Introduction
A safety manager is a person who is responsible for maintaining safety regulations by assessing unsafe situations or crowds in an event, political rallies, hazardous workplaces and many more. A safety manager is also called a safety officer or a safety coordinator. Let us know ‘Safety Manager Interview Questions’.
Role Of A Safety Manager
Before discussing the interview questions asked to a safety manager or a safety specialist it is important to know what kind of roles and duties he or she is expected to perform. Although, the role and responsibility of a safety manager various from company to company and also location to location. There are some duties that a safety manager has to perform in all workplaces during their tenure. These files may include: –
1. A safety manager has to monitor present and future health and safety risks in that workplace.
2. Taking corrective measures to overcome the hazardous situation.
3. Organizes meetings to aware other people about safety precautions
4. He is expected to arrange and organise safety equipment. Some general safety equipment that is a must for every building is first aid, fire alarms, fire extinguisher and many more.
5. A safety manager is expected to promote safety awareness among co-workers and other employees.
6. Arranging webinars to make other people aware of the safety rules and precautions.
7. Interrogating the site or a workplace to avoid any form of accident or emergency in future.
8. Formulate new safety policies or bring improvement in the existing policies.
Interview Questions Asked To A Safety Manager Related To Subjects Matter And Knowledge
These questions might include the different scope of safety and preservative measures. Many different types of questions are asked to understand the behaviour and practical knowledge of that person. For example, an imaginary situation can be created to know that how that person reacts in real-time or during the time of emergency. Since the safety manager needs to react immediately and take necessary action, it is important to know the practical knowledge of that person before hiring me for the post of safety manager.
What Steps Will You Take To Recover From Any Form Of Safety Deficiency Discovered In that Site?
It is important to know while hiring a safety manager that how he will react when any kind of ambiguity is discovered on the site regarding the safety issues. For example, if there are no safety measures such as no proper first aid is provided on the site or any other precaution is not taken, it may lead to an inevitable hazardous accident. The safety manager of that site is expected to inspect that construction site and take necessary precautions. If the site is not suitable for taking further steps forward, it is expected to stop construction until a proper safety policy is maintained. As the safety of the workers is the priority of any company or organisation. A similar situation can occur in any workplace, hence it is necessary to know before hiring a safety manager what actions he will take in cases where there are no precautions taken. Since this question is directly related to the safety of other workers and employees, knowing the answer to this question becomes necessary while hiring safety managers. Many times it is seen that an inevitable accident takes place. In such situations, the company needs to change its existing safety policy, it could be done with the help of the safety manager. At the time of hiring, it is thus mandatory for the management to understand how will he recover from the current safety deficiency and come out with new plans and policies.
As a safety manager, what safety protocols would you recommend in a worksite like a construction site, chemicals based industry and an adventure park?
Here it is important to note that every workplace needs different forms of safety and precautions. There might be some workplaces such as offices, schools, shop markets and many more public areas which are safer to work in as compared to factories, mines, construction of roads, buildings etc. Like for a construction site, the safety manager must prefer to have safety precautions such as protective helmets and jackets, equipment and instruments, as well as on-site protection. While working in a chemical-based industry a safety manager makes sure of good storage containing units, and also that all the chemicals are stored safely to avoid any kind of accident in future. Similarly, the safety manager of an adventure park is trained to avoid any kind of nuisance on and around the site. Therefore, before hiring safety managers, the recruits make sure their expertise and they have experience working with. Since all workplaces need a safety manager and a safety team but their duties performed by them differ from one place to another.
what are your educational qualifications?
A safety manager must have a bachelors degree in occupational health and safety. Many other countries prefer to have a masters degree In occupational health and safety in addition to a bachelors degree. After this, the safety managers are certified to a designation that is Certified Safety Manager ( CSM). It requires a training course and afterwards needs to pass the test. Other courses for safety managers might include the National Association of Safety Professionals ( NASP). The NASP is a six months long training course, with forty hours of security cum safety training exercises. The safety of local people is the primary job of a safety manager. Moreover, it should be done in an effective manner and in very little time. Otherwise, it could lead to unavoidable disasters and could even cause the death of a few. That is why it is preferred for a safety manager to take training and become a certified safety manager.
How have you prioritised safety in the past?
Every safety manager and the safety management team is expected to make the safety of their employees a priority. Sometimes, not following and taking the necessary precautions and ignoring them for a long can lead to inevitable accidents. It might also cause death on the spot death of workers. Therefore, it becomes necessary to know that how have the manager managed to prioritise the safety of his workers or Employees. These questions can also help the interviewers to know about how you prefer to work in stressful situations. Moreover, a good answer to this question can tell the person’s capability as a safety manager.
How will you make other workers and staff adopt the new safety policy?
