and management…(using) appropriate methods and techniques of loss prevention and loss control” (ASSE, 2007). They work to ensure that all personnel in a particular environment are in the safest environment possible, and are interacting appropriately with their work environment, whether that environment is found sitting in front of a computer screen, or standing on an assembly line. Safety professionals work to “prevent accidents, illnesses, fires, explosions and other events which harm people, property and the environment” (ASSE, 2007) through the identification, evaluation, control, and prevention of the things that cause or contribute to those accidents, illnesses, fires, explosions, and other events. It is the job of the safety professional to identify potential threats and hazards before they become an issue to the safety or health of those who are working in, or around, a particular environment. Safety professionals’ precise roles may include hazard recognition, inspections, audits, fire protection, regulatory compliance, health hazard control, ergonomics, hazardous materials management, environmental protection, training, accident and incident investigations, advising management, record keeping, evaluating, managing safety programs, emergency response, product safety, and security. Just because a person becomes a safety professional, does not necessarily indicate that the professional will be in harm’s way; it is far more likely that the individual will be behind a desk, looking at numbers and figures, or keeping track of certain information than they will be in the front line of danger; it all depends on the particular field that the safety professional themselves chooses to join. Safety professionals may work, and do work, in all agencies, however, the primary industries that safety professionals work in include, but are not limited to, “manufacturing and production, consulting, construction, government, insurance, utilities and communication, petrochemical, and transportation” (ASSE, 2007). As mentioned before, these are not the only industries that a safety professional may choose to make their home; a safety professional is just as likely to be found in the private sector, or even in a multibillion dollar office building, working to ensure that all deskbound employees are getting adequate time away from their computers, and their workstations are fully ergonomic, as to work to prevent issues that arise from desk jobs, like carpal tunnel syndrome. “The employment outlook for safety professionals is bright” (ASSE, 2007); with changing technologies, and increasing specializations, there will always be some aspect or industry that will not only benefit from the inclusion of a safety professional, but will also allow the industry as well as the professional themselves to flourish. This is especially in light of the fact that “insurance and worker’s compensation costs have escalated over the last two decades and have become economic concerns for many employers” (ASSE, 2007), putting an increased emphasis on company safety, and in turn offering ever growing employment opportunities for those in the safety profession. When deciding whether or not to become a safety professional, it is important for the student to consider whether or not they “are motivated by a desire to help others,…believe it is important to serve (their) community,… (and whether or not they) place a high value on health and human life” (ASSE, 2007); if all these qualifications are met, there is a good chance that the student would thrive by becoming a safety professional. Other key things for the student to consider are whether or not they have an exacting attention to detail, and whether or not they have a large amount of patience. A child who sat down each year at Christmas and went through each and every light bulb on a dead string of Christmas lights in order to find the dead bulb or the short and fix it is a child who would likely do well in the safety profession as an adult, for they have shown that they have the careful attention to detail that is needed in order to look for all possible reasons for the issue, take the time to find the solution, and then perform the necessary steps to solve the problem. I most identify with Joseph T. White, as he “discovered safety while thumbing through the undergraduate programs catalog at Marshall University and through word of mouth from friends and family in the industry” (ASSE, 2007), as I did not anticipate this particular course of study, but happened upon it by accident, and believe that this profession will best suit what I want to do in my life after college. I believe that it is rare for the freshman to stick with the same course that they thought they would upon entering college, and I have known many people who changed their mind and their degree path time and time again during their freshman year. It is for reasons like this that Joseph T. White’s story of how he fell into the safety profession makes sense and is highly realistic to me. I too believe that my “ability to communicate with people” (ASSE, 2007) has played a key part in getting me to where I am today, and I believe that this will continue to play a huge role in getting me to where I want to be in the future. Many people these days lack basic communication skills, and as such, the ability to easily get your point across, while doing so in a clear, concise, and pleasant manner is an important skill. Joseph T. White showed how “perseverance is essential to being a safety professional” (ASSE, 2007), and I know that I have the necessary drive and determination to see my goals through to the end. While I do not believe that I will enter a scrap metal recycling facility like Joseph T. White, I do not discount the possibility, as no one can ever know the direction the future will take them in with any degree of certainty. Works Cited ASSE. "Career Guide to the Safety Profession." Career Guide to the Safety Profession. ASSE, 2007. Web. 26 Feb. 2013. . OSHA. "Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs | Compliance Assistance/Outreach." Directorate of Cooperative and State Programs | Compliance Assistance/Outreach. OSHA, 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2013. . OSHA. "Industry-Specific Resources." Industry-Specific Resources. OSHA, 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2013. . Read More