As a safety manager, he needs to arrange a meeting to teach other co-workers the current safety policy. Also, it is necessary to make changes in the existing safety policy and laws of the firm or organisation or any other workplace and come out with a more secure and less damaging policy. The safety managers are responsible mainly for planning, implementing and taking care of their safety in that workplace. It is the responsibility of the safety managers to make people follow all the due rules and regulations and take necessary precautions while working. If the person fails to do this, he can be fired by the company, firm or organisation. While interviewing a person one important thing to know is that how he will implement his safety policy to take care of other co-workers or employees.
What additional qualities do you possess that qualify you as a safety manager?
Different companies might be seeking varied qualities interview questions while hiring a safety manager. Although, there are a few common qualities that all safety managers and safety workers need to possess while starting working as a safety manager in any firm, workplace or any other site. Moreover, there are many additional qualities that a person needs to poses while applying for the post of safety manager in any kind of workplace. Few of these qualities may include:-
1. Leadership skills- A safety manager need to lead his team and command them when required. They need to have good leadership qualities because there might be some situation in which the leader has to make some decisions to single handily and convince other people to follow that.
2. Ability to work in teams- No person can protect all the people single-handily until and unless he is captain America or Spiderman. Therefore, it is mandatory to organise and coordinate among the safety management team. Also, it is necessary to support all the team members.
3. Coordination with other co-workers- It is necessary for the team if safety management to coordinate among themselves so that all the team members can focus and work on a task at the time of emergency.
4. Ability to take decisions in less time- Not being able to take a strong and positive decision at the time of any inevitable accident may make the situation worse. That is why the safety managers are expected to make quick decisions in all conditions and situations and act accordingly.
5. Basic medical treatment- General first aid must be provided to the person who got hurt during an emergency or other accident. The safety manager must know the basics that may include dressing and cleaning the wounds, medication, tying Band-Aid when the bone cracked etc.
The company seeks these five qualities in any safety manager. If the person is aware of these five qualities and can perform them, it increases the chances of recruitments. Therefore, it becomes easier for him to get recruited into the firm or the company.
How will you make other people adopt safety measures and take necessary precautions?
Wearing other people of the safety protocols and precautions is also necessary to work done by the safety managers. Taking appropriate steps is only possible when other workers are aware of the safety policy and other precautions needed to be followed. The safety manager must organise meetings and webinars to make people aware of the precautions that they need to take during the time of any hazardous activity or accident. For example, in accident-prone areas like earthquake sensitive areas. The safety manager of that area teaches people how to react when the place is hit by an earthquake. All the measures and precautions that are needed to be taken must be taught to children in schools and colleges, and to the elder people as well as the local people of that area before such a situation. While hiring a safety manager, the recruiting team of that company makes sure that the person is capable of teaching other people the safety policy of that company. It is possible by organising meetings, webinars as well safety drills. Making posters of what to do and what not to do can also help in knowing certain precautions. The safety manager must also come out with new ideas of taking precautious means in the workers, labours and the employees.
According to you what mindset is required by a safety manager?
A safety manager is expected to inspect the site and interrogate when he feels like proper protective measures are not paid taken. The interviewee can easily be judged by the recruiting team based on the time situations given to him. It is a good way to know that how he will be reacting to the situation of working in an unsafe environment is given to him. His positive approach and innovative ideas might help to know his mindset and have a gust of he will be reacting to real-time accidents and emergencies. A safety manager’s mindset is expected to be quick and responsive in every situation.
What strategies will help you as a safety manager?
The role of a safety manager is to keep an eye on precautious activities of the site, to avoid any future accidents. It could be done by adopting some strategies. These strategies include: –
1. Encouraging workers to adopt all safety measures. Many times it is seen that workers become liable when they have been working for so long in that same site. As a result, they become used to it and stop taking necessary preventative measures. Any day this could lead to a hazardous accident that could lead to the death of those workers. It is the responsibility of the safety manager to ensure that protective measures are taken every single day.
2. Developing local safety and health resources. Another role played by a safety manager is to teach all the workers and local people on that site about the safety precautions they need to take in time of emergency.
3. There can be many different strategies that can be adopted by the management.
What safety measures do you recommend to have in a general site?
It is an interview questions to ask a safety manager before hiring him. In general, a safety management team is always present in all workplaces. Few sites do not need to take many precautions. Only general precautions are needed to be taken by the employees. These might include fire extinguishers in case of small fires, first aid kits is a must in all places so that basic medical treatment can be provided in that very place. Preventative clothing such as helmets, long boots and gloves, jackets must be present in all workplaces. Also, emergency exit doors in short distances must be there in buildings. A safety manager in offices, malls, a schools needs to take care of these things.
Conclusion
The job of a safety manager plays an irreplaceable role in taking care of the other employees. A well qualified and well-experienced safety manager is an asset to that company that can effectively take care of all the other workers. The discussed interview questions, and their possible answers to those questions, might help a person who is about to face the interview for the post of safety manager in any company, organisation, office, industry or construction site.
